Mets Waive F-Mart and Herrera?
According to Adam Rubin, the Mets have placed Fernando Martinez and Danny Herrera on waivers, to make room for Scott Hairston and Ronny Cedeno.
If this is indeed true, can someone please explain how this makes sense for both the short-term financial health and long-term planning for the New York Mets? Because I’m completely befuddled.
Yes, F-Mart has been a grave disappointment. But he’s still only 23 years old, and he’s not owed anything above the MLB minimum. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, Herrera is 27 years old and also a minimum-salary guy. Meanwhile, both Cedeno and Hairston are over 30 and will make over a million bucks.
Take all the time and words you need to explain this logic to me, because clearly, I’m too stupid to understand. Thank you.
The Met way.
The only way it makes true “sense” is if they’re right – for once, about a player’s health…..and I’d like to think they have a very good idea of how hard Martinez is willing to work to keep himself on a field at this point in time.
He’s had every opportunity, especially with our miserable excuses for “outfielders” through the years….and still hasn’t kept himself healthy enough to matter.
That’s why I don’t feel sorry for him.
That being said, our 40-Man Roster is pretty much a joke to begin with — so, it just HAS to be about what has been conveyed, vs. what has been shown to them in the time they’ve had to observe Martinez.
Herrera is a LOOGY who has not even been that good over his career and probably a AAAA player at best. The team needed a backup SS more than a second LOOGY.
Hairston and Cedeno will make roughly $1M more than the Major league minimum combined and on a $95M payroll that is not a financial burden.
Look, Alderson is just trying to get a little production from his 40 man roster spots. Its not like FMart or Herrera were going to be a part of the next good Mets team anyway. People need to not make such a big deal out of this.
I wish I had Omar Minaya as my hype-machine….he does wonders for guys who have no business being Major League-players (typically specializing in the “sometime bat with no defensive position” genre).
Maybe he’ll advise someone within the Padre organization to pick him up again, and give him a shot in San Diego.
As far as we’re concerned, Mike Baxter has already had a better Met-career than Martinez; and that’s pretty damn sad…..with no one else but Martinez to blame, but himself.
I actually see it having played out as:
The organization probably had a talk with him, prior to reporting for Winter Ball – about how important it would be for him to have a nice showing, heading into 2012 and reporting for camp, etc.
He does well there, maybe it even opens some eyes….draws interest…..
What happens?
He does nothing in the little time he plays…..and gets hurt…..AGAIN.
I can’t feel sorry for the kid, and don’t necessarily blame anyone for being fed up at this point.
Whatever happens from here?
Purely up to Martinez, as it’s always been.
What gets me the most, though – is having had a month or so to decide who we wanted from the Brewers as PTBNL in the Francisco Rodriguez deal —– and choosing Herrera as one of those arms.
Letting him go already, eh?
Must’ve really wanted him badly……waste.
TAKE NO PRISONERS!!!
He and Hairston are apples and oranges; old vs. young; RH vs. LH; Healthy vs. unhealthy; doesn’t get hurt vs. always gets hurt.
Now Herrera is puzzling. He was selected by MIL from CIN off the waiver wire last May. Three teams in three years, something is amiss here. It could be as simple as his stature (5’6″) not that it’s a good reason. This is doesn’t make sense. Tim Byrdak is the only LH in the pen unless Carson makes the team or another LH is signed. Manny Acosta also fills the role vs LH hitters. Although he is a RH-er his numbers vs LH-ed hitters are really good, strangely better against LH vs RH.
Remember “waivers” doesn’t mean Martinez or Herrera are cut. They are there for the taking by another team. With Omar in Oakland that would be the team to take a chance on F-Mart and try to groom him as a DH… if he can walk.
If nobody takes Martinez, that will speaks volumes as to how much his stock has fallen.
But OAK is still a logical place given Billy Beane’s tendency for low risk/high reward type guys.
As for Herrera, if he isn’t picked up on waivers the Mets can resign him to a minor league contract. Either way, Danny Herrera is not an important part of a Met future plan. He’s left-handed and low-salaried, but not much else.
Neither Herrera nor F-Mart can play middle infield.
Salary as an issue? Really?
If FMart IS on the major league roster, he gets $425k anyway. Not much relevance between that and Hairston’s 1 million.
Hairston is a proven major-league level hitter, FMart is not.
Hairston can play CF, FMart cannot anymore.
And if another OF gets injured, FMart cannot play every day anymore due to his arthritic knee, which is not going to get any better.
As a 7-year minor-leaguer, FMart becomes a free agent the 1st time they outright him or send him down, anyway.
The bottom line is that he’s not good enough to keep on the big-league roster all season long, and they can
t warehouse him in AAA anymore, either.
The new management has been patient in taking the past year to evaluate their talent. In order for them to move this team forward, its time to move the players up who have a real chance of making a contribution to the big lague club at some point, and get rid of the ones who’ve missed their mark.
As for the financial issue, I think every last penny counts when an organization is hundreds of millions in debt and is cutting corners at every turn. I’m still stunned at the money they committed to Frankie Francisco — a deal that would have been loudly criticized if Omar Minaya were still the GM.
Thats why if you want to play with the big boys in MLB you have to buy your players at the market and not take your chances growing them at the farm. Its a new world, we pay for instant in every aspect of life why should success in baseball be any different?
I doubt he’ll ever make it in MLB, but this still strikes me as a failure to make the most of our assets.
However many games he’d have cost us over Hairston in 2012 might even be worth it just on the off-chance of improvement. That’s the kind of stuff you have to try when rebuilding.
Very disappointing.
As for Herrera, I think the Mets just guessed that he’d clear waivers, and apparently they guessed right.
I could swear it was just a few months ago that some Mets fans were thinking the Mets could trade F-Mart for legit MLB talent. How quickly the mighty can fall.
His stock fell so much the FIRST team with a chance to claim him did. Now watch him hit, DH and play great defensive RF.