According to Buster Olney, granted not the best of sources, Bobby Abreu may be forced to take a one year deal due to the market.
If that is the case, I see little reason why the Mets shouldn’t get him. The biggest complaints I’ve heard about Abreu from Yankee and Philly fans are his defense and a lack of being clutch. Let’s examine these for a moment.
If you’re the type of fan who is going to say sign Manny to 1-2 years I don’t see how you can look at Abreu’s defense as a reason to not sign him to a 1 year deal. He’s not Manny offensively, but he is still an extremely skilled offensive player, who would be perfect batting 2nd or 3rd in the Mets lineup.
The difference between the two is that Manny would give the Mets more personality, and a more explosive offense. Abreu would make the Mets a bit more bland, but would give them a more controlled offense. If you slot him 2 or 3, you can get a very similar lineup to the 1999 team, where you had speed at the top, high on base and average on 2, 3, the power at the 4, and the rbi man at #5. Abreu and Beltran are two of the league’s best at getting on base and taking pitches. They will not only shorten games for a starting pitchers, but more importantly they will extend innings. A pitcher will have a rough first inning if Reyes is on base, followed by Beltran & Abreu working the count, that he’s going to get pretty tired when the the power hitting Delgado and Wright are up.
Let’s be honest, abreu is better than Manny defensively. His big issue is he is bad going at the wall, but he will get to balls faster than Manny.
Is Abreu as clutch? No. Very few are as clutch as Manny, but i think Abreu’s “lack of clutchness” is overblown due to high expectations at his previous spot. If he came to the Mets we’d already know what to expect. Abreu is not a guy to lead a club offensively, but he will win games for you as a complementary piece.
Most importantly, unlike other potential option in the outfield, we KNOW he can handle NY. He has withstood the fire and criticism in Philly, and after a rough start with the Yankees looking back he had a pretty good stretch with them. He showed he can come back from a rough stretch, shrug off the boos, and get back on his own two feet. After the struggles in recent years for the Mets to ignore off-field distractions, having a guy like that is not something to sneeze at.
Besides, at the very least he’s better than the Platoon.
[Edit:] Jon Heyman of SI brought up this stat: Abreu, Pujolds, and Arod are the only players with 100 RBIs the last 6 seasons. That is consistent production in an area the Mets lacked last year. Also brought up the good point that he may not run into walls, but he does stay healthy. Ryan Church showed last year that sometimes it’s best in the long run NOT to put it all on the line every single play.
Can you really hate that face?
Posted By Robert Z
Filed under: New York Mets 2009-2010, Robert Z
This being my first blog (whew, just made it before the end of the tax year), I wanted to address a current Mets need. I hear the talk of Manny, Lowe, Ollie, O-dog, etc., but what THIS 
term that my father always uses to describe, not necessarily a tough-guy, but someone that’s a blue collar take-no crap type of guy. The guy when you are merging into traffic, and he lets you go, you respond with a brief head nod (also, the guy that you should let merge in front of you, even if it’s at the last second). 
