Monday, July 30, 2007

Castillo Acquisition Reflection of Struggling Offense

The Mets have acquired Luis Castillo from the Minnesota Twins for a pair of minor-leaguers, Double-A C Drew Butera and Single-A OF Dustin Martin.

All in all, this is a good move for the Mets. Castillo is a solid veteran and will fit right into the two spot in the lineup behind Reyes. While he doesn't steal bases like he used, he's still a pesky hitter and plays a solid second base. While I like Gotay, I'm just not sure he's ready to play everyday and provide the consistency this lineup needs, not too mention, his defense was a liability and could have hurt us in the post season (if we're fortunate to make it).

Make no mistake though, this move is more indicative of an underachieving offense that has struggled for the better part of two months now. If guys were hitting the way they are supposed to (Beltran, Delgado, Lo Duca and even Wright to an extent) the Mets could have lived with Gotay in this lineup. Unfortunately for Gotay, this team is geared to win now (and are set up well for the future) and they cannot afford to see what type of player they have in him right now. If it were last season, absolutely. This year, different story. Period.

To view Castillo's stats, click here.

2 comments:

Scaevola said...

It's ironic that you make this point, since Gotay has been one of the team's best offensive performers.

Not that he'll sustain it, necessarily. Maybe we won't get a chance to see.

bryan said...

Good point, which is why I've liked Gotay a lot. He's just unproven and b/c this Mets offense has been anemic, Omar couldn't rely on a Ruben Gotay to continue to be "the guy" per say. Even though he has been...