New York Mets Improve Outfield, Sign Harrison Bader

New York Mets Improve Outfield, Sign Harrison Bader

The New York Mets have signed Harrison Bader to a one-year deal how will he fit into their Outfield plans next season I’ll talk about it on this edition of locked on Mets you are locked on Mets your daily New York Mets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day Hello to all you amazing Mets fans you’re watching locked on NS part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I’m your Roost Ryan ficklin want to find any of my work follow me on X ficklin Ryan also find some my writing at justb baseball.com where I work as

The managing editor today’s episode is brought to you by fand will make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any $5 money line bet it’s 150 bucks win or lose visit fanduel.com lockon to get started well we’ve all been clamoring for it

Right the New York Mets have made a major league signing they have added Harrison Bader on a one-year 10 A5 million deal now before I get into my apprehension surrounding this deal and the downsides and how this makes their roster a little bit clutter we’ll get to all the negative I want to

Lay on some positive stuff when it comes to this signing Harrison Bader is a more established big leager than two of the options that were going to factor into the third starting job in that Outfield he’s got more MLB experience than Tyrone Taylor and DJ Stewart so that alone

Makes this a good ad it’s it’s a better team it’s another major leager here’s where it really gets good defense Harrison Bader since 2018 when he became a full-time player in the big leagues has been worth 66 outs above average in center field and this is one of the two

Defensive metrics that we look at to Great out players if you look at the entire sport since 2018 he is the fourth highest outs above average among all Defenders has the best Mark among all outfielders So based on outs above average the mes just signed the best defensive outfielder in baseball David

Sterns has talked a lot about run prevention I think it comes in a lot of different forms obviously pitching is the best road to run prevention right but look at the three Acquisitions that his front office has made this year when it comes to the position players Tyrone

Taylor which we’ll talk a lot about because there’s a lot of overlapping skill sets here between Taylor and Bader but Taylor in that trade with Adrien Hower Joey Wendell was the first signing great defensive infielder we don’t know about the bat yet and now Bader same

Kind of profile what the Mets are doing here is they’re trying to maybe circumvent the struggles it might be to get a starting pitcher to to improve their pitching overall by going for defense because if you have Tyler Mcgill and Adrien Howser in that rotation and

They’re giving up a lot of fly balls might as well have the best defensive outfielder in baseball and Harrison Bader running them down and if you got to a point where in a given game it’s Bader in Center nmo in left and Taylor in right your Outfield defense is

Exceptional that’s going to save you some runs throughout a game now the problem is two-thirds of that Outfield might not be able to hit in Taylor and Bader we’ll get to all this stuff a little bit more but I wanted to continue to lay on the good on this one right so

Looking at defensive run saved he is at 44 defensive excuse me 41 defensive runs saved since 2018 for Bader that is sixth best among outfielders last year he was worth four defensive runs saved nine outs above average he ranked in the 95th percentile when it comes to outs above

Average so top five percentile defender in the game his arm value was in the 82nd percentile his arm strength in The 91st percentile his Sprint speed in the 85th percentile this guy’s a great athlete he won a gold glove in 2021 um and you know you look at the

Career offensive numbers and what it shows you is splits the guy mashes lefties righy not so much for his career he’s a 262 hitter against left-handed pitching with a 330 on base and a 494 slug that’s an 823 Ops against lefties a 121 WRC plus again WRC plus measures

Hitters on a League average of 100 so 21% better than your league average hitter he has 21 of his 59 home runs facing south Paws and that’s in less than a third of the plate appearances so again a lot of his offensive production is reserved to facing lefties last year

He hit 299 against lefties with a 36 61 on base and a 575 slug it’s a 936 Ops and a 153 WRC plus the problem not good against right-handed pitching so if you’re Sig signing him to be a starter this is a massive concern because he hit

207 against righties last year 240 on base 263 slug ranked in the bottom 5% of the league in average exit velocity and the bottom 6% of league in walk percentage so doesn’t walk doesn’t hit the ball hard and a lot of that’s due to the fact that he just got completely destroyed by

Righties now they’re signing him to platoon with DJ Stewart in left field a lot of money but who cares it’s a good ad they’re signing it to be a starting outfielder it’s less of a good at and the other problem is Health okay because he has missed time each of the last

Three years last year he played 98 games you put together his great numbers against lefties his horrible numbers against right IES it was a 232 average 274 on base and a 348 slug not great so that’s sort of the mix here he did steal 20 bases as well and also I should note

Pete Alonzo put something up on Instagram I believe saying that the diesel Bros are back because the two of them were teammates at the University of Florida so there’s definitely a connection there great for Pete in this contract here to have a buddy in the clubhous I do think that Vibes are

