The Edge of Seventeen: Neil Walker

[Edgy MD]

Some are surprised I'm here. I guess I'm surprised as well. I'm a veteran second baseman who seemed to be settling into his old guy skills last year. More power, the edge sawed off of the platoon splits, less range but more surehandedness.

A year in, I perhaps still kind of look like a foreigner on this team. I guess that's due in part to me missing the stretch run last year, and our three-hour playoff run. You don't think I should have bagged my season and gotten surgery? Well, what do you know? I'm the boss of me.

I'm a legacy player and a native Pittsburgher who somehow became too costly for Pittsburgh to keep. So I never seemed long for this team. But it's one year, now an expensive deal for a second year, with whispers of an extension that now seem to have been half a dream. Who knows where it ends. I may even land at another position. Second? Third? Trading block? There's a lot of infielders stacked up behind me, Lord knows.

But for now, I'm a switch-hitting middle infielder that hits solidly in the middle of the Mets lineup. That's rarely a bad thing. How good a thing will it be this year?

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[MFS62]

.270 - 20 - 75.
Rosario comes up during the season and plays so well that Walker is not signed to a contract extension.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I've been a Walker skeptic for a while. Not suggesting he pulled the wool over anyone's eyes but a great start last year was followed by a long period of less-than-optimal productivity that for whatever reason kept coming out of the 4 or 5 hole, then the back surgery.

All in it was a good year especially for power but hard to see that duplicated over the course of a long season and I find it odd that with all the Floreses and Riveras and Cecchini's and Reyes's we got he gets $17M to hold them all at bay, though as Wright insurance not a bad idea overall I guess.

What I'm saying is,

260/320/420, 15-55 with a chance he's traded at the deadline.

NOT BAD, NOT GREAT, NEIL!

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: ... and I find it odd that with all the Floreses and Riveras and Cecchini's and Reyes's we got he gets $17M to hold them all at bay ...

I think Alderson ended up overplaying his hand. When making the qualifying offer to Walker, and picking up Bruce's option, he figured that the worst case scenario is that he ends up stuck with both of them at full freight, pushing younger players to the bench or Vegas, and keeping him from spending some of that $$ elsewhere, and that's not all that bad.

It's not all that bad for a worst case scenario, but it's how things worked out. They weren't really supposed to be here.

But strained obliques and fractured metatarsals will create openings for the younger Mets, as they almost always do.

[TransMonk]

I liked Walker much better last year at $10.5M than this year at $17M+.

I still like him and think he'll be fine as part of the whole...as long as he (and everyone else) stays healthy.

[Frayed Knot]

The oddity of Walker's season last year was the cratering of his usual number of doubles, from an average of just under 30/year down to [u:39znidmf]NINE[/u:39znidmf]!

Some of those obviously turned into HRs [23 even in a shortened season instead of his usual ~15/yr] which is certainly a plus in our favor.
But one does wonder if the HRs will seek his previous level while the other stuff doesn't make up for it.

[Centerfield]

I'm expecting some regression in the HR department, especially from the right side. Still seems really fluky that he broke out like that last season. I feel like with that pretty swing he should hit for a higher BA. So I'll say he goes for about .280, with 18 HR's.

I'm still shocked he's back. I was strongly in the "Of course you offer the QO, because he'd be a fool to take it" camp.

Still think he could have gotten a multi-year deal like Murph's had he held out.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Oh for fuck's sake. The guy's coming off of back surgery. He's damaged goods as far as I'm concerned. Let's see how long it takes for this debacle to unfold. At least the Mets have a super-stud waiting in the wings.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Injured in mid-May rides into the sunset...

[Ceetar]

Neil's okay. He'll be mostly okay. He'll probably cede time to Reyes and Flores and assorted prospects, but his line will be fine. .280/.340/.440. Basically his career line.

[ashie62]

Another older bad back guy. In June we welcome Amed Rosario!