The Mets announced they’ve placed infielder Javier Báez on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 12, with back spasms. Travis Blankenhorn has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse to take his place on the active roster.
New York acquired Báez from the Cubs in the hope that he could hold down shortstop while Francisco Lindor recovered from a right oblique strain. Unfortunately, Báez has appeared in just ten games as a Met before landing on the IL himself. There’s no indication he’s facing an especially long-term absence, but any missed time is an unwelcome development for a team that sits half a game behind the Phillies in a tight NL East race.
It’s been a confounding season for Báez, who is ticketed for free agency at the end of the year. The 28-year-old has blasted 24 home runs over 398 plate appearances, posting a big .230 isolated power (slugging minus batting average). He’s continued to rate as a plus defensive shortstop and baserunner as well, again demonstrating his longstanding ability to impact the game in myriad ways.
The power output has come with a highly concerning approach, though. Báez has always been a free-swinger, but he’s chasing more often and making less contact than ever before. His 62.3% contact rate is the second-lowest (better only than Mike Zunino’s) among the 223 hitters with 250+ plate appearances this year. Báez’s 36.4% strikeout rate, meanwhile, is third-highest among that same group (trailing only Zunino and Bobby Dalbec). Overall, his .241/.285/.470 line split between Chicago and New York is exactly league average by measure of wRC+, although Báez has gotten to that production in anything but an average way.
What a great trade
Pete Crow-Armstrong is the kind of guy you just can’t let get away, huh?
He’s not the guy you let get away for a rental.
Bad contract 2.0 coming. You’re gonna wish Javy was a rental.
Javy is a rental
For now…I bet the team.signs him to play 2B next year and move McNeil to 3B
I bet they don’t
Joan Baez was a favorite of mine back in the 60’s, can she play short stop? Seems like the Mets can’t do much worse
Pete crow has had an amazing first six games of his professional career I must say..
Baez hasn’t been an elite player since 2019. He’s been living in reputation since. He is also. FA at the end of the season. Cesar Hernandez has been just as productive if not slightly more than Baez this season. He also has a $6m option for 2022z Hernandez was much more productive than Baez in 2020. Now compare what the White Sox gave up compared to the Mets. Look at what the Brewers gave up for Eduardo Escobar, a 26 yr old minor leaguer and a mediocre 18 yr old IFA with power and little else. Per Fangraphs he might be able to play 1B. He is a lottery ticket at best.
The Mets probably overpaid for an average hitting, good defense middle infielder because he is buddies with Lindor.
It’s an awful trade Steve. That’s a heavy price to pay for pretty much any rental. Especially free swinging K machine Baez. Kris Bryant was available and they traded for Baez lmao
They are definitely gonna outside the giants Phillies and whoever by about 50 million more then the next bid to sign kris Bryant this off season for the back end of his prime
Why do you think Pete Crow-Armstrong is bad?
Can’t ever recall a good baseball player with a hyphenated last name.
Hahhaha that’s the reasoning on why he’s a bad prospect? Bc of his NAME?! Sign this guy to work for a front office. This is some next level player analysis!
Rockies are hiring!
Never trust a man with a hyphenated last name
Look what happened to Dee’s career when he went hyphen
Steve it makes it worse when the Mets who do not have a true CF and you traded CF prospect Kekenic to Seattle and now CF Pete Crow-Armstrong
PCA won’t be in the majors for 3-4 years. I’m fine with the trade. This team has been piecing it together all season. If they can somehow win the division and get players back, a deep run in the playoffs is possible. At this point, however, it’s a moot point.
He was the #19 pick, with decent minor league stats so far.
Pete Crow-Armstrong…at 19 playing A ball hitting .417….he may carry that onward as a #1 pick in 2020.
although lacks some power, but is known to what for high average. He should be up by 2023
I have a feeling that the Mets will bregret this short sighted deal. It feels a lot like the Kelenic trade but they gained less.
Wheres Metsfan22 and his world series talk?
Lol Mets!
That Huge Flushing Sound you hear from appropriately enough Flushing, NY on Friday the 13th was their huge deadline addition hitting the DL, their Ace Jacob Degrom now DeGone, and the first of mostly losses in their 13 straight Games with Dodgers & Giants.
Hasta la Vista, Baby!
Hopefully Lindor is back soon
:/)
Mets being Mets lol has to be the worst training staff in all of sports. Everyone always hurt every year
Worst is Padres
You spelt Yankees wrong.