Important I think Bader does ADD to just general Vibes he’s a competitive guy who is going to help winning overall I I do believe that I think Bader’s a good baseball player my issue with this signing is simply the fact that it devalues the Tyrone Taylor acquisition because overlapping skill sets in some

Respects as defensive first outfielders now with that said Tyrone Taylor does not have these splits issues like he is pretty much the same against righties and lefties I think it’s career Ops was 752 against left-handed pitching 742 against right-handed pitching so he’s now your traditional fourth outfielder

And Bader if he’s in a platoon with Stewart in left or even not in left but you know as far as you know in my mind nmo in Center Marte in right I do think when Bader plays he’ll be in Center Nimo will be in left because Bader just

Offers too much value in Center to have him sitting in a corner it doesn’t make sense so I do believe that’s that’s going to the case but in that platoon for that third spot if it’s Stewart and Bader offensively I like it because Bader is getting shielded from right-handed pitching but he’s also

Making 10 and a half million and so there there’s that part of it that I wonder about also the fact that know I thought that Bader wouldn’t sign up the Mets because he’d want to go somewhere where he’d be able to play every day now

Maybe he got sold on the role maybe he got sold on the idea that he’s going to be competing with Tyrone Taylor and DJ Stewart it says I’m better than both of those guys I’m going to win that job and he certainly could but as I try to put together a

Lineup for both sides of the play I try to find playing time for all these guys and I also think about the offense in general if the Mets only had room for one more signing was this the move to make when it comes to addressing your position player core if you’re trying to

Win that’s what we’re going to talk about next before the final segment we I’ll get into if there could be a subsequent move to address the offensive side of things a little bit more so coming up here we’re going to look at the fit now with all the outfielders

That are in place if this roster is as is what would it look like before we get to that though today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel the NFL regular season is wrapping up but there’s still time to get in on the action with FanDuel America’s number one sports book right

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Visit fanduel.com lockon and make your first bet a layup FanDuel offishal partner of the NFL now the first thing I did when the New York Met sign Harrison Bader is I went to subex and I let the locked on Mets insiders no this is our texting

Service where you can be in on all the latest when it comes to the Mets and when it comes to this show I Was preparing for this episode pulling those stats on beter and I was feeding those to the lock Mets insiders so they got that inside scoop if you don’t want to

Miss out on any of that extra coverage on the Mets find the link in the episode description or go to sub tex.com loock onms now the reason why I initially didn’t love this signing is I thought what does that mean for Tyrone Taylor not to mention the fact that I did a

Whole show in Starling Marte yesterday where I said I don’t think the Mets will or should add an outfielder and of course not even you know 12 hours after that episode goes up the Met sign an outfielder so you know no one wants egg

On their face I was wrong and I own it but that’s not why I was upset and I wasn’t even really I was confused more than upset and the reason why I was confused because I thought that Bader was now being signed for 10 and a half

Million to take a role that Taylor could fill and that’s start against Lefty uh you know bring above average defense to all three spots in the Outfield but you know have maybe a little more upside further away from free Agy threw a control cheaper all those different things that that came into

Play Bader while you’d say oh well he’s further along in his career he’s actually younger than Tyrone Taylor two guys who are very athletic that could break out for one season with the Mets this year so this to me just creates healthy competition between those guys

And that’s not a bad thing so I I I’m coming around to it more when you look at Bader better chance that hits for a higher average of course better Defender and brings more value on the bases Taylor is good not great defensively but he’s under control uh and you know he

Has better pop like his career slug is for 51 SC isolated power is 212 really good numbers numbers that Bader is nowhere close to so I I like the upside of both these guys the floor of both of these guys and I think overall what you

Just did is you added a lot of depth to that Outfield so Starling Marte actually can’t get on the field all right well now you got a really defensive minded Outfield and you have Major Leaguers filling those spots instead of Trace Thompson the guy on a minor league deal

So I I like that side of it also St Marte could be the DH on this team if they wanted to they could get him off his feet a little bit slide him into that DH rooll and you know their lineup would be better defensively offensively there’s still questioned if you’re

Running on a lineup that has Taylor and Bader in it and that’s your eight nine hitters and then you’re really putting pressure on guys like Brett batty to be above average offensive contributors because if he’s not and then you have to go to Joey Wendell at third base now

You’re looking at a third of your lineup that’s just not going to give you that much value offensively what I wanted to do is look at a left-handed and right-handed lineup or you know facing a lefty facing a righty with what the Mets currently have so nimo’s leading off

Either way verse lefties he’d be in left field vers righties in Center that’s because Bader’s going to start against left-handed pitching you got Marte I’m just putting him in the two- hole playing right field for now got Lindor at Short Alonzo at first that’s all going to stay the same McNeil at second

