Produce And Production

So this is what Scott Boras meant when he said the Mets were shopping in the freezer section.

The Mets signed lefty Aaron Laffey to a minor league contract on Thursday. Now kids, don’t get your hopes up. Aaron Laffey will … most likely … suck. But the beauty of his signing is that it isn’t a sure thing that Laffey will suck. This is what we in the business refer to as “progress”.

Laffey’s WHIP has hovered above the 1.60 mark consistently since 2009, and his batting average against had never been under .280 … that is until 2012. His age 27 season saw him return to a starting role for the first time since 2010, and he wasn’t completely horrible as his batting average against was a career best .260, and his WHIP was a career best 1.36. And for what it is worth, Laffey’s interleague numbers were stellar, with two of his four appearances coming against the Nationals and Phillies.

Now all of this is small sample size, but it’s better than no recent sample size, which is what guys like Kelvim Escobar and Taylor Buchholz had when they were signed. So Laffey isn’t a bad chance to take here. I mean, he still isn’t any great shakes, but if he improves a little more then maybe he can fill a long relief role and be a spot starter here and there. If he regresses, then he’s another D.J. Carrasco, who also had improving numbers until he came to the Mets where it all went to hell. But at least Laffey didn’t get a dopey two year deal like D.J. did. As we know, when the Mets go shopping for groceries, their shelf life is limited.