Former SNY analyst and 1986 Met Bobby Ojeda was always complaining about how Sandy Alderson failed to assemble a bench with a serious power bat.
Aside from the surprising 20 HR year Scott Hairston produced in 2012, and 3 months of Juan Uribe in 2015, Alderson is once again guilty of this offense. Having not retained Uribe or Kelly Johnson, the bench lost the only two bats capable of breaking open a game late with a home run. That isn’t to say that there weren’t opportunities to do so. Mark Reynolds signed with the Colorado Rockies, Steve Pearce signed with Tampa Bay, and NYC-product Pedro Alvarez caught on with the Orioles.
Ojeda’s point was this: while late inning pinch home runs may only occur 3-5 times even in a good season, the presence of a home run hitter on the bench changes 162 games. Well, maybe not the few series played in AL ballparks, where no actual late inning strategy occurs. When an opposing manager brings in his lefty to pitch to Curtis Granderson or Lucas Duda, he’ll think twice about it if he knows that Terry Collins can counter with a player like Michael Morse. Morse is far from a perfect player. There’s obviously a reason he has been DFA’d by the Pirates.
But he is right handed and plays 1B and OF (*cough* Eric Campbell *cough*) and as he showed in the 2014 postseason (where injuries relegated Morse to the bench), he is a player capable of winning a game late with one big swing. As are Granderson and Duda, who if batting versus a tiring starter in the 7th inning instead of a lefty specialist, can do far more damage. The mere presence of Morse on the Mets bench can help get Duda and Granderson more late ABs versus right handed pitching. All due respect to “Soup”, but no manager is worried about having Campbell homer off of their situational lefty.
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