Author: Jon Springer

Jon Springer is a writer in Brooklyn. Mets by the Numbers began as a goof in 1998, later became a book, then went back to being a goof.

But Know This, America: They Will Be Mets

Well, they have a shot anyway.

The opening for a reserve outfielder seems to have gotten more competitive with word Tuesday that the Mets had inked light-hitting flycatcher Cory Sullivan, most recently of Colorado. Sullivan was more or less a washout as a starter with the Rockies but as I’ve argued here before I generally support attempts to wrangle in “young veterans” with skills (Suillivan has a rep as a superb outfielder and will be 29 years old) to transition to a bench role. I suppose I’d prefer if he could hit too, but we said the same about Endy Chavez.

Sullivan, who wore Nos. 31 and 18 with the Rockies, appears to present some competition forJeremy Reed, whom the Mets acquired in the Putz-Heilman deal and who also just settled on a new contract. The Mets in fact held the very same kind of competition in 2006 when Chavez beat out Tike Redman in a duel of would-be reserve outfielders with modest major-league contracts. May the best scrubeenie win.

The Mets also revealed some addition spring training invitees including Tom Martin, who was a barely-hanging-on veteran lefty the last time the Mets last had him — in 2001 (he wore No. 34 then).Other invitees include fallen lefty pitcher Casey Fossum, formerly of Arizona, and catcher Omir Santos, known as a defensive specialist, who came up through the Yankees’ system but whose only big-league taste came last season with Baltimore.

It’s the Magic Number

3According to the Internet, and a rumor that seems to have been around for months now, the Mets are expected to announce that they’ve signed veteran reserve infielder Alex Cora to a 1-year contrract. Cora, a lefthanded hitter, is expected to be the primary middle infield defensive backup, and comes to the Mets with the kind of reputation for the intangibles Omar Minaya cannot resist.

Cora in his 11-year career has most frequently worn No. 3 and more recently, No. 13: With 3 recently surrendered by Damian Easley and 13 belonging nominally to potential late-season callup Billy Wagner, we’d bet (and bet big) he winds up in 3. It’s a nice wussyish benchwarming shortstop number after all, Ruth notwithstanding.

In other new-Met news, Marty Noble of mlb.com reports that Tim Redding knew that jersey No. 44 at one time belonged to David Cone (nice!) but that had 23 been available he’d have taken it instead for … Don Mattingly (what?).

The Everpopular

So Tim Redding showed up today at CitiField and received a pinstriped Mets jersey with his name and No. 44 on the back.

Interesting in that it makes three Mets on the current 40-man roster who have a claim to that jersey, even though its not likely two of pretenders, Eddie Kunz or Brandon Knight, make it back right away. But a small part of us will be rooting for Knight, who is on the fast-track to McKnighthood having already burned though two numbers in just four appearances and is now poised for a third.

Knight you may recall arrived from Class AAA in late July to take a start in place of Pedro Martinez who was away on bereavement leave. (That game eventually turned into the stupid, 10-8, 14-inning loss remembered for Albert Pujols’ home run off Aaron Heilman). Knight was wearing No. 28 then. He shortly was back to New Orleans and then to the Olympics, and by the time he’d returned in September, Daniel Murphy was a sensation in the same No. 28 jersey and Kunz had made a brief appearance in No. 44, which was subsequently assigned to Knight. Mets rosters though today continue to list Knight as the possessor of 44, with Redding and Kunz listed as the everpopular —.

Thanks to astute reader Rich for pointing that out. And thanks to our friends at No No-Hitters for the assist on the new uni-number graphics, which look a million times better than the old ones wouldn’t you say?

Watching the Ships Roll In

17So, Tim Redding? Wore No. 17 in Washington last season, but as the kind of guy destined to surrender the No. 5 starter duties at some point, I’m not sure he has the juice to dictate his own digit. I suppoose its possible now that Fernando Tatis does, if for some reason he’d prefer something other than 17, but that’s speculation we’re going to have to wait until spring training to test.

Welcome Abordick, Tim.

