Roster Moves Show Mets Hand

"I'm certainly disappointed," Mets starter reliever Aaron Heilman, upon learning he'd been demoted moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen.


(And the winner is...)

The Mets made the rumour official yesterday, awarding the fifth starter in the rotation to Brian Bannister whilst Aaron Heilman was moved back to the bullpen despite his wishes, in order to strengthen what is bound to be an overworked bullpen.

This again underscores the poor offseason decisions with regard to pitching, made by Omar. By all rights, Bannister should be seasoned at least half a season at Norfolk and Heilman should be starting rather than shoring up a questionable bullpen. The offseason moves clearly have not strengthened the bullpen sufficiently to avoid having to shuffle a legitimate starter into purgatory and having a glance at the starting rotation, one isn't necessarily overcome with goosebumps of excitement.

But even though it looks bleak at the moment, I have confidence that these bullpen moves will prove handy in the long run. Duaner Sanchez and Jorge Julio both would appear to be legitimate set up men to Billy Wagner and one wonders where Heilman's work is going to come from if that proves to be the case. Set up man? Are they not telling us something about the vulnerabilities of Sanchez and Julio or is there just an overhanging lack of confidence? I guess when you spend as much on a closer as the Mets did for Wagner, you do everything in your power to make sure he's got a win to save when it comes his time in the 9th inning and this move of Heilman is just a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile, in celebration of yesterday's decision, Heilman gave up two hits and a run in two innings striking out three against the Marlins in a 12-7 loss to the Marlins which was marked by a 5 run first inning during which time we identified two Mets doing themselves no favours:

1. Roster hopeful Jose Lima took a step away from the team when he ran into two-out trouble in the first against the Marlins yesterday, giving up five runs on five hits, all after the second out was recorded. Lima worked two innnings, allowing six hits and five runs.
2. Yusaku Iriki who started Spring Training off so brilliantly, continued his rapid downward spiral towards Norfolk or worse when he allowed three runs and three walks in his continued struggle with the funny-feeling baseballs of America.

It might also be noteworthy that despite Pedro's encouraging outing, the Mets starting rotation is still very much a shambles.

40 year old Glavine will be the Opening Day starter but other than Pedro, the Mets haven't got much in the way of encouragement when starting down into the starting pitching barrel. Number three starter Steve Trachsel allowed 8 runs in 4 innings of disasterous pitching against the Dodgers on Monday, including a three-run homer to Dodger pitcher Brett Tomko, making his full comeback rather dodgy. Victor Zambrano, despite an impressive outing against the O's after Pedro's start, is still considered more of a liability than an asset and at best, a career .500 pitcher and now we've got an unproven rookie closing out the starting five. As noted above, both Iriki and Lima hardly appear to be qualified replacements.

Another poorly kept secret made official yesterday was the winner of the second baseman's job: Anderson Hernandez. Jeff Keppinger was reassigned, along with Lastings Milledge, Tike Redman, Todd Self, catcher Sandy Martinez and left-handed relievers Royce Ring and Juan Perez to their minor league camp.

His double play partner, Jose Reyes is now hitting at a .538 clip, proving perhaps, that his lack of playing time in the WBC didn't appear to have hurt him. Meanwhile, although his batting average plunged to .250, Xavier Nady drove in yet another run against the Marlins to give him a team-leading 13 for the Spring. But wait, didn't six of those RBIs come in one game? Is there anyone battling for the right field position anymore?