The New York Mets signed infielder Josh Rodriguez to a minor league contract on Thursday, according to Betsy Helfand of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He had been in camp with the Oakland Athletics.
Rodriguez has spent parts of three seasons in the Mets’ organization, with his last appearance coming in 2015. That year, he hit .282 with 19 home runs in 120 games between Las Vegas (AAA) and Binghamton (AA). The 32-year-old has seven games of major league experience, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates after they selected him in the 2011 Rule 5 Draft.
According to Helfand, Rodriguez is expected to join the 51s before their season begins next week. It is an interesting move, given the glut of infielders expected to be with the team.
(Jacob Resnick/Mets Minors)
The Mets have also begun to clear out the lower levels of the minor leagues before the season starts, as sources have indicated that they have parted ways with three pitchers. RHPs Dillon Becker, Bryce Beeler, and Ty Williams have been released by the Mets.
Becker, 22, struggled with his command in his second professional season with the Brooklyn Cyclones a year ago. His 10.5 BB/9 was the highest among non-DSL pitchers in the organization in 2016.
Beeler, 24, showed promise at times, but injuries cost him all of 2015, and most of 2016, as he only pitched in six games between Brooklyn and Low-A Columbia.
Williams, 23, similarly battled injuries. He pitched in only 10.2 innings in his last two seasons with the Cyclones.
Signing Rodriguez really makes no sense
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Its a non-issue, really. It actually makes sense on multiple levels. First, this team needs a veteran presence. Unlike past years, when Vegas’ roster was overloaded with overaged veteran journeymen, this year’s Vegas team has none. And thats with a new manager who is not familiar with managing at this level or in this city of many and major distractions.
Maybe you’re not familiar with minor league baseball. And in Rodriguez, they got a guy with whim they are familiar and who is familiar with them and with this city. He’s also a lifer who will play this game as long as he gets paid to do it. So they can send him down to AA if they decide without him requesting his release. Tactically, his presence in the IF frees up guys like Evans, Reynolds (and maybe even Cecchini??) to get some time in the OF. The Mets simply have a shortage of quality OFs in the upper levels of the system. Injuries now and free agent departures at the end of this season make it an “all hands on deck” situation for the Mets with regards to its OF.
This gives them a means to cultivate more OF help from the place where their talent pool has surplus.
Yeah, i understand that you want to have some veteran ringers around just seems like we already have some…actually he would probably be more valuable to us filling that role in Binghamton