213 Miles From Shea

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Today we look at Nick Meyer, drafted in round 6 in 2018 by the Mets out of California Polytechnic State. Also, Nick Meyer is one of the few players we actually have stats for in 2020! I’m not sure what terminology is correct (either he did this on his own or he got permission from the Mets) but Nick played in an independent league last year – the City of Champions Cup for the Tully Monsters. He got 112 PA’s in over 27 games and hit .247/.357/.360 in a league where he was half a year younger than the average player. That line is much better than his two seasons in the Mets system where over 393 PA’s he hit .193/.256/.235. The highest level he reached was St. Lucie. (He hit well in college, hitting .297/.363/.373)

He’s already been placed on the Cyclones roster – meaning he’ll pick up where he left off in 2019.

So Nick Meyer definitely took a step forward last year, but he’s in a crowded position and its difficult to gauge what his step forward means from a 4-team independent league born out of the pandemic. There are three catchers on the 40-man. Outside of the 40-man, Bruce Maxwell and David Rodriguez are ahead of him on the depth chart.

He’s in Mets camp because they need more catchers in camp, even if there isn’t a path for him to the majors this year. I expect we’ll get a look at him for the first week or so of spring and then he’ll go to the Minors camp once the Mets start making roster cuts.

Recapping Yesterday:
The Mets picked up their first win of the Spring yesterday, 2-0, against the Houston Astros in St. Lucie. The big story for the Mets – Stroman looked good. In 2.0 innings of work, Stroman struck out two batters and did not allow any walks or hits. His pitches all had movement and was exactly what you wanted to see yesterday. He was followed by Yamamoto who is competing for the 5th starter spot. He allowed 2 hits and that’s it over 2.0 innings. Part of this is also on James McCann who made his catching debut for the Mets yesterday as he learns the pitching staff and works out game plans with them. When the team wins by a shutout, it’s a good day on the mound for everyone! Blevins, Smith, McWilliams all had great days too.

The offense yesterday pretty much boiled down to a solo homer from Jeff McNeil and Albert Almora Jr. The former who is one of the more dangerous hitters in baseball when he adds power to his OBP, the latter who is fighting for a roster spot this year.

What To Look For Today:
Short Answer: Depth. Today is a depth day. Jerad Eickhoff, in camp on a Non-Roster Invite, makes his Mets debut. An outside competitor for the the Mets 5th rotation spot, the long time Philly is in Camp trying to get back to the majors after not playing in 2020. In his first two years in the majors (2015-16), he pitched 248.1 innings with a 3.44 ERA, 4.00 FIP, 1.136 WHIP and 120 ERA+. Since then he has pitched 191.2 innings with a 5.07 ERA, 4.89 FIP, 1.466 WHIP and 86 ERA+.

Other pitchers of note: Ryley Gilliam makes his second appearance this Spring, he allowed 2 runs his first time out and is on a lot of people’s players to watch list. Nogosek will make his debut as well as Marcel Renteria. Renteria’s time as a prospect in the system is starting to tick down so it makes sense the he’ll be getting some playing time early. Oscar De La Cruz who is trying to make his major league debut this year is also a long man / spot starter type pitcher for 2021 getting some work in.

The depth theme continues with the line up. Pillar, signed as part of a CF complement with Almora gets to lead off today. Villar and Guillorme both get starting spots in the infield and Jose Martinez will make his Mets debut. Mallex Smith will also get some additional playing time this week. Smith led the American league in triples in 2018 with 10 and steals with 46 in 2019.

Let’s Go Mets!

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

With the roster crunch / trade of Ali Sanchez – Bruce Maxwell becomes much important on the Mets. The Mets currently are carrying only 3 catchers on the 40-man roster, if something happens to a catcher, Maxwell is now the next catcher up.

The former Athletic was drafted in the 2nd round in 2012 and became a free agent in 2018. He was signed to the Mets 60-man camp late last July. Maxwell became Nationally known when he became the first MLB player in 2017 to kneel during the National Anthem.

Bruce’s best season was his rookie season where he hit .283/.337/.402 over 101 PA’s. Overall in his career he has hit .240/.314/.347. In 2019, when no baseball team would sign him, he then went to Mexican league and had a good amount of success hitting .325/.407/.559 over 487 PA’s. Most recently he played in the Dominican Winter League and hit .113/.172/.132 over 58 PA’s.

Because the Mets traded away Ali Sanchez in a roster move, Bruce’s spring becomes much more important. There are not a lot of players between him and the 40-man roster. So we’ll be looking to see how he works with pitchers, and how he hits this month.

Before we go – one parting fact: Bruce Maxwell actually played in the World Baseball Classic for Team Germany.

