The Mets have kept mum on their payroll situation heading into 2013 but several reports have indicated that the club won't ratchet it far beyond the neighborhood of $90MM. There are a number of multi-million dollar contracts coming off of the books including $5.69MM for the very likely non-tendering of Mike Pelfrey, Jon Rauch's $3.5MM deal, and Ramon Ramirez's $2.65MM pact. However, much of those savings will be eaten up by 2014 buyouts for Johan Santana and Jason Bay and pay raises to David Wright, Frank Francisco, Jonathon Niese, and others. On top of that, Daniel Murphy, Ike Davis, Bobby Parnell, and Josh Thole will all be headed to arbitration this winter. General Manager Sandy Alderson will be working with an extremely tight budget, which will make it difficult for the club to justify also going to arbitration with outfielder Andres Torres.
Torres has started 79 games for the Mets in centerfield this year but has not been able to return to 2010 form when he hit .268/.343/.479 with 16 in 570 plate appearances with the Giants. Instead, Torres owns a .227/.330/.320 batting line across 105 games with a career low -2.6 UZR/150. Torres avoided arbitration with the Mets last season for $2.7MM after coming over from the Giants and would probably net something near $3MM for 2013.
Looking ahead to next season, the club could install Kirk Nieuwenhuis as the full-time starting centerfielder. That would position Torres as the club's fourth outfielder and at ~$3MM they would likely prefer to put that money into their bullpen and other areas of need. Even if Torres can no longer deliver the kind of offensive production that he did in San Francisco in 2009 and '10, he can still be an attractive option to clubs looking for a veteran with experience at all three outfield positions. However, he's not likely to see something in the range of $3MM and it would seem to be even less likely to be with the Mets.
The only intriguing thing about Torres is that his splits from this year are nearly the opposite of last year. He hit very well against LHP where he couldn’t buy a hit in 2011. To me that signifies he still has the tools to hit, he might do quite well in a 4th OFer role but the pressure of a starting role is a lot with his ADHD issues.
To be fair, Torres has been hurt this season, injuring his calf on opening day. He had some good numbers against NL East teams such as the Marlins.
Decent 4th outfielder – good defense, nice speed off the bench. He’ll get plenty of minor league contract offers, maybe even a guaranteed $800,000 – $1,000,000. San Francisco might need the depth…
Well, he hit a double, missed first base in today’s game and was called out.
In the replay it looked like he touched it because The back end of this cleat was off the ground and on the corner of the bag another bad call by the umps.
I must disagree Alen. Being at the game, seeing the ump positioned right on top of the base as he went around and then viewing the replay this morning… I hate to say it but I trust the ump got it right. He was much closer than the camera for one and 2, he had no Mets fan bias to overlook.
Torres is a great 4th OF/defensive replacement/pinch runner.
I would think many teams have this type of player at the very least available for league minimum and 8-10 years younger.. AKA Ryan Kalish types.
Isn’t it sad that a NY team has to worry about juggling three million dollars? Of course Torres isn’t worth it, anyway.
I never understood why Met fans never liked Angel Pagan…he is a younger version of Andres Torres with a better bat…
It wasn’t a smart trade by Alderson honestly he wanted a bullpen arm but Ramirez wasn’t the guy he should of been after to begin with.
They need an outfielder with power. With non-tendering the players above why not go after Swisher this off season for right moving Duda to left and have Nieuwenhuis in center.
Would prefer going after a young OF honestly they need someone who can be there for years to come not a stop gap because they don’t really have a whole lot of OF prospects in the minors that will give huge production heading forward (someone like a Peter Bourjos or Shin Soo Choo would be good pickups).