An Aside on the Gary Matthews Jr. Situation

Readers, thank you for the interesting feedback on my last article about the Mets recent roster moves. As expected, not everyone was as happy as I was about the improvement they have shown recently. Most of the haterade directed toward the front office is that they acquired and continue to play Gary Matthews Jr. Some comments:

--the presence and use of Matthews (who must certainly be the worst offensive player in MLB, and is still aboard because the Wilpons won't eat the $2 mil--making his acquisition a net disaster, BTW

--according to that article, the gmJoke move was a good one to begin with

--it was the fact that Omar had been targetting GMjr all off-season for reasons unknown to absolutely anyone, despite everything in his recent history saying he was a player with little to no upside.

Alright, alright, I get it. We don't like Gary Matthews Jr. I don't like him either!! He's not very good. He can't hit, and he's not the defensive player he used to be. But let's look at the facts here!

From 2002-2007, Matthews hit .271/.339/.435 for an OPS+ of 101.

From 2002-2005, he was a FAR above average defefnsive centerfielder. In 2006, he was about average.

But there is no denying that he wasn't the same player from 2008 and 2009, his age 33 and 34 seasons. He didn't hit well. His fielding stats were putrid. For those two seasons, he had a total OPS+ of 80 and slugged less than .360. According to fangraphs, he was worth -$8 million over the last two years.

Those are the facts. He was a valid starter for his peak years, and was bad to terrible over the last two. But is the hand-wringing really worth it in this case? I say no. Here's why:

A) We gave up nothing of value to acquire Gary Matthews Jr.
B) He provided a known quanity as a back-up to Angel Pagan. He was bad, but we had an idea of how bad he'd be.
C) He actually has been good defensively this year. According to fangraphs, he's posted a +0.4 UZR in centerfield. It's a small sample size, but he's been good.
D) We pay him almost nothing - barely more than the minimum.
E) He barely plays.

The last point is by far the most important one. He had only 36 plate appearances in April. He's has only 25 plate appearances in May. He's on pace to have only around 150 at-bats this year, even if Beltran never comes back.

Last year, the Mets amassed 5,438 at-bats as a team. If the current paces hold, that is around 2% of the total at-bats the Mets will have. If he had 150 at-bats last year, he would have ranked right between Cory Sullivan and Jeremy Reed in terms of significance.

Could the Mets have gone a different direction? Maybe. Could they have signed Eric Byrnes (batting .090), Rick Ankiel (695 OPS), Cory Sullivan (479 OPS) or Reed Johnson (729 OPS)? Maybe. Who knows if any of them would have accepted a back-up role, or been available for $1 million or less. And, as noted above, would any of them have provided any kind of upgrade?

With Gary Matthews Jr., people need to just see it for what it is. He's not a very good player any more, but we got him for cheap and he barely plays. When the Mets have a better option, if their smart moves this year are any indication, Gary Matthews Jr. will be gone.

The Revolution Has Not Been Televised

It began with a drip here.

And a drop there.

Then another, and another.

And then there are so many drops that maybe you start to take notice. Suddenly, the deluge is so heavy that it demands your attention.

The Mets have been making some excellent personnel decisions this year. I mean, really good. Really smart. Excellent. I'm thrilled.

The news today that the Mets plan to have Daniel Murphy play multiple positions in Triple-A was that moment for me when the evidence became too much to ignore.

The Mets also announced Monday that they have reinstated infielder Daniel Murphy from the 15-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Buffalo. There, the Mets plan on exposing Murphy to first base, second base, third base and both corner outfield positions in an effort to increase his versatility. MLB.com

…i can see Murph getting a lot of time at second base, especially in the short term, due to the durability problems with Luis Castillo... MetsBlog.com

Sure, you can complain that this move came too late, or that with Ike Davis at first it wasan obvious necessity rather than a smart idea. But really, would the Mets of the past ever have been a slam-dunk to perform the smart, necessary, and timely move?

Having Daniel Murphy practice at multiple positions in Triple-A is a great thing for this team. Whether he plays the utility role and supplants a guy like Tatis, or parlays himself into a valuable trade commodity, or replaces Castillo at second, this is all good. And it's even better that he's being given time to do this all in the minor leagues.

But the Daniel Murphy move was not the only smart move out Mets have made this year. They've made tons of them. And here at Fonzie Forever, we give credit where credit is due (and we're also ferocious when they do something stupid... have to be fair).

Let's take a look at some of the very bright moves the Mets have made this year, in chronological order.

December 4, 2009: Named Wayne Krivsky special assistant to general manager.

January 22, 2010: Acquired OF Gary Matthews Jr. and cash from the L.A. Angels for RHP Brian Stokes. I know people don't like this deal, but it made perfect sense for the Mets at the time. Going into the season you'd want Angel Pagan to seize the starting role but he had very little track record to fall back on. The Mets needed some kind of known quantity in-house in case Pagan faltered. Yes, there were cheaper options. And yes, GMJ sucks. But the move is decidedly low risk and are we missing Brian Stokes (who currently is on the DL and has a 7.31 ERA?) Get a grip people.

March 4, 2010: Agreed to terms with RHP Kiko Calero on a minor league contract.

March 30, 2010: Did NOT option SS Ruben Tejada to Triple-A. They let the kid stay in the majors and play - showing confidence and foresight, and prioritizing defense. All good.

April 18, 2010: Designated INF Mike Jacobs for assignment. The Mets acknowledged defeat. They cut ties with Jacobs, who wasn't working out, mercifully early in the year.

April 19, 2010: Selected the contract of 1B Ike Davis from Buffalo (IL).

May 10, 2010: Recalled C Josh Thole and OF Chris Carter from Buffalo (IL). Designated OF Frank Catalanotto for assignment. Once again, the Mets bit the bullet and admitted that Catalanotto wasn't working out. So Catalanotto is gone, and "The Animal" Chris Carter is called up to replace him. In addition, Josh Thole was called up to back up Barajas while Blanco was on bereavement instead of some minor league stiff. They acknowledge that Thole is the potential catcher of the future despite his troubles so far this year.

May 22, 2010: Placed RHP John Maine on the 15-day DL. Sorry, John. Someone had to stop you from going out there and continuing to stink while injuring yourself further. Sorry if it hurt your ego. Another good move by the Mets.

So to summarize, the Mets have cut their losses on their worst offseason moves by releasing Jacobs and Catalanotto and relegating Gary Matthews Jr. almost entirely to the bench. They have given every youngster who has deserved it, a chance to play in the major leagues (Carter, Tejada, Thole, Davis). They have been smart though conservative in using the Disabled List, which may be the right move, with guys like Jose Reyes, Jon Niese, and John Maine.

Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but the Mets have made a lot of very deft moves this year. Add to this the fact that they acquired Raul Valdez and Hisanori Takahashi as international free agents and have given the two of them the opportunity to fill in for our injured starters, and you have a series of truly excellent manuevers.

They have taken intelligent risks. They have acknowledged failures. They are willing to let Daniel Murphy try to re-establish his value somewhere other than first base. They have let performance win the day over reputation (Pagan over Matthews).

This is no longer a pattern that we can ignore. I know that the blogging community loves to be snarky and demonstrate how much more that we know than the front office types do -- but it might be time to give them a hand.

Despite the major league club hovering around .500, the first two months of this season have given me new hope. I hope it continues, because if it does, when Carlos Beltran comes back he might be returning to a team that is only one piece away from making a run at the playoffs.