Quick Recap Of Yesterday:

The Mets played their first Spring Training game of the season yesterday and picked up the 2-0 loss in a 7-inning, shortened game at Marlins camp. By far the big storyline of the day was the Mets debut of Francisco Lindor who went 0-2. In general, it wasn’t a big offense day for the Mets who only found 5 hits including two from lead-off hitter Brandon Nimmo (who on his first hit, went beyond the bag and was called out).

The Mets did have success on the mound though. Harol Gonzalez had an easy inning of work to open the game and new Met, Sean Reid-Foley had an incredibly easy inning, throwing 6 pitches, 5 for strikes, recording two outs.

What We Are Looking For Today:

Today is another big day for pitchers! First up will be Marcus Stroman, who accepted a qualifying offer to come back to the Mets this year. A lot of the Mets success this year depends on Stroman’s performance as a top of the rotation pitcher. He was not originally slated to start today, and caught a lot of us off guard when he announced it on Twitter last night.

Following Stroman is Jordan Yamamoto – one of several pitchers in competition for one of the few roster battles right now – 5th starter. Yamamoto, the former Marlins prospect, was acquired by the Marlins in the Yelich trade. He was traded to the Mets a month ago. In his rookie season he posted a 4.46 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 1.144 WHIP and 96 ERA+ over 15 starts in 2019. Last year wasn’t so good.

Several Mets bullpen pitchers are scheduled to follow. Edwin Diaz headlines the group – and his stats show that he had a better 2020 than we might collectively think he did due to his 2019. He had a 1.75 ERA, 2.18 FIP, 1.247 WHIP and a 110 ERA+ last year. Not career highs, but way better than 2019. Drew Smith, Sam McWilliams and Jerry Blevins are also on the list for today. Blevins is back in came on a Non-Roster invitee and Sam McWilliams has garnered a lot of attention early on.

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working our way through the large amount of pitchers the Mets invited to camp, today we can finally start looking at position players including one of the most exciting Mets prospects – Francisco Alvarez.

MLB.com has Alvarez listed as the #2 prospect in the Mets system, and that’s general feeling right now. He has an ETA listed as 2023 and there is some speculation that the Mets used Francisco Alvarez in their reasoning process for avoiding Realmuto. Anyway MLB.com gives Alvarez the following grades:

• Hit 55
• Power 55
• Run 40
• Arm 60
• Field 55
• Overall 55

There’s been a lot of excitement around Alvarez. Due to Covid, we only have one year of stats on him:

• 2019 Gulfcoast: 31 PA, .462/.548/.846/1.395 (2.5 years younger than average)
• 2019 Kingsport: 151 PA, .282/.377/.443/.820 (3.5 years younger than average)

These were incredibly exciting numbers. Here’s currently listed with the Mets low A team in St. Lucie. It’s going to be very exciting to see him get AB’s early on in spring, similar to how it was exciting to see Ronny Mauricio get a few cuts last year early on. We are looking forward to watching Alvarez work with both young prospect pitchers and maybe some veteran studs as well.

The Mets long winter is over! The Mets will suit up for a 7-inning spring training game today! It’s been an exciting winter for the Mets with a new owner and a lot of roster turnover. And today we’ll get to see (sort of, no SNY coverage for this game) some of the new faces on the Mets and some players playing for positions on the depth chart.

Francisco Lindor will make his Mets debut today. That’s the absolute headline for today’s game. The four time All-Star and 2 time Gold Glove winner is a career .285/.346/.488/.833 hitter with a 28.7 WAR since 2015. Hopefully the face of the Mets for the next decade, we are all excited to see what he does this season, even in a meaningless spring training game.

The pitcher selection tomorrow is exciting in a different way. All six that have been announced are fighting for an active roster spot. Some are familiar names, being in the Mets system for a while. Others are brand new.

Harol Gonzalez has been with the Mets since 2014 (he was 19). In 2019 he had a 3.14 ERA in Binghamton over 97.1 innings and a 2.68 ERA over 40.1 innings in Syracuse. He would have been in Syracuse in 2020. He’ll open the game for the Mets. He’ll be followed by Sean Reid Foley, Ryley Gilliam, Trevor Hildenberger, Stephen Tarpley and Thomas Szapucki.

Sean was acquired by the Mets in the the Steven Matz trade and has had some major league experience. In 6.2 innings last year he allowed 1 earned run, 3 runs total from 3 hits while walking 6 and striking out 6. It was first time in the majors used primarily as a reliever. Overall in the majors he has a 4.40 ERA over 71.2 innings with a 5.20 FIP, 1.605 WHIP and 101 ERA+. Ryley Gilliam is an exciting addition to camp – he’s done well pretty much at every level except Syracuse (only 9.1 innings). Trevor Hildenberger is looking to find his way back to the majors. He had a success in his rookie season in 2017 but hasn’t really seen it since.

At the end of the day, the Mets are finally playing baseball and we are so excited to watch them play!