Alvarez at catcher and both okay so all that’s the same look at the bottom three can either be Vientos at DH and it should be against left-handed pitching or DJ Stewart against right-handed pitching or Vientos could be the everyday DH currently which is giving a lot of responsibility to Vientos and

Batty who’d be next in the lineup at third base to man in two of these spots every day so this sigic does not necessarily fix that unless it pushes DJ Stewart or starling Marte into more of a d it does give you more options but there’s still a lot of pressure on those

Two guys center field in that last spot would be Bader against lefties against righties it maybe be Taylor or Stewart playing left so it’s just a matter of how they’re going to cycle playing time with all these guys because you still probably got to play Bader against some right-handed

Pitchers so it’s just figuring all that out and I just look at the offensive side of things and there’s still only four bats that I feel great about nmo onz o Lindor and mcneel Marte I think there’s a good shot at him bouncing back that’s why I spoke

About it on the show this morning Alvarez I do believe he’s gonna give you a lot of power and I think he’ll be a little more consistent than he was last year but he’s still in his second Big League season so you can’t expect too too much you can’t say he’s the fifth

Hitter for sure behind Alonzo and then beyond that I just have a lot of questions and signing Harrison Bader didn’t really solve any of those questions now they could be without Harrison Bader in the same situation that they were yesterday the one that I spoke about on the show this morning

Which is clearly a worst team Harrison Bader makes the BET Mets better there’s no question and I do understand the line of thinking of let’s just get some good Defenders out there so if nothing else you know with this rotation if we’re just sort of getting back end options

Who are going to be starting in you know behind s and Katana and S hoping he has a bounce back if they’re just looking at nothing but backend rotation arms to to fill the rest of those starts and you’re thinking a lot of balls going to be put

In play it does make sense to be as good as possible defensively but can this lineup consistently score four runs it’s putting a lot of pressure on Marte to bounce back putting a lot of pressure on Vientos and batty to be really good offensive players this year

But what if they signed JD Martinez what if they signed jores Solair what if they signed Justin Turner are the Mets still in the market to sign a DH with this move because when it comes to winning this year that would mean a lot when it

Comes to your goals long term I get a little bit confused so I want to explore sort of that split in my brain on where the Mets are at right now so we’ll get to all of that in just a minute first don’t another word from our

Sponsors now if we assume that DJ Stewart and Mark ventos are going to be on the opening day roster the New York Mets are done adding position players because they got in the Outfield Brandon Emos darling Marte Harrison Bader Tyron Taylor and DJ Stewart that’s five in the

Infield they got Pete Alonzo Jeff McNeil Francisco Lindor Brett batty and then Joey Wendell it’s five more gives you 10 you got Mark Vientos at dh3 B face you got Omar nerv and Francisco Alvarez behind the dish that’s 13 position players you’re going to have either an eight-man Bullpen and a fiveman rotation

Or a six-man rotation seven-man Bullpen either way you’re G to have 13 pitchers so the Mets would be done but they do have some roster flexibility on two of those guys that’s Vientos who has options technically batty does as well if Mark vantos can prove he can defend

At third base in spring training can win that job maybe it is batty in triple I just kind of strongly doubt that one now DJ Stewart also has an option so you can plant those guys in Triple A and then you need depth so as soon as an

Outfielder gets hurt you know Stuart could be up theoretically or if batty got hurt or DH option got hurt vantos could be up so that is something the Mets could consider now if you were to say Stewart’s the one in Triple A well you’re Outfield is Marte nmo and then a

Time share between Bader and Taylor it makes a lot of sense to me I think DJ Stewart brings more offensive potential than Bader or Taylor but defensively your team makes sense playing time makes sense fantos is your DH you’re not blocking the growth of some young players that could be really important

To you in Mark fantos and Brett batty I get the long-term Vision I get how the Mets are winning in the short term it all comes together a lot of ways and maybe that’s what they ultimately do but if you’re trying to win in 2024 I think that Stewart is a better

Hitter than some of the guys that’d be on the big league roster so let’s say Stuart’s up Vientos is down now Stewarts your DH and I do think maybe uh early On You’ in a vacuum say Stuart is a better hitter at the big league level than Mark Vientos because he’s had more

Opportunities and he had a larger period of success last year than Vientos did which was just six home runs down the stretch but Vientos has the way higher ceiling so there’s that conundrum you’re already in with where the roster’s at and that’s again if you had to add

Somebody but now who would you be adding you add one more player who is it now it could be Gio orella Third Base that’s a very Bader s signing in the sense that it’s a defensive first guy so again you’re improving run prevention Ella could be your starting third

