Karim Garcia had become a pretty useless player for the Mets given the arrival of Richard Hidalgo and the emergence of Eric Valent, not that he’d have been particularly useful even if he’d been getting playing time.  The former Yankee hit just .234/.272/.401 in 192 at bats, with his seven home runs being the lone bright spot on his stat sheet.  I’m happy to see him go, and wouldn’t have been upset if the Mets had just released him, but there is reason to be concerned about the guy they got in exchange for him.
 
Mike DeJean had an okay season with Milwaukee and St. Louis last year, posting a 4.68 ERA in 82.2 innings, striking out 71 and walking 39, while allowing a troubling 13 home runs.  He had two fine seasons with the Brewers prior to that, posting ERAs around three in similar numbers of innings with similar strikeout and walk rates and much better home runs numbers.  His slugging percentage against was .330 in 2001 and .362 in 2002 before jumping all the way to .450 last year, and he hasn’t done much better this year.  Though he’s only allowed two home runs in 39.2 innings, his SLG against is still up at .428, thanks in part to a .308 batting average against.  He’s struck out 36 already this year, but 49 hits and 28 walks have led to a 6.13 ERA, the worst of his career but for one disastrous season among his four in Colorado when he put up an 8.41 in 61 innings.  He's also been the worst reliever in the majors at preventing inherited runners from scoring this year.  Yeah, even worse than Stanton.

Of course, that DeJean kinda stinks isn’t really the point.  He’s also thirty-three years old, which means that whether or not he stinks is in danger of not mattering to Art Howe when he’s deciding which right-handed reliever to go to in a high leverage situation.  Even Jim Duquette says "Mike will bring experience and depth to our bullpen.  He has had success in the National League and has the savvy of pitching well in close games."  With quotes like that, you have to wonder what chance things like Orber Moreno’s "talent" and "ability" are going to have against DeJean’s "savvy".  The Mets’ bullpen certainly could use some help, but someone like DeJean isn’t going to be nearly as helpful as someone who’s either left-handed or highly skilled at getting people out.  Maybe the Mets’ defense and Shea Stadium will be enough to overcome DeJean’s occasional difficulties with extra base hits, and his solid strikeout rate will be a nice addition.  But with the way Moreno and Jose Parra, Saturday’s blowup notwithstanding, have pitched lately, the job of high leverage righty out of the ‘pen should be theirs to lose, not DeJean’s.

¶ joe | 4:08 PM |