Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
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Mets sign Jay Bell to a minor league contract
You knew when Edgardo Alfonzo was let go and Bill Mueller signed with Boston and Jose Hernandez signed with the Rockies that third base this season at Shea had a chance to be pretty ugly. Well, here it is in all its horrific glory. It's hard to believe that the base manned by the likes of great restauranteur Howard Johnson could now come down to a battle between Ty Wigginton (who is white, which shocked me the first time I saw him) and the amazingly-not-yet-retired Jay Bell. This is only a minor league contract so there's some hope the Mets come to their senses, but it's being widely reported that the Mets are ready to give Bell a shot at competing for the third base job. Listen to (or read) what Mets GM Steve Phillips had to say: "We are happy at this late date to bring a guy with Jay Bell's experience and attitude into our camp and we are anxious to see how he fits into our plans for the 2003 season." Yikes.

Why so down on Bell? Well, he's old. There are plenty of old guys hanging around who can still get the job done though...Bell's just not proven he's able to do that. Last season (at age 36) not only was he hurt and didn't play a game til July 20th, but when he did play he put up a line of .163/.250/.306 in 56 plate apperances. That's really bad, but we can give him the benefit of the doubt, as his injuries may have limited his effectiveness. So what kind of numbers did he put up in 2001? How about .248/.349/.400..."good" for an OPS+ of 89. While the unbelievable sums of money Bell was making over the last few years (he made over $16 million for the last two seasons) doesn't enter into this, why sign him at all, unless you're doing so in some kind of coaching capacity? Does Steve Phillips really believe that Bell can bring something to the table that his current third baseman-to-be (Wigginton) can't? There's very little reason to suspect Bell is going to perform any better than his 2001 level (if he even gets back to that), which is already unacceptable. I just don't see the rationale here.

While Phillips addressed some of the Mets concerns this season (getting rid of Ordonez, improving outfield offense, improving starting pitching), he really, really dropped the ball when it comes to third base. I suppose one could argue that what the Mets are getting at third this season can't be much worse than what they've been getting at short for the past too many years, but I don't think Rey Sanchez is going to set the world on fire offensively either. I still think Wigginton will emerge with the starting job, but the fact that a guy like Bell is even in the running is an indictment of Phillips' failings this offseason. I could never understand why he felt the need to sign Glavine (the Mets starting pitching wasn't that bad last season) over resigning Alfonzo, who ultimately took less money from the Giants and really wanted to stay in New York.

Though this post is dedicated to the shock associated with the signing of Jay Bell, it'd be prudent to also examine Ty Wigginton a bit. In his brief stint (127 plate appearances) with the Mets last season, he put up a very nice .302/.354/.526 line, good for an OPS+ of 135. Of course we've got to be cognizant of the small sample size, but those are terrific numbers and if he can put up anything in that ballpark over the course of 500 plate appearances this season, the Mets would be overjoyed. He'll be 25 this season and the opportunity of a lifetime, to start in the major leagues, has just fallen in his lap...it remains to be seen whether or not he can take advantage of it. He's certainly a versatile enough player (he played first, second, third and both corner outfield spots last season) with enough offensive ability to have a place on a major league roster...it just remains to be seen whether or not he can hold down a starting job.
posted by VZW Watcher at 1:56 PM -