Baseman if batty isn’t able to hold down that position that would maybe necessitate moving batty down but regardless it gives you some coverage but offensively it’s again another piece that’s not really an impact ad so now maybe you just go more towards a DH let’s say the Met sign JD

Martinez now Mark viientos you gotta stash him in triple that’s it he’s out of sight out of mind at that point but your team to try to win this year actually starts to look really good jie Martinez get hit behind Pete Alonzo in that lineup be your everyday DH now it’s

Going to be harder to cycle guys like Starling Marte Alonzo nmo guys that could be cycled through the DH spot if you didn’t add a DH a little bit harder to do that than just taking some that bats away from Vientos you’re gonna sign JD Martinez to

Be in the lineup so it does remove some of that flexibility but everybody else can play the field really well so it it would make a lot of sense in that respect DJ Stewart’s just a bat off your bench but also a guy that could still

Push Bader and Taylor to the bench a little bit in left field or even in right field on Marte if Marte is not healthy so the overall team looks a lot better for 2024 if they go out and they get a proven DH that would also make someone like viento suspendable also

Have note Omar nvz wants to go somewhere where we can play more so the Mets are potentially going to move him now it’s pretty simple how to fill that spot Tomas Neo is on a minor league contract now for two million in change he just

Gets added back on to the 40 and he’s your backup catcher no harm no foul if you can get anything of value for Nas by eating his salary he’s got seven million on a on this was a player option eat five million of it and he’s got two

Million that you’re sending out I think there’s teams that be interested and I also would consider the fact of maybe packaging nvz with another player to get a pitcher so let’s just say the Marlins want a better Catcher And they decide Omar Nev would look nice $2

Million we also would love to have Mark ventos BR DH well now maybe you can get in the market for someone like Edward Cabrera and get a high upside arm that you can add to your rotation who’s young and under control that’s a possibility now the marlands might not you know want

Vientos they might want more they might value Cabrera differently they also might want a different piece added along with it so let’s just say they wanted Tyrone Taylor you do have more Expendable options I think the Mets are going to keep the Outfield core as is I

Don’t think DJ Stewart has a lot of value on the trade market I think they like Tyrone Taylor as a fourth outfielder under control at that dollar amount I think Bader is a for one insurance policy in center and right as far as not that he’s gonna play right

Field but insurance on the health of nmo and Marte he’s a guy that’s a great Defender and that just is part of the initiative of this franchise and he’s going to just raise the overall you know competitive level of the team he’s a good big leager but the bat concerns with him

Continue to trickle throughout this lineup where I just don’t know if they have enough offense but I also still have that part of me that says let the kids play let vantos and batty go so that you maybe find that offensive upside but if they don’t hit then your

Season is you know potentially in the tank so it’s just so many things the Mets are trying to balance and we’ll get a better understanding of this move if there is a subsequent move if they add a DH that’s going to clear up a lot of things if they sign Justin Turner that’s

Going to make a lot of sense and that’s going to maybe necessitate a follow-up move whether it’s just optioning a guy down or trading somebody this is a good signing it’s a one-year deal you can never be mad at a one-year deal for a guy that does a

Couple of things tangibly well crushes left-handed pitching great defensive center fielder you can work with that but how much he plays how much these other guys plays how all the pieces fit together I am more confused about what the Mets team looks like in 2024 after this signing than it was

Before it but that’s just because they have more options and having options Is Not a Bad Thing having depth is not a bad thing and so if you can afford to sign a guy like Bader on a 10 and a half million dollar deal you’re bring a New

York native back I mean he was with the Yankees for most of the last I guess he got traded when he get traded in 2022 so had about a full calendar year with the Yankees all together um now he goes to the other burrow and he rejoins his college teammate pet

Alonzo I think it’s a fun signing in a lot of respects I think Met’s fans are going to love the guy honestly when you watch him make those diving catches in the Outfield and the energy he plays with fans are going to gravitate towards them too but it just makes me more and

More curious what is next your move David Sterns what else are you gonna do that’s going to be all for today’s edition of lockdown Mets appreciate all of you who tuned in if you’re watching on YouTube hit that subscribe button trying to make a push to 8,000 Subs so appreciate all you

Subscribe rate uh review follow wherever you get your podcast uh follow me on X at finlin Ryan want to be a locked on Mets Insider you can find the link in the episode description if you’re watching on YouTube now head over to locked on sports today the first ever 247 streaming Channel covering

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The New York Mets have signed Harrison Bader to a one-year, $10.5 million deal, giving them one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball.

How does Bader fit into the Mets outfield plans for 2024, with DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor competing with him for playing time.

Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down all the different layers to the Mets signing of Bader, and what will come next.

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