Mets Sign Another Reyes
Today the Mets bolstered their bullpen by signing free agent reliever Al Reyes, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays — no doubt based on the scouting report by MetsToday’s own loyal reader “sincekindergarten”, who suggested Reyes a few days ago.
Signing Reyes makes great sense from every angle — and solidifies the Mets’ chance to finish the year with the more Reyeses on the roster than any other MLB team.
Seriously though, in Al Reyes you get not a great pitcher, but a decent pitcher who could benefit from the mystery of not pitching in the NL since 2005. His experience as a closer in the hard-hitting AL East certainly can’t hurt, either.
What can hurt, though, is his shoulder — he’s been on the DL twice this season with tendinitis issues. When he did pitch, he was inconsistent, sporting a 4.37 ERA in 26 games — though he did strike out 19 in 23 innings.
Is he the answer for the Mets’ closer job? Not likely, but if he’s healthy he might be able to get two or three outs in innings 6-8.
In related news, it’s been rumored that David Weathers, David Riske, Huston Street, Eric Gagne, and Jamie Walker have all cleared waivers.
At the very least you can no longer say that Omar is sitting on his hands while problems on his team are going unaddressed. Ayala and Al Reyes may not be Huston Street and Brian Fuentes, but they are something, and combined all they cost was Anderson Hernandez.
So now will Reyes head to AAA for conditioning and be called up prior to Sept 1, or will he hop right onto the 25-man roster and displace Joe Smith or Brian Stokes? Inquiring minds would like to know…
Anyway … regarding Reyes, I would guess and hope that he will start out in A ball, under the supervision of Randy Niemann, at least for a few days, to make sure he’s healthy and to make any adjustments that may be causing the shoulder issues. Judging from the Mets’ medical decisions this year, I’m not counting on it and expect to see him in a Major League uniform by the weekend.
I’d send down Smith and prescribe R&R, but I fear that Stokes will be the one to go.
Joe, I agree that even a blind man could have seen that the Mets needed bullpen help (and perhaps even a corner OF) before the non-waiver deadline. But I think you make it sound too easy to go out and acquire some stud arm for the pen. The arms that have been dealt before and after the deadline include Chad Bradford, Scott Eyre, Kip Wells, Brett Tomko, Horacio Ramirez, Arthur Rhodes, Kyle Farnsworth, Damaso Marte, and Jon Rauch. Maybe I’m missing a couple, but those are the main ones I can recall. Anyway, the last 4 from that list cost either a top prospect or major league talent to acquire, a transaction the Mets were not in position to swing. And of the first 5 on the list, I think only Bradford would be a name that interests us, but he is pretty much a carbon copy of Joe Smith, and the Mets were shopping for arms who could get outs from both sides of the plate. I would have loved to have seen Omar go out and get Huston Street for 2 or 3 of our marginal prospects, but that’s not realistic. It’s more like the teams who possess the decent arms for sale jacked up the price to suit the market, and the Mets decided they were better off spending their money at a later time on more affordable commodities. I’m not going to fault Omar for that. If anything, I’d credit him for not further depleting the farm for a rental arm, but still working hard after the deadline to make sure issues are addressed.
I’d DL Duaner and give his shoulder some rest.