The Metropolitan: Meet the Mets’ newest outfielder
Albert Almora shows why the Mets must make every signing count
Good Morning,
Today we will talk about new free agent signing Albert Almora and why even depth signings like this can swing a season, but we start with the day’s news.
⏰ Catch me up in 60(ish) seconds…
🍎 FOCUS ON DEPTH: After missing out on Trevor Bauer, SNY’s Andy Martino says the Mets are focused on adding depth in the final week before pitchers and catchers report.
INTEREST: Among free agent starters, Martino reports the Mets are more interested in Jake Arrieta than James Paxton, Taijuan Walker or Jake Odorizzi. And he says they like utility infielder Marwin González, “but are not willing to go crazy to outbid other teams for him.”
UNCERTAINTY: As has been the theme the entire offseason, if the DH somehow sneaks back into the National League this season, it would drastically change the Mets’ plans by allowing them to add another player while preserving at-bats for their current regulars. Joel Sherman mentioned on MLB Network yesterday that the Mets could consider old friend Justin Turner in such a scenario.
LATEST RULES: MLB and the MLBPA have agreed on health and safety protocols, as well as seven-inning double headers and starting extra innings with a runner on second. However, the universal DH was not part of the agreement.
🌴 GRAPEFRUIT TRAVEL: Major League Baseball is in the process of revising the Grapefruit League schedule in an effort to reduce travel, which could impact the Mets’ originally planned home-and-home match-ups with the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Red Sox.
🏥 VACCINE SITE: Citi Field will open as a vaccine site for local taxi drivers, food services workers and eligible Queens residents. The site will operate 24 hours every Wednesday-Saturday, beginning this week. You can find additional details by visiting http://nyc.gov/vaccinefinder.
📚 February 9, 1982: The Mets sign George Foster to a 5-year, $10 million deal, completing the trade that sent Jim Kern, Greg Harris and Alex Trevino to Reds. The contract gave Foster the second highest average annual salary to Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield.
Making every signing count
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
Shopping in the free agent market is similar to looking for new clothes on your favorite apparel site. Everyone wants to find nice shoes or a fancy coat, and nobody clicks the underwear and socks filter because who gets excited about that?
But since you can’t leave the house without putting on underwear and socks, eventually, you need to buy some. And that appears to be the point of the offseason we have reached with the Mets in filling out their roster.
Newest signing Albert Almora is a white T best worn under a button-down shirt and tailored suit jacket. He gives the Mets depth in the outfield, and a necessary bench piece who can catch a fly ball without making an adventure out of it.
Perhaps that is all he will be: necessary but unnoticeable. However, it would be a mistake to overlook his potential impact. Smart organizations know how to turn seemingly meaningless signings into critical pieces. With the right coaching and proper role, the best case scenario is a player like Max Muncy - a minor league signing in 2017, who emerged to help the Dodgers win a World Series. Even when a minor acquisition doesn’t become a slugger like Muncy, what separates the very best clubs often is their ability to maximize a player’s talent.
We know Almora has upside. He was the 6th overall pick in the 2012 Amateur Draft. But since then, his stock has followed his batted ball profile: struggling to get off the ground.
If the Mets can turn Almora from a late-inning defensive replacement into a player who can earn his way into the lineup 60-70 times by cycling through the outfield positions (or replacing an injured player), while providing a decent right-handed bat, it makes them just a little bit better, and you never know if that little bit becomes the difference between making the playoffs or missing by 1-2 games—which could be where the Mets realistically find themselves in projecting out the season.
The Cubs realized Almora had a problem in pulling everything without any power, so they worked with him last offseason to alter his approach.
“Putting pitchers’ pitches into play, hitting the ball on the ground to the pull side,” Theo Epstein told The Athletic during the 2019-20 offseason. “He’s got the potential to drive the ball to the gaps and use the whole field. His contact ability – it’s one of those things you can’t teach. Just an innate ability to get the bat on the ball, that’s a valued skill in today’s game. So with some slight adjustments he could be a very, very interesting offensive player.”
Opposing teams had learned Almora liked to swing at low pitches and had a knack for making contact on them, so they force-fed him what he wanted, to induce ground ball outs.
With the adjustments made last winter, after pulling the ball over 30 percent of the time in each of his first four major league seasons, that number dropped to 23.8 percent in 2020, and by squaring up his stance, it helped Almora put over 50 percent of balls in play toward the middle of the diamond. He also turned more breaking pitches into line drives and fly balls, even though most of them still ended up squeezed harmlessly in a fielder’s glove.
While Almora “barreled” as many major league pitches as I did last year (0), the question heading into 2021 is whether a revamped offensive approach over a larger sample of games (he only had 34 plate appearances last year) could eventually turn into positive results for the Mets.
Uncertainty surrounding the DH in the National League has stymied the front office from making a commitment on costlier free agent outfielders like Jackie Bradley Jr. Almora is 4 years younger and under team control through 2022.
You can’t always be purposeful with every signing. But all of this speaks to a larger point: As the Mets redefine themselves under Steve Cohen, they need to decide whether they are going to be an organization that simply adds bodies to fill out their roster after their ideal plan falls through, or one committed to building processes that set them up to win on signings, both large and small.
The Cubs started down the path of trying to maximize Almora’s value by working to adjust his swing. It’s now up to the Mets to build upon that growth, and extract better production from a former elite prospect who hasn’t produced desired results at the major league level.
⚾️ MLB plans to make changes to the ball this season, as reported by Eno Sarris and Ken Rosenthal: “Fewer home runs might be hit this year in baseball, sacrifices on the path to efficiency and standardization. Multiple sources confirm the ball’s construction will change slightly, and five more teams are adding humidors for ball storage — all parts of MLB’s attempt to reduce the wild recent year-to-year swings in home run rates league-wide.”
⚾️ Yadier Molina is returning to the Cardinals on a one-year deal.
⚾️ The Angels avoided arbitration by agreeing to a two-year, $8.5 million contract with two-way player Shohei Ohtani.
💔 Remembering baseball reporter Pedro Gomez
🔗 Plenty Of Catchers Peak After 30. Will The Mets Get Lucky With James McCann? by Howard Megdal, FiveThirtyEight: “In signing McCann, the Mets are betting not just on a few recent developments in his game but also on a certain archetype of catching career: the late-developing backstop who is better in his 30s than his 20s. And there are plenty of indications that they are onto something here.”
🔗 Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco won’t let cancer define him, by Mike Puma, NY Post: “Traded to the Mets last month as part of the deal highlighted by Francisco Lindor’s arrival, Carlos Carrasco has been in remission for more than a year. His story serves as an inspiration for those battling the disease who wonder if normal life is possible again.”
And we leave you with this from Baseball America on the Mets’ most under-the-radar future starter…
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