Once again, the Mystery Men:

Cherry

Green

Kunz/Knight (they both most recently wore No. 44)

O’Day

Putz/H. Johnson (Putz posed in 40, but as yet isn;t listed as such on the official roster

Redding

Robertson

Reed

Niemann

Shines

* * *

The Mets have to be smarting still from the beating Paul Lukas administered on Page 2 the other day. The subject? The butt-ugly sleeve patch correctly identified as the worst in baseball history,headed to their uniforms this year.

It’s not too late, Mets. Please.

* * *

Ken Davidoff of Newsday notes that David Wright will wear No. 4, not No. 5, as part of the World Baseball Classic team this year. That’s because skipper Davey Johnson wears 5. Well, of course he does.

* * *

Congratualtions, Rickey.

Where is that Bloody Oasis

New year and still no sign of what digits our newly arriving Mets will alight in.

A few years back you could at least count on the annual Mets Caravan providing revealing if ultimately inaccurate glimpses of the team wearing their unis for the first time. Perhaps the crumbling economy will again make this a necessary rite of winter but we could be looking at Spring Training before we know what we’ll be getting. The “official” Mets roster at mlb.com doesn’t even list an assignment for JJ Putz.

Of course, it’s also January already and a lack of clearly identifying players goes well beyond the jersey stage for the Mets. As I’ve said before, I’d sure prefer they’d make a deal with Oliver Perez over Derek Lowe. Not that the latter is so bad and the former so great, but that devil-you-know thing. I also wonder what it says about Lowe that neither Los Angeles nor Boston are in on this bidding. At any rate the Mets do seem to be reassuringly cognizant of their penchant to give away too many years per contract, so I guess we gotta be patient.

Also allegedly coming in February: MBTN.net’s 10th Anniversary Spectacular. In the meantime, do your duty as an American and vote for my friend and neighbor, MetsGrrrl, in this contest.

Have a Very Mookie Christmas…

… and a Huskey New Year!

* Two of the four wearers of the No. 6 jersey last year, Gustavo Molina and Trot Nixon, have signed minor league deals with other clubs. Washington inked Molina last week, while Nixon will try and make it as a walk-on with Milwaukee. And you can add Abraham Nunez to the list of those we won’t likely see again (has ever there been a more pointless Met?), leaving only Nick Evans as a survivor — and not a sure one at that.

* Derek Lowe? Wore 32 with the Red Sox and 23 with the Dodgers. Carlos Muniz has appeared intermittentlkt in 32 over the last two seasons. 23 belongs to Brian Schneider whom I still think may not come back.

* Sure, the Yankees are creeps for signing a bunch of $20 million players this winter but before we hand over the division let’s not forget Sabathia only replaces Mussina, who had an excellent year last year; Texiera replaces Giambi who was pretty good too, and Burnett’s an unreliable douche. For a third place team, the Yankees are trying awful hard.

* Manny? Maybe?

It’s Not Like They’re Going to Sell Out of Jerseys With PUTZ on the Back Anyway

At the press conference this afternoon introducing JJ Putz as a member of the Mets they issued him a jersey with No. 40 on it. That jersey most recently belonged to chubby reserve catcher Robinson Cancel and before that, Ambiorix Burgos who was not offered a contract last week and became a free agent at least in baseball terms.

Putz remarked to reporters afterward that he’d ask coach Howard Johnson about the possibility of taking over his No. 20 jersey when the games start this spring. I’d guess HoJo gives the OK, though I’ve always preferred the No. 20 jersey stay on the back of hitters (like HoJo, Agee, Burnitz… and Ken Henderson).It hasn’t been worn by a pitcher since Ricky Bottalicoin 2001 2004 (thanks commenters).

Bonus Trivia: Without looking it up, how many Met pitchers can you name who wore No. 20? (there have been six including Bottalico)

Play That Funky Music

The Mets followed up on their acquisitions of Frankie Rodriguez and JJ Putz by selecting another pair of relievers, Darren O’Day and Rocky Cherry, in the Rule 5 Draft Thursday. And tonight came word that they’d sent beaten-up lefty Scott Schoeneweis to Arizona for another longshot relief prospect, Connor Robertson.

