Right-hander Jim Henderson and corner infielder Eric Campbell have been outrighted off the Mets’ 40-man roster after clearing waivers, according to ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin. Both players can elect minor league free agency in lieu of their subtraction from the roster and seem likely to do so.
Henderson, who recently turned 34, made the Mets’ roster out of Spring Training after signing a minor league contract last winter. The former Brewers closer once again demonstrated his ability to miss bats, averaging 10.3 K/9, but he also struggled tremendously with the long ball. Henderson was among the game’s most fly-ball prone pitchers, and while he didn’t see an inordinate percentage of the fly-balls he yielded turn into homers (13.2 percent), the sheer volume of balls put in the air against him resulted in an average of 1.8 HR/9. In total, Henderson delivered 35 innings of 4.37 ERA ball for the Mets but also missed significant time due to tendinitis in his right biceps.
The 29-year-old Campbell (30 in April) has spent his entire professional career in the Mets organization and has been up and down between the Majors and minors over the past three seasons. He showed some promise in 2014 when he batted a respectable .263/.322/.358 in 211 plate appearances with New York, but his offensive output has deteriorated in each of the two subsequent seasons. All told, he’s a career .221/.312/.311 hitter in 505 big league plate appearances. Campbell has experience at both third base and first base and has also made cameos in each outfield corner over the course of his limited time with the Mets. He’s a career .322/.429/.488 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons — albeit in a wildly hitter-friendly Las Vegas/Pacific Coast League environment — and should be able to compete for a bench role in 2017, whether on a new minors pact with the Mets or with a new organization.
I’d like to see Henderson in Oakland or Seattle. Maybe that’ll turn some of those home runs into deep flyouts. He would be pretty low risk high reward if he could turn in around
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that Citi Field is one of the most difficult parks to hit a home run.
Not as much since the fences moved the mets just set a franchise record for hr