The Astros made some smaller moves yesterday as they picked up two players off the wire. They first picked up Anderson Hernandez from the Indians and then picked up Nelson Figueroa from the Phillies. The most startling thing about this move is that both players are former Mets (not so surprising because a lot of players are former Mets). Anyway in case you don't remember, Hernandez was a middle infielder for the Mets who started at second a few seasons ago for the Mets before the Castillo era and when Valentine was injured. He was always a peculiar player in that he would tear up winter ball, but once the season started he wasn't able to hit at any level (which happened to him again this year).
Nelson's story is more well known. He gave the Mets another solid Spring after a solid year last year and a solid winter and instead of making the ball club he was sent to the minors where he was then picked up by the Phillies. Once he made it to the Phillies, he ripped apart the Mets organization and how they pass on certain players (like J Feliciano). Anyway, the Phillies just cut ties with him so now he's an Astro.
The Astros add these players to their collection of former Mets. For a while they had Mets-failure Kaz Matsui. Currently they still have two former Mets prospects that were either traded or just didn't pan out. The first is Matt Lindstrom who was traded the Marlins from the Mets and eventually ended up in Houston. The second was the second basemen that many of us wanted to see play in the majors but it was never really meant to be as a Met, and he ended up as a Red for a while. This mystery player is Jeff Keppinger.
Now if only we can get the Astros to take some of our players right now so that we may obtain one of their starters…
