Twenty-One Prediction Fun: Oscar De La Cruz

[Edgy MD]

I'm Oscar De La Cruz. Apart from being a guy with a name that's fun to say with a Castillian accent, I'm one of your more obscure Spring Training invites. Having already been shipped out — with one perfect inning under my belt, thank you very much — I think it's a safe bet that I'm not going north with the team This does NOT, however, absolve you of your sacred responsibility to predict my 2021.



I'm not a product of the Mets system, having been climbing the ladder with the Cubs since 2013, and getting as high as AA before getting Coronareleased in 2020, and joining the Mets.



Maybe my spring invite was just to lure me to the Mets instead of some other shitty team — my one stupid inning of opportunity certainly feeds that notion — but I'm a big MOFo (6'6" 250) who was originally scouted as a shortstop, if you believe that shit. I've got a handful of above-average offerings, though my curve is the closest thing I have to a bread-and-butter pitch. I was looking like a frontline starter prospect until I got hurt at in sixteen and seventeen and got passed by other dudes. That's a tough time in my development, and the Cubs switching me to the pen with only a short time left in their control over me was probably a last ditch effort to redeem my chits. I don't know which way the Mets are leaning, but I'm guessing middle relief.



Listen, sooner or later, Dellin Betances is going to go apeshit. It's just a matter of time. And you're going to need somebody big enough to restrain him. I know you don't want to risk Syndergaard, so I might be a good guy to have around at just that moment.



Does that work for you? What does the year look like for me?



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[Johnny Lunchbucket]

You don't see that many pitchers who also rock eyeglasses, much less hulking Hispanic dudes.



I guess Rhame was our last AAA/Metly glasses-wearing pitcher so I'll predict Oscar replicates Rhame's 2019: 0-1, 4.26 in 5 appearances & 6.1 IP

[Edgy MD]

I put him in with McWilliams as the offseason Mets attempted to go hard at the minor league free agent market, looking for higher ceilings over the reliable vets that market usually is good for.

[MFS62]

Up and down to Syracuse during an up and down year.

When with the Mets: 22 G, 4.69 ERA in 31 "Whose arm feels rested?" innings, including some good outings and some not so good.



Later

[LWFS]

De La Cruz gets no more than a cup of Coco in September: 6 IP, 6.00 ERA

[kcmets]

Talking about a De La Cruz alphabetically following a Crow-Armstrong is what puts

the FUN in T-OPF! Big galoot gets into about two dozen games and manages just

slightly under 4.00 ERA.