12/2/13

Hot Stove Report: Non-Tender Deadline Today 11:59 PM EST


     Additional players may be added to the free agent pool soon as decisions must be made tonight on whether to tender arbitration eligible players a contract. For the Mets, that includes the following 10 players. There expected arbitration raises via MLB Trade Rumors are also provided.

Daniel Murphy: $5.8M
Ike Davis: $3.5M
Dillon Gee: $3.4M
Bobby Parnell: $3.2M
Eric Young, Jr: $1.9M
Lucas Duda: $1.8M
Scott Atchison: $1.3M
Ruben Tejada: $1M
Omar Quintanilla: $900K
Justin Turner: $800K

     For Murphy, Gee, Parnell, Young Jr, and Turner, tendering them contract are no brainers at this point in time. For Ike Davis and Lucas Duda, while not tendering them are possibilities, there seems to be a trade market available for them this off-season so rather than letting them go for nothing the team could tender them contract and then trade them away in hopes of adding a different piece. Ruben Tejada case also seems safe to receive a contract as the SS market this off-season is extremely bare. The interesting names here that are significant possiblities  to get "non-tendered" are Atchison and Quintanilla.

RP Scott Atchison
3-3, 4.37 ERA, 50 Appearances, 5.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 10 for 10 holds, 40% Inherited Runners Scored.

     The 37 year old Atchison was given a 1 yr/$700k contract to be a middle innings reliever for the team in 2013. While his balky arm did flair up during the season, causing him to miss a few weeks, he was decently effective. Every time he came into a game with the lead he managed to keep it that way with a perfect hold rate. However, he did allow quite a few inherited runners to score which made nice leads turn into 1 run heart attacks for fans.

     He will be 38 next season and continues to pitch with a torn UCL that is always at risk of flairing up like it did in 2013. I just can't see the club offering him the MLBTR forecast of $1.3M, especially with so many young arms ready to go in that can replace him such Familia and German. Atchison was mostly a low leverage (6th/7th inning) reliever so he won't be missed too much.

Verdict: Non-Tender 

SS Omar Quintanilla
.222/.306/.283, 2 HR, 21 RBI, 2 SB, -4.6 UZR at SS, 77% plays made "in-Zone"

     Quintanilla's case is a little more difficult. While he certainly did not help with the team's offensive woes, the club didn't exactly have any other options. Quintanilla has always played average defense at SS and that's hard to find in itself on the Free Agent market at such a low cost. While Turner has played a few games at SS (and was surprisingly decent with a +1.4 UZR) the only other true SS option the Mets have right now on the 40 man roster right now is Wilfredo Tovar who should be in Las Vegas next season.

    Now his forecasted salary of $900k is not too bad for a back-up SS but you have to wonder if the front office's plan is to role with Turner as the back-up SS. As I said before, he was surprisingly decent defensively in terms of UZR and "in Zone plays," making 79% of them, plus his usage at the position has doubled year over year. His bat is also far superior to Quintanilla's. In addition Wilfredo Tovar is absolutely ready for the MLB in terms of defensive abilities and there's no reason to believe that he can't at least match Omar's near Mendoza batting line.

Verdict: Non-Tender

No comments: