With the Mets reportedly near a deal with OF Curtis Granderson the front office has now turned their attention to filling other positional needs. One of these needs is an improvement over Ruben Tejada at the SS position. As a possible solution, the team has sent scouts to the Dominican Republic to scout recent Cuban defector SS Erisbel Arruebarruena.
According to Andy Martino of the NY Daily News, Arruebarruena will conduct a 2 day showcase for major league teams this weekend at the New York Yankees complex in the Dominican Republic in hopes of landing an MLB contract. He has drawn numerous comparisons to Detriot's SS Jose Iglesias for his wizard like defensive skills.
Below is the scouting report done by Ben Badler of Baseball America on the world's10th rank prospect of 2013.
"Arruebarruena has clean hands, quick actions and good body control. His quick first step and instincts give him good range. He has a quick transfer and a plus-plus arm with accuracy, which allows him to make throws from deep in the hole and turn 4-6-3 double plays with ease. His awareness in the field is advanced and he’s shown the ability to make the barehanded play look routine and make strong throws from different angles."
Sounds like a dream possibility and a guy the Mets should swoop in an get. However, there are major concerns about his bat. He has a long swing, poor pitch recognition skills, and is pull happy which has many scouts thinking he won't hit more than .220 at the MLB level right now. The same reports were made of Iglesias as well though and he just hit .303 for the Tigers in his rookie season.
Arruebarruena sounds like he will probably need some time in the minor leagues, most likely Double A, to fine tune his game. Despite that though, since he is a 6 year veteran of the Cuban Serie Nacional( even though he's 23 years old) any bonus he receives for signing with a club will not go against a team's newly minted international draft pool which could draw numerous suitors to him.
I will leave you with his stats from the Serie Nacional over the past 3 seasons. The Serie Nacional is widely considered to be equal in talent to MLB Double A teams.
'10/'11 279 PA, .280/.314/.484, 8 HR, 11 BB, 57 K
'11/'12 306 PA, .320/.367/.520, 8 HR, 19 BB, 39 K
'12/'13 270 PA, .296/.370/.431, 6 HR, 24 BB, 31 K
9 comments:
I've been told by a good scout source that all of the 'top' Cuban' talent has already left the island and is now in the States in MLB franchises.
That being said, you can't attend enough of these and, as you know, the Mets never even use to participate as a watcher no less a cross checker.
Probably is true but Arrue looks like a very solid guy in terms of defense.
I like that his BB rate has been rising and his K rate has been falling as he matures. He's still only 23 so I would think there's plenty of room to grow.
Right now I think he could have the same offensive output as Tejada with VASTLY better defense.
A line-up of these guys isn't a terrible one when you consider that it brings a very good defense with them.
Lagares .250 5 HR
Murphy .290 10 HR
Wright .310 25 HR
Granderson .240 25 HR
C. Young .230 20 HR
Duda .260 20 HR
d'Arnaud .270 15 HR
Arruebarruena .230 5 HR
That lineup and with no Harvey sad to say but the Marlins are better then the Mets.
I'm fine with that line-up. I'm sure the pitching staff won't mind have the best defensive OF in the league,with a great defensive SS. But they still have to sign Granderson 1st!
I dont know.......Tejada is basically the same age, and has proven ability already to hit major league pitching prior to 2013.
Eri Arru (for short) is an intriguing possibility. His glove is enticing, but I have serious reswervations about his bat, despite the Iglesias comparison. Iglesias was a .257 minor league hitter, and you know .257 minor league hitters rarely, if ever, become .300 major league hitters. (or even .260 major league hitters, for that matter) And, btw, Iglesias only hit .259 for Detroit after the trade. His .303 for the season was driven by his great first half in Boston before the trade, whicch may turn out to be a total fluke.
All that said, Detroit did give up Jhonny Peralta because they had Iglesias. So I guess it would be a pretty good acquisition to get an Iglesias lookalike in the fold, despite my reservations about offense.
Why does everyone love duda? He hasn't done anything to warrant being a major league first basmen. Give Ike some protection and he's going to hit and play good defense. It's a joke if they trade him and think duda can be a major league first basemen
It would be just like the Mets to get in on the Cuban players right around the time all the good ones have signed...
That being said, if they do sign this guy he desperately needs a nickname...
Upon re-reading the Ben Badler article on Eri Arru, I see he is compared more to Miami's Cuban shortstop, Adeiny Hechavarria, rather than to Iglesias. Now I am really worried about the Mets possibly going after him.
Sandy, please convince the Rays to take Duda and give us Yunel Escobar.
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