Logan Verrett’s 2015 season took yet another twist on Tuesday when the Mets optioned him back to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Jenrry Mejia.
But this twist in Verrett’s season isn’t the result of poor performance. After all, Verrett has allowed one run in 12 1/3 innings since being promoted to the Mets in the middle of June, filling the void left behind by Erik Goeddel who the team lost to an elbow injury on June 12.
Rather, Verrett was a victim of a numbers game, similarly as he was in November when the club left him off the 40-man roster and exposed him to the Rule 5 draft.
Verrett, Carlos Torres and Alex Torres were the three pitchers obviously on the bubble to make room for Mejia. But when considering overall performance, Verrett has ben the best albeit in a smaller sample. Carlos Torres has dealt with a ton of inconsistency and ineffectiveness at times, and Alex Torres has dealt with wildness as well as a general inability to get left-handed hitters out, the role Terry Collins has assigned him to in the absence of Jerry Blevins.
But the Mets chose Verrett over the other two pitchers because Verrett offered the most roster flexibility, and not necessarily because he deserved a demotion.
If the Mets had decided to keep Verrett over either Carlos or Alex Torres, both would have had to be designated for assignment as they are both out of options.
Sandy Alderson acknowledged on Tuesday afternoon Verrett was in fact a victim of the system.
“It doesn’t seem fair that would happen,” Alderson explained about Verrett, But in baseball, it’s not only about performance. It’s about constraints. In his case, he’s on the roster. He has options. We have quite a bit of depth on the right-hand side of our bullpen. He’s pitching great, but it’s one of those numbers things. It’s not just about how somebody was pitching over the last week or so. It’s also about the long-term ramifications of perhaps having to put somebody on waivers or what have you. Right now, at this point in the season, we don’t want to lose anyone.”
The thing is, for a winning team, it should be about performance. The Mets are supposed to be a winning team, and winning teams offer the manager the best roster possible on a daily basis.
There’s a reason players run out of options over the course of their careers. More often than not, it’s performance related. In fairness, Alderson isn’t wrong in his reasoning, and Verrett isn’t the first player to be demoted in this case.
But in this particular case, the choice was obvious, and the Mets took the conservative route out of fear they might lose rights to one of the other players.
Other people within the industry agree as well.
In Carlos Torres’ case, he could refuse an outright assignment to the minor leagues, but he would have to forfeit the remainder of his player contract. In Alex’s case, he cannot refuse an assignment. Both cases assume they would clear waivers.
But should the Mets be concerned about replacing lesser players with better players? Isn’t that the goal?
Or, shouldn’t it be the goal?
Just Mets 