1. In today’s Post I wrote this column about the similarities and now the sudden divergence in the careers of David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman.
The Nationals believe they are ready to contend now and into the future, and believe Zimmerman is part of the bedrock; a player who will help on and off the field.
This is how the Mets had long felt about Wright. But now the Mets are not contenders and not financially solvent. They have a front office led by GM Sandy Alderson that has no allegiance to anyone on the roster, no sentimentality to keep someone for loyalty or fan ties or nostalgia.
Still the Mets badly need Wright to feast on the closer fences at Citi Field because that at least gives the team the best options on what to do with the third baseman going forward. They can pick up his $16 million option for 2013 and feel he will be a strong contributor again, thus tabling the decision to sign him or trade him to at least July of that year. Or a strong season could re-establish Wright’s value, giving the Mets the best chance in the offseason to pick up his option and turn him into a few good prospects.
But what do they do if Wright has another injury-plagued season and/or another high-strikeout campaign that is not countered with large production? Does a financially troubled team pick up his $16 million option and keep him, hoping he could change it around in 2013? Do they pick it up and hope there is still a trade to be made of some value?
2. I cannot aptly tell you how long six weeks of spring training is. How mundane it is. How repetitive. Remember it is only six weeks because most teams have gotten sweetheart deals from cities in Arizona and Florida, and so to reciprocate and help the economies six weeks are spent down here.
Maybe 25 years ago, when I first started coming down for spring training, players needed a little longer; though I remember that the season went just fine in 1995 with about a 3 1-2 week spring training after a lockout was ended.
In 2012, the vast majority of players are training year round and access to not just gyms and trainers and dieticians and chefs that are helping to hone their bodies, but batting cages and mounds to begin working on their crafts. These days most players show up in good shape and if you told them spring training was just three weeks they would do a little more and be good to go.
Instead you get six weeks of thousands of swings, grounders, pitches, etc. And this brings me to Ruben Tejada and Terry Collins.
Look, I like Collins, think he is a good manager and a true baseball expert. But this stuff coming down on Tejada by criticizing him for being late because he wasn’t early is just not right. The Collective Bargaining Agreement is negotiated by both sides and reporting dates are part of it. Believe me, if there was no official language we could see what Type-A personalities such as Collins would do. He would have Tejada down in January, maybe December, heck maybe November.
And Collins making a point to contrast Tejada to Derek Jeter is just wrong. Yes, Jeter is at the Yankees facility as early as January working out. But he lives not far away. He is using the Yankees facility as his private gym, with a training staff and coaches available free to him.
It is very possible – in fact, quite probable – that Tejada was working out just as hard in the same time period, but in his native Panama. As say, Robinson Cano was doing in the Dominican or Alex Rodriguez was doing in Miami.
This idea that Tejada had to be in Port St. Lucie early to get in shape and develop chemistry with new double-play partner Daniel Murphy is just wrong. Again, you cannot believe how long these six weeks are. By the end of it, the Mets will be lucky if the chemistry that Tejada and Murphy have formed isn’t hatred from seeing each other so much.
3. In Sunday’s Post, I wrote this column about the Yankees having age in key areas and how recent history has worked against older players in the game.
However, with the persistent gray, the Yankees are getting younger in some areas as they continue to try to build up their farm system. For example, the youngest player in any major league camp is Yankees catching prospect Gary Sanchez, who is 19 and a bit younger than Washington phenom Bryce Harper and Orioles pitching prodigy Dylan Bundy.
Sanchez, though, is years away.
Where the Yankees have tried hardest to introduce youth is their rotation. With Michael Pineda, this will mark the fifth straight year they have tried to break a starter in his early 20s into the rotation.
This began in 2008 with Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Joba Chamberlain was the test case in 2009. Hughes again was the guy in 2010 followed by Ivan Nova last year.
And the Yankees are very proud of the starting potential they will unleash at Triple-A this year. They feel they will have five prospects in the rotation, two high-end arms in Dellin Betances and Manuel Banuelos, and three guys they imagine pitching in the majors in some form, D.J. Mitchell, David Phelps and Adam Warren.