The Mets have released shortstop Ruben Tejada after he cleared waivers, per a club announcement (via Mike Puma of the New York Post, on Twitter). New York will remain obligated for just under $500K of obligations to Tejada for the coming season, having previously avoided arbitration with him for a non-guaranteed $3MM.
Thus concludes an eventful tenure with the Mets for the 26-year-old, who never lived up to the club’s hopes when given a chance at regular playing time but ended up being a useful player and sympathetic figure. After starting the 2015 season as a utility option, Tejada solidified the shortstop position while playing quite a bit down the stretch. His season ended, unfortunately, when he suffered a broken leg during the postseason.
Speculation will immediately turn to his eventual landing spot. The Cardinals are the team with the most obvious need at shortstop, but there will surely be others with interest, too. Tejada isn’t an exciting player, but he has shown the ability to provide sturdy defense with a decent bat. That history, his age, and the fact that New York has already paid down a chunk of the tab make him a fairly intriguing option for clubs in need of a utility piece or fill-in up the middle.
Nice little player but no room for him on my Sox, we already have an all star caliber MI with another superstar on the way in Moncada
Please stop
Stop what? Sharing my opinion? I respect your opinion, I’d appreciate you to do the same with mine.
Stop trolling, thats my opinion
You might not agree that Moncada is a superstar in the making, that is my opinion, the rest of my post is merely a statement of fact. Not sure how it can be considered ‘trolling’
Feel free to disagree with me but let’s stick to baseball, K?
He might propose some dumb trade ideas, but Bogaerts is an all star shortstop and Moncada has the making of something great. He’s right on this one.
You literally say every single person in bostons system is a future or perennial allstar. Youre the boy who cried wolf, nobody takes anything you say seriously since you say the same thing about everybody. Moncoda might be good, but you are so biased. Oh and your trade proposals are outright ridiculous. They’re like me saying the jays should trade hutchison to the sox for Michael kopech and Sam Travis
If you don’t like my posts feel free to not read them. Problem solved. No need to start with the personal attacks.
Future all star Travis Shaw too right?
The way he hit last year and in spring training, he actually looks like one, lol. But I wouldn’t put any money on that one.
If you don’t like his responses feel free not to read them. If you’re going to engage people on the internet, (which writing a comment does) you have to accept all responses. This isn’t your personal sounding board, you have facebook for that, if you’re gonna propose nonsense, people are gonna call you on it. Welcome to the internet.
Probably not a perennial all star like our MI but I wouldn’t put it past him to make a couple all star teams… The guy has done nothing but overachieve so far, wouldn’t be shocked to see him continue to do so in the future.
Oh, and might I add, I love how your avatar is from when David Ortiz smashed the dugout phone.
He’s overachieved so far, so you think he’s actually not as good as what he’s shown? Generally guys who overachieve are due to not do as well in the future. Now, if you think he’s exceeded expectations, that’s another story, but overachieving isn’t maintainable.
Moncada also shouldn’t be at short. I would much rather put him at third and move Sandoval over to first in 2017. Could also fit in corner outfield spots.
I’m a big Red Sox fan and a Big Papi fan but I’m with t-smizzle. You’re making sox fans everywhere look poorly.
Remember Rays will win East.
6 more years of Superstar Pedroia. There is no place for Moncada!
You literally just make the most pointless comments sometimes man
that’s about a comment as random as pointing out he wouldn’t be a good fit for the Vancouver Canucks.
I am so happy. Been waiting for this for years. Not a good hitter at all. Average fielder. Lazy. Only hits when job is on the line. Finally the 2 guys that needed to go for a while are gone. Te-nada and Niese.
Niese was really under appreciated in New York. He put up 3 staight seasons with an ERA under 3.70, and then last year a 4.13. jw, do u think he needed to be traded because there was no room for him or some other reason?
pretty simple. he was at best the 5th best starter in that rotation and thats debatable between him and bartolo. With Wheeler coming back midseason, they feel that Neil Walker is much more valuable than a 5th starter with multiple in house options to fill his spot, and most likely outperform him. Not to mention Walker is a good get for Niese.
Every time he got the lead he gave it right back. Just couldn’t stand him or Te-nada. Niese is nothing more than a 500 pitcher. ERA was nothing great. I believe he was over appreciated just bc he was a lefty. Never pitched over 200 innings, Lifetime WHIP 1.36 (not good) Lifetime ERA 3.91 (not good). Overappreciated!
You just described a typical #3-4 pitcher, the kind that make 8 figures a year. As Mets fans we are spoiled right now to have five guys with topen of the rotation stuff.
You’re gonna miss Niese so much when the inevitable happens and your “big four” start to go down with injuries. Most of them are already back from their first TJ and right about at the dangerous 3 year window.
Why?! He was a usefull guy in that bench.
plenty of in house options able to play slightly below avg SS and beat a ~.680 OPS
Figth figth
Feel like the Rockies should sign him. Cheap, mediocre, they have no idea how long Reyes will be out and they just lost their backup 2B.
Not a bad idea, but I like Story filling in for Reyes.
Tejada is not needed in Colorado. The Rox still have Trevor Story (who is looking great this spring) to cover short and OOO Cristhian Adames to fill the back up MI role until Descalso comes back. Although if Adames looks good at the ML level, there is a good chance that Descalso won’t be coming back after his injury. To be completely honest, I hope Reyes is suspended for the entire season as well just because it will give Colorado some payroll flexibility and not block Story.
So if a team signs him to a deal for league minimum; they are on the hook for 20k (or whatever the difference is between)? A bargain at less than a rule 5 pick…
no. he gets the 500k from the Mets free and clear, regardless of who he signs with and for how much. he’s a free agent, and any team that pays him is responsible for whatever salary he is signed to.
he’ll get more than league minimum, he wasn’t a terrible value at the $3 million.
I agree he should and will get more than that. My question was just directed at how much the team signing him would be responsible for.
Could be a decent stop gap for the cardinals.
If he hurries, he can get to Disney, and take the bus home with his future employer, the Cardinals.
Would be so awkward if the Dodgers picked him up. First day in the clubhouse, he sees utley.
Was wondering the same thing….would the Dodgers go for him, given the lack-of-depth at shortstop?
I really didn’t want the Cardinals to go after anyone to fill the SS void, but this looks like too good of an opportunity to pass up. I hope they give Tejada a look.
Not worth it. Below average defensively. Very sub par bat. The Mets gave him every opportunity and he couldn’t stick. He’s not better than any of the in house ootions.
No
They wouldn’t have traded anyone for him, but if money is the only factor now, the Cardinals will be calling soon.
Can his new team decide not to give the one day of extra service time he was awarded by the Mets so they would get him for an extra year if they wanted or is that a done deal?
No, they cant.
As bad as he’s been offensivly, at least in the last couple of years hes got on base at an above average pace. He could probably help a contender as a bench bat or be a place holder on a bad team like atlanta if aybar is traded.
Well, being a longtime Met’s fan I have mixed feelings about this move. If this is just a salary dump, which I kinda suspect, then it sucks. Yeah, Tejada had disappointed us, but only because we somehow had built him up to the fan base as the answer at short, which he never was. He was a useful utility player, could play decent in the field, and probably hit .250. He was never going to be a star. Neither was Justin Turner, whom they also got rid of to save money for the Will-not spend-pons. They can prove me wrong if they take the money and use it to get another utility guy that can play third and first, but they won’t. They should have signed Uribe.
So in a season where the team added $60M in free agency to the payroll on top of $10M in arbitration raises. You choose to complain about the Wilpon’s being cheap?
Another cheap alternative for the dodgers. Remember Justin Turner.