O’Day is a 26-year-old right-handed sidearmer out of the Angels organization, an undrafted free agent, who gets by on his whacky delivery. Like Steven Register last year, and Mitch Wylie the year before, Omar if nothing else seems to recognize there are fringe arms out there with the potential to be contributors in a bullpen, and if he weren’t out there handing out three-and four-year contracts to every veteran in sight, one of these guys might one day stick with the Mets. For selfish purposes lets hope it’s (Wild) Cherry, who’s had limited big-league success with the Cubs and Orioles, and several injury problems, but throws hard and has a big-league name that will make him hard to hate.

Schoeneweis, swapped along with a portion of his salary to the Diamondbacks today for Robertson, had a poor 2007 but seems to have been sacrificed mainly to fulfill Jeff Wilpon’s promise of “addition of subtraction” for bloodthirsty fans. No, I’m not arguing Schoeneweis was necessarily worth keeping, or even that Robertson — another longshot bullpenner with limited big-league success but good minor league strikeout figures — doesn’t belong; just that, I’d be very surprised if we don’t go out and get another lefthander anyway.

The Show was the first and only player to wear No. 60 in team history. O’Day wore No. 53 last season. If this is becoming the new digit for sidearmers (Chad Bradford requests it wherever he goes), Jerry Manuel may want a change.Robertson wore 41 last year. Whoops.

Soon the Mets will have acquired all wearers of the No. 57 jersey. Cherry wore 57 with the O’s last year.

What in the Name of Ross Gload…

The Mets are expected within the hour to announce their part in a three-team, multiplayer swap meet that will make former Mariners JJ Putz, Sean Green and Jeremy Reed Mets.

If I have this scored right, Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez and prospect Mike Carp are en route to Seattle and Joe Smith is off to Cleveland, which is collecting various other jetsam from Emerald City. The prize in this deal is Putz, who presumably takes over Heilman’s role in the 8th inning and hopefully doesn’t inherit his demeanor: You know he’s every bit the closer Francisco Rodriguez is. Green is tall right-handed reliever, who’s death on righties, clobbered by lefties and a ground-ball machine a la the departed Bazooka Joe; and Reed, like Chavez when he arrived back in New York, is a faltering one-time leadoff prospect with a noodle bat but good defensive skills.

So with the roles aligned, seems it’s only a matter of having parted with Carp. ( Edited to add, also Jason Vargas and about 50 more low-level prospects too I see now, not sure where they’re off to).

As for the impact on jersey numbers, 48, 35 and 10 are set free. Putz wears No. 20, which is available if coach Howard Johnson gives the OK (he will); Green wore54 (he’ll be dressed in something lower, let’s say 35) and Reed wore 8(uncomfortably unissued now for 8 years). Put Reed in 10, Johnson in 54 and we’ll have ourselves a multiplayer uni-swap as well.

Thanks to all the contributors who kept up to date round the clock on the Rodriguez Jersey Watch — he’s apparently gone with 75 as suspected. A Met first.

Let the Debate Begin

75Well, that was pretty swift and anticlimatic, if the reports coming in late this afternoon are true: The Mets have a new closer, Francisco Rodriguez, and their first Uni Controversy of the 2008-09 Offseason.

Rodriguez, as you probably all know, favors the same No. 57 on the back of Johan Santana (and, even more famously before him, Jason Roach). And if the purveyors of Met logo-gear hope to make a few sales in what’s turning out to be The Year Without a Christmas, a swift resolution is in order, so let the speculation begin.

The guess here is that Rodriguez winds up in No. 75. His demonstrative body language tells me he’s the kind of guy who likes attention and who wouldn’t easily find comfort in the standard-issue relief gear of say, No. 49 or No. 38, to mention a few of the seemingly available digits (as if the Mets really need another guy to add to their reputation as borderline poor sports and the bane of the opposition). No, this is a guy who’ll demand more, and the Mets will be willing to give. I mean, they let Ricardo Rincon have his 73 last season. Seventy-five is a nice switch on the traditional for Rodriguez, but it will come down to him ultimately. If he wants 97, I think he’ll have that too.