Today is the deadline for the Mets to tender an offer to their remaining arbitration eligible players, including Mike Pelfrey, Manny Acosta, Ronny Paulino and newly acquired Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez. The very, very safe money is on the Mets tendering contracts to Pelfrey, Acosta, Torres and Ramirez. Paulino is the question mark. According to Metsblog, it is now “likely” that he won’t be tendered a contract. This is a mistake.
If the Mets do not plan on going outside the organization for another catching option, they should retain Paulino. It’s actually not really a tough call. As Adam Rubin put it, at ESPNNY, ”a team source said at the winter meetings in Dallas last week that the organization had all but resolved to stay internal with its major league catching for 2012 because the free agents had warts as well and the preference was to concentrate the available dollars on bullpen spending.”
For all the concerns about his game-calling, he still beats up lefties. He hit .289/.363/.389 vs. lefties in 2011, which is below his career-level of .330/.385/.475 in 634 PA. There isn’t a lot to go on for Josh Thole, but in 84 PA vs. MLB lefties, he’s hit a measly .162/.253/.216. We run into nasty small splits in his minor league career (he had just 30 AB vs. lefties in AAA, but hit just .233/.361/.367 against him). Moving back to his last full minor league season of 2009, he hit .328/.391/.388 vs. lefties in 116 AB as compared to .328/.396/.437 in 268 AB vs. righties.
Coming off a year when he made $1.35 million, Paulino should be in line for some kind of raise, perhaps even up to $1.5 million. That seems reasonable enough.
The internal option is 29-year old Mike Nickeas. The same guy who hit .189/.246/.264 in 53 AB over 21 games in the big leagues last year. The same guy who hit .214/.286/.304 in 168 AB for AAA Buffalo with a slightly less depressing .240/.273/.360 in 50 AB vs. lefties in AAA. Sorry, that’s not an MLB hitter, not even as a backup catcher. A converted infielder, he’s acquired a nice defensive reputation. Paulino will be available for roughly one million more dollars and would actually provide some offensive value.
The external options are unappealing. The 31-year old Kelly Shoppach? Dude’s hit under .200 each of the last two years, most recently putting together a .176/.268/.339 line in Tampa last year and .241/.344/.444 vs. lefties. So, yeah, that’ll play. But again, he’s an external option. Also, Shoppach made $3 million last year, so it stands to reason he’ll be looking for a similar amount this time around.
40-year old Ivan Rodriguez? Pass. 39-year old Jason Varitek? Pass.
Paulino will be cheap, and will still hit lefties. Nickeas will be cheaper (by about a million dollars) but might not hit at all. Is his defense that much better? I struggle to imagine so. The Mets would be wise to bring back Paulino as Thole’s platoon partner.
