When Juan Lagares signed his five-year, $23 million contract extension with the Mets in late March, the last thing either the club or industry onlookers would have expected was this part-time role he would ultimately regress into so quickly.
After all, he was coming off a Gold Glove season in centerfield, making any ball hit into the outfield real estate being a virtual automatic out.
Nothing could get over Lagares’ head. He got to anything and everything in front of him with the grace New York fans had not seen in a generation in the outfield.
While the Mets were unquestionably making a $23 million investment in Lagares’ ability to save and prevent runs over the next several seasons, they were also hopeful the .703 OPS he posted in 2014 was just the beginning of his transition into becoming a true, five-tool threat and a question the Mets would not have to answer during the life of his deal.
But the 2015 version of Lagares has been unexpectedly disappointing, on both sides of the ball.
It’s been a season marred by an elbow issue the club has known about since last September, an ailment which ended Lagares 2014 season prematurely in mid-September. That elbow injury has unquestionably hindered his defensive value and in a way, undermined their investment in Lagares as he simply does not throw with same velocity, accurate or aggressiveness which helped win him that first God Glove in 2014.
But he also sustained an injury to his side after colliding with Michael Cuddyer in the outfield on May 5. He has not been able to find that stroke representative of the promise the Mets were hoping for, as he’s posted a .231/.263/.333 line with 17 extra-base hits in 278 plate appearances since then.
While that’s concerning, the biggest concern has been Lagares’ regression defensively. Aside from his arm woes, Lagares’ range seems to have also regressed, although it seems to have improved over the last month thanks presumably to the injury to his side improving in that time.
Still, balls which he could run down previously have not being run down, his left-to-right range still seems to be more limited than it had been previously as well.
The result is only a 4.1 ultimate zone rating and four defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs. Or, moderately above league average for major league outfielders.
In late July, the Mets stopped waiting for Lagares to to resemble the player they invested in, and went out and acquired Yoenis Cespedes to serve as their everyday centerfielder down the stretch of the season.
They made a win-now, worry later move.
Lagares is now a part-time player for the Mets, serving as a defensive replacement in both center and right field in his new role, so far.
But perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for Lagares and the Mets. Again, his arm isn’t right, and he has work to do to get back to being the player the Mets hoped he would become. But he’s still an above average defensive player, and limiting his at-bats since Cespedes has arrived has paid dividends for the Mets, so far.
He’s hitting .333/.412/.600 with three extra-base hits. Two of those extra-base hits came on Tuesday night in his 3-for-5, two-RBI performance out of the leadoff spot for the Mets.
Less has been more, so far.
For now, he might serve as necessary outfield depth as Terry Collins continues to try and find the most favorable match-ups game-to-game, and inning-to-inning.
Going forward, it’s no longer clear how Lagares will fit in as an everyday player, despite the club’s long-term investment in him. He could very well find himself in the Opening Day lineup in 2016, and he could return to form over time as well. Perhaps he will eventually decide to get his elbow fixed (Tommy John Surgery has been mentioned by Terry Collins in the past), which will sideline him for a year and force the organization to replace him for that time.
But that’s talk for later. Right now, it’s about maximizing whatever Lagares can contribute – on both sides of the ball – to get to October.
Just Mets 