Part 12 in a series about the New York Mets
Jed Lowrie’s signing with the Mets before last season seemed confusing from the start.
The Mets already had traded for Robinson Cano to anchor second base, and Todd Frazier was returning in the final year of his contract to play third. Jeff McNeil, who had burst on the scene the previous year, could play both positions. So how did Lowrie, a second/third baseman whose shortstop days were behind him, fit?
It’s only after you stop to consider what the Mets didn’t know that Lowrie’s arrival on a two-year deal worth $20 million possibly equated.
Pete Alonso still hadn’t taken a major league at-bat as spring training commenced, and questions persisted about his defense. If Alonso wasn’t ready to start the season with the Mets, it was possible Frazier would shift to first base, leaving a vacancy at third. But third base still could have belonged to McNeil, right? Perhaps, but team officials also didn’t know what they had in McNeil, who was nearly dealt to the Mariners in the trade that brought Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets.
Lowrie had previously been a client of Brodie Van Wagenen’s — the Mets general manager served as the infielder’s agent with CAA. Cano is another former client.
“[Van Wagenen] knows the guys he represented and those are the guys he believed in,” a major league executive said. “His knowledge of players is based mostly on the players he represented, so you are partial to the players you know, and obviously he went to the players he knew.”
Submit your Mets questions here to be answered in an upcoming Post mailbag
In the end, Alonso set a MLB rookie record with 53 homers and McNeil was a sparkplug atop the Mets’ lineup, posting a .916 OPS, showing that his rookie season wasn’t a fluke. Lowrie didn’t appear in a game for the Mets until September, after incurring a capsule sprain in his left knee early in spring training that led to other ailments. The switch-hitting Lowrie went 0-for-7 for the season — with all his at-bats coming as a pinch hitter.
When this season’s spring training was suspended on March 12 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 36-year-old Lowrie still hadn’t played in an exhibition game and appeared destined to begin the season on the injured list. This after arriving to camp with a brace that extended from his left thigh to almost the ankle. Lowrie participated in baseball activities with the team, but there were questions about his mobility. The team and player have declined to provide specifics about his injury.
It’s unclear what, if anything, Van Wagenen and his staff can expect from Lowrie if this season is played. As it stands, McNeil figures to handle third base, with Cano at second. J.D. Davis was also working out at third base in spring training and could play the position when Cano needs a day off and McNeil shifts to second.
If the Mets knew what they had in Alonso and McNeil, the money spent on Lowrie could have gone toward fortifying a bullpen that was a team weakness last season. If Lowrie stayed healthy, it’s possible he would have helped the Mets offensively, but it might have come at the expense of Davis, who blossomed into a high-octane hitter. It was with Lowrie and Frazier on the injured list that Davis and Dominic Smith were allowed to crack the Opening Day roster.
The Mets never had to figure out how to create roster space for Lowrie, who in May was shut down from a rehab assignment at Triple-A Syracuse because of a pulled left hamstring. In the ensuing weeks Lowrie dealt with discomfort on his right side that prevented him from resuming his rehab assignment until August.
“That’s $20 million that was basically thrown out the window,” the talent evaluator said. “Stuff happens, I get it, but the reality is did they need Lowrie? No.”