The Mets announced on Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Chasen Bradford for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, whose one-year deal with the team has now been formally announced.
Bradford, 28, made his big league debut with the Mets this past season and racked up a fair amount of time in the bullpen, appearing in 28 games and tallying 33 2/3 innings of work. In that time, the former 35th-round pick posted a solid 3.74 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9 and a hefty 55.9 percent ground-ball rate.
While Bradford doesn’t throw hard — he averaged just 90.6 mph on his fastball in that rookie season — he has a history of limiting walks (1.6 BB/9 in parts of four Triple-A seasons) and has routinely turned in ground-ball rates north of 50 percent in the minor leagues.
This seems like a guy who will land somewhere else.
Why is Matt Reynolds still on the Mets roster?!
Because the infield talent is pretty poor they overvalue positional flexibility. I think they hope a scenario might be, “well Cabrera isn’t working out, let’s throw Reynolds, a former 2nd round pick, up there and hope we catch lightning in a bottle.” I’m a die hard Mets fan but it’s so hard to not be critical of the front office for having such a weak strategy for building the roster and lacking in player development. They really just have lotto tickets and are hoping for the best.
Amen!
This is why we brought Omar back into the mix, to build up the minor league with talent. In a few years we will not have a need to keep a guy like Reynolds around…
“This is why we brought Omar back”
“In a few years we will not have a need”. What is your role in the front office?
*Kaboom from the we police*
what makes it worse is that they believe in their chances because they bought 2 lotto tickets..
Especially with the likes of Cecchini, Guillorme, Rivera, and Evans on the roster, who you can argue are all just as “good” or better than Reynolds.
Alderson and the Mets are continuing to over value velocity and strikeouts over pitching to contact and good defense. It’s unsustainable and I’m certain it’s a huge reason why the pitchers keep breaking down. Losing a player like Bradford who gets those nice grounders can really hurt when that bullpen guy to come in for that inning ending double play is needed.
Typical Mets’ move. It’s like they are playing with chess pieces on a board, not baseball players on a field.
Blissful mediocrity.
How? Even in the minors for the past 3 years he’s been putting up ERA’s over 4. This is a move most teams would make
Ground balls and a relief staff that offers diversity JD. A team is not all statistics and sabermeterics. It’s a mixture of different talents that creates chemistry, not all 100mph pitchers.
Take the successful NY team. Think Jordan Montgomery.
So they’ll get a good ground ball pitcher maybe, instead of a mediocre one
I could see Preller picking him up and designating Gale
Only problem with DFA’ing Gale would be the depth of the catching position on the 40 man roster. It would only leave Hedges and Torrens in which Torrens will probably start the season in AA. So I think they wait to DFA Gale when they have a corresponding catching move, in which I do think they bring in a veteran backup for Hedges. Could see Alex Avila, A.J. Ellis, Miguel Montero.
I don’t think Sczcur has a spot on the 25 man roster either but would probably fetch Preller a low level lottery ticket if he is traded to a contender that needs a cheap 4th outfielder. It will open up a 40 man spot and a guy like Bradford can be brought in.
I don’t see too many logical DFA candidates on the Padres 40 man though other than Gale. Possibly Weick but I’d have a hard time seeing a 6’9 left handed bullpen piece get DFA’d.
Preller has made a slew of reliever moves this offseason and last year.
Stammen, brewer, strahm, makita. Dont see him claiming cause weve got so many rp already.
This guy has Pirates written all over him
Reds
Mets missed the boat not bringing GEE back that guy was good and I believe he was 15-1 one year.
Dick Williams, are you reading this?