Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the New York Mets are right-handed Carlos Carrasco introduced himself to the fan base, expressing his enthusiasm for joining this team after the Cleveland exchange last week and echoing the goals expressed by Francisco lindor on Monday.
A look at the 33-year-old man’s statistics line is all that will most need to be sold at Carrasco (3.57 ERA / 3.30 FIP, 10.58 hitting / 2.20 hikes through nine entrances, 13.0 fWAR since 2017), but Cookie wasn’t just at Zoom to talk about him on Tuesday.
During his press conference, the 12-year-old MLB veteran made his presentation to the Mets to add two former teammates to the team’s lack of rotation.
“I would be very happy to see [Trevor Bauer or Corey Kluber] in this rotation. I spent a lot of time with [Mike Clevinger], Bauer, Kluber, many of these companions, ”said Carrasco. “I would be very happy to see one of those two guys in the Mets uniform […] They are really good pitchers. “
Bauer, 29, is undoubtedly the starter with the largest remaining profile in the open market. And rightly so.
Since the beginning of 2018, Bauer’s 11.6 fWAR has ranked sixth among MLB’s qualified pitchers. His exploits last season (1.73 ERA / 2.88 FIP, 100 K, 17 BB in 11 matches) earned him the National League of 2020 Cy Young Award and his well-publicized mastery of the cerebral aspect of pitch is almost unmatched.
The monetary cost and off-field baggage that comes with Bauer’s hiring are not to be underestimated, but their addition would certainly make the Mets a better team.
Kluber, 34, has taken a substantially different path to this current off-season. Twice the AL Cy Young Award winner (2014 and 2017), Kluber’s most recent full season was in 2018 (2.89 ERA / 3.12 FIP, 1.42 walks for nine, 5.5 fWAR in 32 matches) .
Since then, Kluber has only made eight appearances due to a series of injuries (broken forearm, oblique in 2019; shoulder rupture in 2020).
The right-hander is set to launch a demonstration session for teams interested in Florida on Wednesday. The Mets must be among the teams present.
Let’s see if Cookie Carrasco’s approval sound applies to Mets’ free agent hires.