On the upside of the Mets’ reacquisition of Gary Matthews Jr., Brian Stokes isn’t that hard to replace, although he was certainly effective this year, and the Angels are eating $21 million of Matthews’ remaining $23 million contract (that’s not a misprint).
(Just for the record, Matthews Jr. has batted .266/.336/.418 since the Mets dumped him as a 27-year-old in 2002).
Matthews can maybe sorta play center field better than Angel Pagan, and even in a crummy season last year he walked enough to keep his OBP at a non-damaging .336, and with Carlos Beltran’s status up in the air, Fernando Martinez needing more minor league seasoning and Jeremy Reed cut loose, the Mets could probably use a little more outfield help. But Matthews is still not much of an upgrade, if at all, on Pagan; he’s 35 and has batted .248/.325/.383 over his three seasons as bane of the Angels.
Not a terrible move, but symptomatic of Omar Minaya’s defective thought process and lack of imagination.
3 thoughts on “Gary Matthews Jr. Is Back! We’re Saved!”
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Not an awful move if the Mets give Pagan first crack and view Matthews as the fall-back position. I fear, though, that they’ll just preemptively give the job to the “proven” player, when mostly what he’s proven is that he isn’t any good.
It’s not a bad move taken in isolation; however, when you add this re-signing guys like Caora and the rest of the mediocrities at catcher, and you see continued proof of Minaya’s inability to develop even a mediocre bench.
I agree. Not an awful move. A veteran player that can play a little defense and a left handed bat. The Angels are paying most of his outrageous salary. Not a bad fill in for Beltran for the time being.