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Keeping up with a theme this Spring, Tom Windle is the third pitcher we have looked at this spring (Oscar De La Cruz, Jerad Robinson) who is coming to the Mets as a free agent after not making the majors with their original team. Tom Windle was drafted in 2013 by the Dodgers and at the end of the 2014 season was traded to the Phillies (with Zach Eflin) for Jimmy Rollins.

Things were alright for Windle in 2015 – he posted a 4.26 ERA with Lehigh over 42 games and 50.2 innings before he was released by the Phillies. He was picked up by the Red Sox but only pitched 2.0 innings in 2019 in the Red Sox system. His last year in the minors is more or less what he has done in the minors. He has a 4.13 career ERA over 7 years and 505.2 innings and a 1.394 WHIP.

He’s competing with De La Cruz and Robinson for playing time, who are competing with the next tier consisting of Montgomery, Hunter and Vizcaino who are on the outside looking in behind Lucchesi and Yamamoto. (This was also written on 2/16, and I’m sure a lot has changed since then). Every spring rep is going to be important for Windle.

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Arodys Vizcaino is another pitcher the Mets are bringing in to find their way back to the major leagues. Vizcaino was drafted by the Yankees in 2007 and was traded in 2009 with Melky Cabrera and Mike Dunn to the Braves for Boone Logan and Javier Vazquez. He would make his debut in 2011 and then was traded at the 2012 deadline with Jaye Chapman to the Cubs for Reed Johnson and Paul Maholm. He was traded again by the Cubs back to the Braves for Tommy La Stella at the end of the 2014 season. He then stayed with the Braves for a while until he was traded in May 2019 to the Mariners for former Met Anthony Swarzak. (Of note – this trade happened after Arodys had a season ending shoulder injury/surgery).

Anyway, Arodys has been a reliever his entire time in the major league and was hitting his stride from from 2017 on. In 2017 he posted a 2.83 ERA over 62 games and 57.1 innings. That year he had a 3.72 FIP, 1.099 WHIP and a 155 ERA+. The next year was even better – in 39 games and 38.1 innings he had a 2.11 ERA, 3.76 FIP, 1.174 WHIP and a 195 ERA+.

Last year things didn’t line up for him to make it back. The Mets are hoping that they are catching lightning in a bottle – Arodys is only 30 and has a history of pitching in the majors. (He has a 2.60 ERA over 17.1 innings and 20 games against the Mets in his career). There are a lot of hurdles in front of him – he’s not on the 40 man roster and the Mets have added a lot of arms gunning for a roster bullpen spot. That being said, the bullpen was a disaster for the Mets and if he shines in Spring, the Mets will find a way to make it work.

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

There are several players in Mets camp that are trying to break into the majors with the Mets after not being able to do so with another team (like Oscar De La Cruz), today’s Non-Roster Invitee is another player in this category – Jared Robinson.

Jared was drafted by Cleveland in round 11 in 2014 out of Cerritos College (located in Norwalk CA). He pitched in all levels in the Indians organization from the Arizona Rookie League (one of the first players in this series that played in that league without making the majors!) all the way to their Triple A team in Columbus.

Jared essentially has a pattern of doing well in one league, and then getting promoted and struggling. In 2018 he was in A+ ball and registered a 2.65 ERA over 51.0 innings, one year after posting a 6.15 ERA over 41.0 innings at the same level. In 2019 in AA ball he had a 1.57 ERA over 28.2 innings, the previous year he he had a 9.82 ERA in the Arizona Fall League. In 2019 he also had a 6.50 ERA over 18.0 innings AAA, but then never got a chance to prove he can pitch at that level in 2020.

So that’s what this is. That’s what Spring Training is. Can he take that next step forward in AAA? He’s battled back in every level so far. He should keep it going. If he does well in Spring and at Syracuse early on in 2021, does he get pushed up to Queens when a spot opens?

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Marcel Renteria might not be a household name, but he’s been with the Mets for a while and if there was a time for him to get a Non-Roster invite to Mets camp, it’s now. He was drafted in 6th round in 2017 out of New Mexico State and has moved up through the minors considered his age. With the exception of one inning of work in Binghamton in 2019, he has been above the average age for a player at level from New Mexico Sate until now.

He had a rough start as a Met in Brooklyn in 2017, 0.7 years older than the average player, pitching in 9 games over 11.1 innings. He allowed 15 hits and 12 earned runs. He bounced back the following year though in Columbia (1.1 years older than the average player) making 15 starts totaling 76.2 innings with a 4.23 ERA. He had similar numbers the following year in St. Lucie as a reliever pitching 62.1 innings over 37 games with a 4.62 ERA.

So the question is what’s next for Marcel? He’s going to be 26 this year which is probably why he’s in camp despite not having a history of being on a top prospect list. As we have said a lot, the Mets have been stripped of a lot of their pitching depth which does give Marcel an opening sort of? If anything, he’ll get a look early on in camp and if the Mets are interested they are going to need people to eat up innings late in spring when the Mets are playing NL East foes too often.