Most training staffs appear deficient in today’s game.
Our young pitchers just make eye contact with our training staff and their UCLs magically tear.
Padres,Yankees, Mets and Angels lead the pack.
Agree. Mets pretty much had a starting line up on the injured list. I’m a Braves fan who recently watched Acuna walk off the field for the rest of the year.
Buahahahaha! He blew out his back throwing a tantrum his new team fell down to 3rd place!
Good on you for laughing at a player getting injured. Im sure you have very strong character.
Actually it’s his character that gets him these types of responses. As for you you must be some goody two shoe. Sorry to get your panties in a bunch.
So, troll, you don’t like it when someone calls you out?
He hurt his hip on a swing, that’s why he’s on the IL.
When we win the division. The Braves won’t know what excuse to use lol
Key word……WHEN….lol…GO Braves
I’m a Braves fan, but I wouldn’t wish this on any team. If the Braves beat the Mets, I’d prefer it to be one on one, not a team riddled with injuries.
I hear ya but this kind of evens out the injuries this year. Braves spent most of the season without three of its top five bats and essentially had to remake its outfield on the fly.
Sure…
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/new-york-cant-catch-a-break/
Agreed, brandons-3, but the OF we made is potent & strong. Rodriquez is a plus since Smith is screwing the pooch lately. Mets did little at the trade dead line, Braves did a lot
i have no dog in this fight but it seems like the mets did what my birds did, they got the big time player (cards with nolan and mets with lindor) but did nothing after to address there depth and it is showing with both teams. unlike my birds the mets had a chance at the deadline to get the “role” players they needed to put them over the top but instead went after another flashy move in getting báez. tbh i wouldn’t be surprised that either the phils or the braves win the nle over the mets because they refuse to address the real issues why they couldn’t run away with there division, because the mets have no depth just like my birds
@Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Your team lost their best position player. There weren’t any position players of Acuna’s caliber on the Mets.
You ain’t winning the division, heck you ain’t making the playoffs
I don’t think you need the second part of this. Whichever team in the East wins the division is the only team from that division who is making the playoffs. The division winner will probably have like 85 wins
Yeah I realized that right after I posted that lol
Lol Phillies are in 1st right now. Mets have a losing intradivision record. It may be a 2 team race between Braves and Phils unless the Mets can win 6 games against the Dodgers and Giants. Personally, I think they can. I think this will all come down to that Phillies/Braves series at the end of the season.
The Phillies have the 3rd best roster in that division
And yet they’re in first without a losing record against either team.
And yet, they’re the ones in first place with the easiest remaining schedule.
I said it about a month before the All Star break, and I’ll say it again, Mets are finishing 3rd, at best.
Not that it means much, but according to MLB.com using x-w/l, the Phillies are 2nd best by .5 a game. 1 is Braves, 2 is Phillies and Marlins, 3 is Mets.
Win records demonstrate otherwise.
*And que Metsfan22 excuses
Phantom X:
That X-W/L on MLB.com makes zero sense. It’s supposedly based on RS and RA. But I’ve been wondering all season why it shows SD with a better X-W/L than their record, while it seems to think SF is only as good, or worse, than their record.
For example, right now, the Giants have scored 14 more runs than SD, and SF has allowed 37 fewer runs, and yet the X-W/L says the Padres X-W/L is 2 games better than it actually is, and the Giants X-W/L is 2 games worse.
The Giants run differential is 51 runs better than the Padres, and their record is 1 game better against > .500 clubs. To me, the X-W/L is useless. Maybe just stick to the actual W/L.
LOL congratulations as having the same amount of rings as a team which you consider a joke, and had a 69 year head start on.
haha! after all, that totally matters here.
Who called the Mets a joke? Not any of the Phillies comments that I can see said that. Also stop judging teams by their entire history. That’s ridiculous. No one was alive for good chunks of that. Let’s look at recent history. Phillies haven’t been relevant since 2011. Mets have 2 playoff appearances not top shabby.
In the worst division Mets still won’t win lol
(As Phillies present greater threat) — yeah, keep focused on the Braves
Probably because you used them all!!! =))
i see you with that slight to the Phillies
No but you’ve been working on your excuses lately lol
@metsfan22 can you please tell me how your mets are going to win. just like any team in the nle this year (and just like my birds) there is no depth to your teams it seems like you just tripping on your own d. at least the braves tried to address the weak depth at the deadline. all that the mets have done is give up some future for a position that they already gave a pretty for then gave him a big extension. make fun of atl and philly all you want but they went out and made moves that would improve there team.where the mets went hey we already traded for a bad @$$ ss but hey let’s get another instead of getting the depth guys your team sorely lack.
the braves tried to address the weak depth at the deadline.
