Hi, I’ve come back from the dead to speculate on the surprise promotion of young second-sacker prospect Dilson Hererra, who evidently is on the way to Citifield Friday to sub for the injured Daniel Murphy and hopefully make this punchless and too-often fun-less team worth watching again.
I stuck with them this year, I really did, but there’s been little to update you with on the number front. Herrera’s promotion in fact will be the first new addition of a new player to the big-league squad in 70 games (since Taylor Teagarden on June 10, according to figures from my friend Greg).
Herrera, whom we received only a year ago in the Marlon Byrd Trade (or was it John Buck? Both at once? It’s been so long) was among the youngest players in Class AA this season, so a shot at second base in the bigs is quite the opportunity. One would think, with money tight, a successful trial could make Daniel Murphy even more of a longshot to return in 2015. He’s owed an arbitration bump at minimum this offseason but stands to reason he’d take a multiyear deal now if the Mets would only offer.
They probably won’t. That’s baseball.
As astutely pointed out in the below post’s comments, Hererra could inherit either No. 1 (most recently belonging to Chris Young) or 2 (Justin Turner in 2013) upon his arrival.
Actually, Gordon, I don’t, and the photo you provided (posted above) only makes things more mysterious. A google search for “Castro 60” reveals that the man pictured should be Lilliano Castro, who was photographed along with the rest of the Mets at spring training. But that’s the only clue to his identity, the google trail goes cold after several pages noting this photograph. I’d guess Mr. Castro is an organizational instructor of some kind, probably a catching instructor. But if there was a press release noting such, I missed it. A look back at our spring training rosters shows No. 60 as “vacant.”
