The Mets will be without Jose Siri for 8-10 weeks, president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters on Monday (link via Tim Healey of Newsday). It was clear that the center fielder would be out for a while after he was diagnosed with a left tibia fracture last week. He suffered the injury when he fouled a ball off his leg.
It had been a frustrating start for Siri even before the injury. The righty-hitting outfielder collected just one hit in his first 20 at-bats. He has drawn four walks and stolen a couple bases, but he’d punched out eight times over 24 plate appearances. Siri’s glove is much more his calling card. He’s coming off a .187/.255/.366 showing over a career-high 130 games as a member of the Rays. The Mets acquired him in an offseason trade despite those numbers because he’s one of the best defensive center fielders in the game.
Tyrone Taylor has taken over as the primary center fielder. He’s out to a very tough start offensively, batting .211/.237/.298 through 59 trips to the plate. Taylor is a solid defender, albeit not to Siri’s level. The Mets called up speedster José Azocar as a fifth outfielder. While Azocar isn’t likely to push for regular playing time, the Mets could turn to one of their middle infielders on the outfield grass. Luisangel Acuña has been a full-time infielder in the majors but topped 250 innings in center field in Triple-A last season.
More interestingly, the Mets are toying with the idea of getting Jeff McNeil some center field reps. He’s getting work in at the position during his minor league rehab assignment. McNeil could be back from his season-opening IL stint by the end of this week. He has 16 career innings as a center fielder. He’s unlikely to play there on a regular basis but could be part of a larger timeshare.
“I imagine Jeff is going to do what he always does,” Stearns told reporters (via Healey). “He’s going to bounce around. He’s going to play some second. He’ll fill in for the corner outfielders when needed. We’ll see how the center field thing goes; I think he’s excited about that. So there are plenty of at-bats to go around here, and Jeff will certainly get his share.”
Siri is on the 10-day injured list for the time being. The Mets can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises.
Drop Azocar. Keep Acuna & Baty. Give Acuna & McNeil some reps in center. Mendoza does a good job of getting everyone some playing time.
DFA Marte instead. Keep Azocar’s defense. DH Soto at times against tough lefties. Let Winker get his at bats. That’s my thoughts.
Soto isn’t going to DH.
Then let Torrens DH when right bat needed there when Alvarez gets back.
Marte is like their 5th or 6th hitter they need him
Marteis only their part-time 5th or 6th hitter, as he only plays against lefties. And he would then be the Mets part-time 7th or 8th hitter once Mcneil and Alvarez return. Finding someone else to take those ABs – and do more with them than Marte has done – would not exactly be a physics problem.
Disagree on all of this except for letting Winker get his ABs.
They have enough defensive flexibility to keep Baty and Acuna. Acuna can play 2B, OF, and SS. McNeil can play 2B and the corner OF. Baty can play 2B and 3B. To echo Bill M, Mendoza does a good job mixing everyone in.
This guy is an abomination in the batter’s box
Hopefully someone becomes indispensable while he’s gone that there is no need to bring him back.
Some wild and zany takes on here
Mets fans are gonna Mets fan.
Could be stronger without him.
The Mets could replace him with Alexa and no one would notice.
Rays best off season move was making sure Siri never entered their line up again. I don’t know what we got in return from the Mets but I’m sure we won the trade.
“The Mets called up speedster José Azocar as a fifth outfielder.”
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—Who can MLBTR possibly think the Mets’ 4th OFer is?
True enough. Azocar profiles as a 5th-outfielder type. But he’s now on a team that has only 4.
Winker is the 4th OF right now
@mookiesboy Winker was in the bottom one percentile in a corner, according to Statcast—and that was when he was a spry lad of 30 in 2024, turning in a sprint speed of 25.8 fps, bottom quartile for MLB.
He’s truly a ‘break glass only in emergency’ OFer, as is Marte, who’s just as bad at 36. It never made a lot of sense to platoon two players at DH who should never again play the field—not if their upside at the plate is league average.
Strange place for a team with a $325m payroll to save a few bucks.
Drew Gilbert has looked good in single-A. He’s had only 11 PAs in triple-A thus far, far too few to say he what he’s looked like. And in those 11 PAs, he’s had a .697 OPS.
Why don’t we let him get his feet wet in AAA before calling him up for what would basically be just for the hell of it.
And he’s not even a good defensive CF at this point, anyway, and none of the actual scouting/evaluation sites rate Gilbert as a regular CF.
We don’t know that. Nimmo was a trained CF with speed those first couple of years.
And no one said McNeil would play CF with any regularity. In all likelihood, he would be limited to spot duty, and if he can’t play it, they can put him in left and move Nimmo to CF, if needed.
But all of this is just fluff. To be clear, Taylor is the regular, starting CF. Any other option is only there in case of Taylor needing days off, or hitting poorly over a long stretch. As such, there is no value to having Gilbert sit on the bench in NY, rather than play more in AAA, where he has only 200 or so ABs, and not very impressive ones, at that.
I agree Nimmo is no longer a viable opti0n in CF. But they don’t have a viable major league option. And Gilbert is not one either at this juncture. Thats why they brought up Azocar to back up Taylor.
He doesn’t need to rush back. His replacement is doing much better than him, posting a 107 wRC+.