Just Mets

On Friday night, the Mets announced they acquired Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe from the Braves for two minor league pitching prospects.

Both players are great veteran clubhouse presences, which is a good thing for this young group of players.

But obviously, the main reason the Mets acquired them was because they desperately needed an injection of quality, big league talent on their roster.

Here’s an attempt to offer some basic perspective on this trade by the Mets.

The league average OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) is .705. It’s a metric the front offices (and all front offices) use as part of the foundation of their analysis of players and offensive performance.

The Mets OPS for the season is .652, 53 points below the league average. That’s not only last in the National League – that’s last in the Major Leagues.

The Mets had two players with an OPS above .700 on their roster before this trade: Curtis Granderson (.761) and Lucas Duda (.754), and Duda has been very disappointing for the last two months, posting an OPS of .549 since May 31.

With Johnson (.772), and Uribe (.740), the Mets doubled the number of players who have an OPS above league average.

In addition, Uribe is an excellent defensive player as well, even at 36 years of age. And, while Johnson struggles on the infield, his defense in the outfield is slightly above league average.

In other words, the Mets made a good trade with an emphasis on both offense and defense. They are better now (on paper) than they were before.

The question is, how do both fit in as everyday players down the stretch?

JUAN URIBE

Uribe’s .970 career fielding percentage leads all active third basemen, and he won the 2014 Wilson Defensive Player Award of the Year at third base. So, there’s no reason to acquire a player like Uribe and shift him away from his strength as long as David Wright is out. That doesn’t mean he won’t see time at second base, or maybe even first base on occasion, especially if Wright eventually comes back. But it’s safe to expect Uribe will become this club’s primary third baseman, with Daniel Murphy shifting back to second base.

That presumably means they’ll shift Wilmer Flores back to shortstop if they continue to use him as an everyday player. He’s hit .295/.329/.346 this month, although that .346 mark (his slugging percentage) is a major concern, as he hasn’t homered in 138 at-bats dating back to June 12.

Defensively, the statistics suggest Mets are a better team if Flores is at second base over Murphy, Uribe is at third, and Ruben Tejada is left at shortstop. But it’s hard to see the Mets shifting Murphy into a part-time role with his salary as well as what he’s capable of doing offensively. Of course, they need him to produce better than the .231/.286/.308 he has outputted since returning from the disabled list on June 30.

Ultimately, Flores could be the odd man out and the one to go to the bench and into a utility player at both third and second. But it will be interesting to see how Terry Collins how he handles the situation and aligns these players. At the end of the day, something had to change, and the front office made something happen to give Collins more options. There probably won’t be a static alignment on an everyday basis, but right now the Mets must put forth the best options available to both score and prevent runs.

This seems a little far fetched, but the Mets could relegate Lucas Duda to part-time duties, leave Flores at second and shift Murphy to first base. Of course, Duda is a primary power source, in theory anyway, and he’s also emerged in the conversation as being among the better defensive first basemen in the game today. Of course, while unfortunate, with the way he has hit, an argument could be made he should be out.

KELLY JOHNSON

Johnson is an everyday player and someone who can pretty much play anywhere at anytime, which is vital for this roster which is full of mostly static players. The metrics suggest he’s been best in left field this season, although he can play third, second and first if needed. Terry Collins has been craving for some versatility, and Johnson will provide that which will help afford Collins to give players days off without missing a beat.

It’s hard to see where Johnson is going to play everyday, but that’s the beauty of a player like Johnson who can move around the diamond for 162 games.

One of the alignments the Mets can use – at least on occasion – is to have Michael Conforto in left field, Curtis Granderson in center field, and Johnson in right field.

That affords Juan Lagares some much needed rest, which he just hasn’t gotten for the most part in 2015. His elbow is clearly barking, and who knows how his side is after injuring it nearly three months ago, but it’s clearly impacted his overall game in center field although he’s been much better defensively lately. He also hasn’t hit very much since injuring his side, and is caught right now in a .188/.202/.229 drought over his last 27 games. Since injuring his side colliding with Michael Cuddyer on May 5, Lagares has hit .225/.252/.316 in 65 games.

That’s a .568 OPS which just can’t play on an everyday basis.