Curtis Granderson stays in New York, agreeing to a contract with the Mets:
This off-season, Alderson’s fourth as general manager of the Mets, was supposed to end all of that. The Mets said they could spend again, and finally, spend they did. Alderson agreed to a four-year, $60 million contract with Curtis Granderson on Friday, according to a person in baseball with knowledge of the situation, easily making him the highest paid free agent he has signed in his tenure.
On the surface, Granderson seems to be worth the money. He hit 84 home runs for the Yankees over the 2011 and 2012 seasons, before his 2013 season was limited to 61 games, marred by two freakish injuries, each one causedby being hit by a pitch.
I would be worried about Curtis even without the injuries. His OBP has dropped in recent years despite a high number of walks. Granderson traded batting average for power in recent years. That’s not a problem by itself, but the way it happened concerns me. Power hitters tend to strike out a lot, and fewer balls in play means fewer potential hits. An extra home run for every three additional strikeouts tend to balance that. That’s true if a player keeps his BABIP consistent. In addition to striking out, however, Granderson saw his BABIP decline, so even when he puts the ball in play, he’s not making great contact anymore. He’s on his way to being Adam Dunn with fewer walks and fewer home runs, and that, frankly, is not a very good player.
Yankee stadium to Citifield will take away some HR- this is a poor signing and contrary to what the Mets had been espousing the past few years, building from within etc etc….I hate being a Mets fan.
You can’t satisfy Mets fans. They complain if the Mets don’t sign anybody; then they complain when they do sign somebody. One thing that’s seems sure is that Grandy is an improvement. And being on the NY stage isn’t going to freak him out.
I thought Granderson got a bit pull happy at the end. Getting away from YS3 may be good for him.
Comparing Granderson with Adam Dunn misses one key point: Defense. Dunn has always been a terrible defensive player. Granderson will help the Mets with his defense and base-running as well as with his hitting. And even if he hits half as many homers (say, 25) per year with the Mets, that’s still a marked improvement over what they’ve been running out there the past few years. It may not be a perfect signing, but it’s a step in the right direction.