Mets Add More Players to Roster
With MLB rosters allowed to expand to up to 40 players, the Mets have made a few more September call-ups.
Added to the big league club are Mike Baxter, Valentino Pascucci, and Chris Schwinden.
You should already be familiar with Baxter, the Queens-born outfielder from Archbishop Molloy HS who smacked a double on the first pitch he saw as a Met. Baxter was plucked from the Padres organization in a waiver claim and hit a combined .250 with .672 OPS while playing for Buffalo, Port St. Lucie, and Lake Elsinore (Padres, A-ball). He was 4-for-16 in his brief time with the Mets, and to be honest, I hadn’t noticed that he was sent back down.
Chris Schwinden is a 24-year-old righthanded pitcher who has spent most of his pro career as a swing man — working both as a starter and a reliever (though mostly as a starter). Schwinden started out in Binghamton’s bullpen but after two relief appearances was called up to Buffalo to take Pat Misch‘s spot in the starting rotation (Misch had been called up to the Mets at the time). Schwinden made the most of his opportunity, going 8-8 with a 3.95 ERA through 26 starts and 145 innings; he struck out 134 and walked 48. He’s a control pitcher who was tougher on lefties (.230 batting average against) than righties (.262) this year. His main pitches are a high-80s fastball and a changeup.
Val Pascucci is a 6’6″, 270-lb. outfielder / first baseman who has been a career minor leaguer. He spent played in 32 games (74 plate appearances) with the Montreal Expos in 2004 and has not been in MLB since. In 11 minor league seasons, the 32-year-old giant has hit 234 homeruns (which is 13 away from Crash Davis’ all-time record). How does a guy with all his power not make it in the bigs? Hard to say, but part of his problem was that his defense was less than stellar, and projected more as a DH — while playing for an NL organization (the Expos). Additionally, as a corner OF / 1B, he was blocked by the likes of Vlad Guerrero, Brad Wilkerson, Nick Johnson, and Ryan Church (among others). After posting a .999 OPS at AAA Edmonton in 2004, and seeing no MLB opportunities forthcoming, he went to Japan to play for Bobby Valentine and the Chiba Lotte Marines. “Scooch” is also known for being one of the top hitters for Italy in WBC competition.
Are you looking forward to seeing any of these three play for the Mets? Do you think they will get ample opportunities to show their wares? Post your notes in the comments.
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We in effect have various “call-up” caliber players (other than the two relievers called up already) on the roster at the moment (Duda, Gee, Tejeda, Turner), which helps explain the thin field here, though injuries and some thinness in the minors explains things too.
I admit to not being that excited about these three, though curious about CS. Glad to not see Pat Misch again. Sorry, Pat, saw enough of you already. If the garbage time reliever spot Carrasco holds is open again, maybe you can fill it.
The Young thing is also quite debatable — the Mets or some other team with or without “awesome” Sandy, could have seen him as a starter. This puts Gee on the bubble, like many back-end starters. And, instead of Young, some other cheap starter could have been found. Gee remains a rookie that reasonably can be seen as an AAA player.
Anyway, later, I realized I could have add others. Nick Evans is another call-up caliber player. Nickeas, who like Batista, was not a September call-up, but replaced someone who is hurt. I probably can go on.