Rick Ankiel already helped the Mets once – during the 2000 playoffs.  Now they’ll hope he can help them again (in a more traditional sense).

The Mets signed recent Astros castoff Rick Ankiel today.

Terry Collins said the lefty-hitting Ankiel and righty-hitting Juan Lagares will platoon in center field. That’s a blow to Jordany Valdespin, who Collins said may play some second base if Daniel Murphy continues to struggle.

Apart from his arm, Ankiel doesn’t provide much of an upgrade in the outfield.  His last really good offensive season came in 2008, when he hit 28 home runs.  This year, he has a .715 OPS which is less than that of the other left-handed hitting outfielders Mike Baxter and Valdespin.

Looks like Sandy Alderson is trying to catch lightning in a bottle.  Or maybe the team was secretly hijacked by Omar Minaya.

Andrew Brown was optioned to Triple-A.

So there’s that.