=============================
There’s a lot to be said about that. They weren’t big names, so they don’t get any publicity, but Soler and Petersen have, so far, given the Braves the same production they lost from Acuna and Ozuna.
The Mets pickups of Hill and Baez don’t look as effective, and they gave up a lot more.
@joe i read all the time hear how dd and aa should not have jobs but tbh i think there doing a great job. dd has taken a mediocre team in the phils and has them competing for a division without spending a lot or giving up a lot. aa went an addressed there weak depth and after 7/30 the braves have been playing a lot better. sure aa could of spent stupid money on your staff last offseason but tbh there wasn’t much he could of done to make the braves better without crippling the future. every one seems to forget atl beat themselves more last year in the nlcs than the dodgers beat them. it seems to me that the mets are more worried about making flashy headline moves so they can stay relevant to the nyy. tbh i wouldn’t be surprised if the mets become the cellar team of the east.
Same dog, different fleas.
Key word……WHEN….lol…GO Braves
Poor Mets.
Maybe if he didn’t swing as hard as he can at pitches out of the strike zone…. Hey, he got out of Chicago. He’ll be healthy again as soon as Lindor is able to play. I guess being on the field during a collapse is bad for his next contract.
Cal Ripken would have never become the iron man if he was a Met.
The aluminum man? Non stick of course
I rooted for this team. I really, really did. But for goodness sake, I hope there’s a documentary on this team and how they are just well… lolmets.
Mets are gonna miss the playoffs an make kris Bryant a top 5 overall paid player in all mlb in response! Whether that’s the answer who knows ( it’s not )
That trade worked out.
Baez is a talented but flawed player, the type of player the Mets will sadly sign to a long-term contract that they’ll instantly regret.
Cohen came in talking about smart moves. Then he massively overpays a declining offensive SS and then overpays to trade for his buddy.
The Mets IMO needed Bryant more than Baez. Not sure why they went with Bryant instead. Also like the Yankees both trades with the Cubs should of included Hendricks.
You know what’s funny? The Mets have been so injured, but they are going to win the division anyways! Take that, Braves!
Comment hidden due to back injury.
Ironically, the Yiddish word “metsie” means “bargain.”
There you go NY Baez isn’t even a shell of what he was 2 years ago. I am 1 Cuban that was happy with all 3 trades of our so called big 3.
From what you got for Darvish, plus the big three, plus some other under the radar acquisitions, you’ve probably doubled your farm.
Wait are you from Cuba or was that a typo
You can take the Cub fan out of Cuba, but you can’t take the Cuban out of the Cub fan … or something.
In other NY news… Severino was scratched in Scranton. Just when help was coming for the RailRiders
The conjecture is that he might’ve been scratched because of the wet condition of the field. If so, that makes sense. No point in risking another injury to a guy who’s rehabbing.
Mets rely too much on the free agent market and trading for current players. This leads to injury prone players.
How does that lead to injury-prone players? I’m not arguing the point — I just don’t understand how that works and I’d appreciate an explanation.
They buy older players. Still scratching my head on it but I think investing too much on polished players with age results in injuries. None of the guys are exactly young.
The Mets are literally what happens when you try to turn budgets off on the show, then just sign and trade for name brands and then just sim the season. Then you wonder why you only won 87 games and missed the playoffs.
Javy is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. Have watched his career as a Cub fan and the big surprise is that he never made any adjustments to his plate approach. That leads to the idea that he is either not baseball smart (most likely guess) or he just doesn’t see the ball well and needs to swing at everything and just hope he gets a ball in the zone. To pitch to him, simply do not throw strikes as he’s mostly unwilling to take a walk. Low and away is the only way to go. He doesn’t know that he is strong enough to hit it out by just slowing down his swing a bit, taking more pitches, and hitting it where it’s pitched. He never figured that out.
His defense went south a bit this year too, as it seems like he doesn’t work enough on fundamentals, since that is what he struggles with. He can however, make flashy plays like no-one. Long term sign? Unless he quickly (this year) shows he can adjust his plate approach (which he will not), I wouldn’t risk it. And now he is hurt, which he has been in the past also.