Creativity.
That’s what Brodie’s deal for Keon Broxton seems to be in the name of. Instead of the Mets paying for a center fielder with the extra money they obviously have and can’t hide, the Mets traded three lower level pieces (including Bobby Wahl, who they got in the Jeurys Familia deal), for Broxton.
Broxton is intriguing defensively. He was a 1.3 dWAR player last season, and that was just in 51 games. (He saved 11 runs in a nine game stretch during the 2018 season.) Unfortunately, his total WAR was 1.6, and Broxton seems to be the guy who will be given a real chance to be the starting center fielder, which he wasn’t going to get anymore with Lorenzo Cain in the fold in Milwaukee. In 2017, Broxton hit 20 home runs but also had a .299 OBP, so anybody who thinks that Keon is going to come in and be the leadoff hitter because he’s fast in the outfield is sorely mistaken.
Also, let me share with you thoughts from people who have watched Keon for most of his career, and have reportedly “thrown more objects because of Broxton than anyone else”:
“His defense and speed are both nice assets, and there’s power buried in there. But he strikes out a lot, and caught stealings with two outs and the pitcher at the plate were a bit of a specialty.”
That sounds like something that’s going to drive me insane … jus’ sayin’.
“There is a bunch of potential trapped in sometimes lengthy stretches of frustrating mental errors. When he’s swinging a hot bat, he’s as good as anyone in the game. However, he can get colder than 1994 NBA Finals John Starks, with some occasional inexplicable baserunning decisions mixed in. He will be a solid fourth outfielder, but if he is starting 100 games a year, his inconsistency will become very frustrating.”
This is all not to say that the Broxton trade isn’t going to work. It might. Broxton might find himself with regular at-bats, get his average up to .250, get on base at a halfway decent clip and stay in the lineup as a decent seven hole hitter. Also, if he keeps making plays like this:
But it’s disappointing to see a position put together by piecemeal (in piecemeal? I don’t know how that works grammatically) when they could have signed Lorenzo Cain last season. The failure to sign him is something I think they’re still paying for. They traded a high-ceiling prospect as part of a deal for Robinson Cano to bring in offense which they could have already have, and now instead of one starting center fielder, you’re talking about a conglomerate featuring Broxton, Rajai Davis, and Juan Lagares. There are a lot of “if all goes well” in that group and I really thought the Mets might actually start to move away from that line of thinking.
How many 4th outfielders does it take to make a 3rd outfielder? The Mets are gonna find out.
— Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162) January 5, 2019
And what now of Lagares? Say what you want about some sort of platoon, but Lagares and Broxton are redundant. Light hitting righties, great defense. Doesn’t to Broxton any good to share time with anybody, and Lagares is making $9 million this season. They weren’t getting much for Lagares anyway, now they’re going to have to unload him and probably have to eat his salary as well since they have less than zero leverage. So what do you do? Trade him to Colorado for Jake McGee (two seasons left with a third at a team option which is guaranteed with games incentives)? To Oakland for Fernando Rodney? To the Giants for Sam Dyson? To anybody for pure salary relief? What’s the plan for him? And what can they really do with no leverage?
But at least it’s creative, and the price in prospects seems mediocre at best. Now, a $40 million one year pillow offer to Bryce Harper? That would have been creative. But the one thing I’ll say is that I’m glad we’re at least making some trades instead of the way it has been the last few years where the Mets front office seemed to be scared of it’s own shadow. They still have to be the right trades. This might be one of them if Broxton can upgrade his offense to “pedestrian” and his defense remains stellar.
“Hopefully” seems to be a term more operative than “creativity”, in this case. But strangely, I’m intrigued.
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