On Monday, the New York Mets sealed the first notable free agent deal of the offseason with Michael Cuddyer Signing a 2-year, $21 million contract. Cuddyer turned down a 1-year, $15.3 million qualifying offer from the Colorado Rockies, his team for the past three seasons. As a result of his rejection of the qualifying offer, the Mets forfeit the #15 pick in the 2015 draft, and the Rockies acquire a sandwich round pick. The signing comes as somewhat of a surprise, after an unexpected move by the Rockies to make the qualifying offer in the first place. We’ll try to ignore how “questionable” (I’ll refrain from using harsher terms for the poor Mets) the move is from a real baseball perspective, and look at it as it relates to fantasy.
On the Rockies’ side, this increases the value of outfielders Corey Dickerson, Charlie Blackmon, and even Carlos Gonzalez (who lately has been linked to trade rumors). Any possibility or question of a timeshare in any of the three outfield spots is now answered, as those three will almost certainly be everyday starters. This also shores up Justin Morneau as the everyday first baseman.
Cuddyer, 35, has been a relatively good major league hitter over his 16 seasons with the Minnesota Twins and Colorado Rockies. My grandmother could probably display more range in the outfield as well as avoid injury better than him, but ol’ Cuddy is actually an underrated career .279/.347/.466 hitter. He joins childhood friend David Wright in Queens, as well as an outfield that includes Gold Glove centerfielder Juan Lagares and former All-Star Curtis Granderson. When asked, Granderson expressed a willingness to change positions in the outfield, so it is likely that he will shift from right to left field in order to allow Cuddyer to play right: the position he has played most often throughout his career.
As good of a hitter as there was in the National League over his three years with Colorado, Cuddyer hit a cumulative .307/.362/.505 and earned the 2013 NL batting title. Some point to his playing in the cavernous Coors Field as the driving force behind his career-best years, but he still managed to slash a decent, if not impressive, .286/.332/.463 line on the road for the Rockies. A major concern with him, as I alluded to earlier, is his injury history. He had three DL stints that limited him to 49 games in 2014 alone. Injuries to his shoulder and both hamstrings in the same season are not good signs for someone on the wrong side of 30, however, he has passed all of his physicals, and the Mets have stated that they are worried about his injuries no more than they would be with any other player they have signed in the past or will sign in the future. Good luck to them, I say.
He also adds value with extensive experience and perhaps a platooning opportunity for the Mets at first base. While first baseman Lucas Duda showed significant improvement at the plate in 2014, and while the Mets have expressed a desire to keep him as an everyday player, he is an underwhelming .212/.292/.317 hitter against left-handed pitching in his career. Cuddyer, on the other hand, has crushed a .291/.378/.504 line against lefties. If Duda continues to flail against lefties, it is possible we might see Cuddyer steal some at-bats from him.
The signing could affect roster construction and thus other fantasy-relevant Mets going forward. ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reported in October that if the Mets signed a player that pushed their payroll over $100 million, they would entertain trade possibilities to dump some money. This could mean that veterans like second baseman Daniel Murphy and starting pitchers Bartolo Colon and Jonathan Niese, players who make over $7 million each, could be used as trade bait to stockpile young talent, which might make up for the price they had to pay for a 35-year-old injury prone outfielder (did I mention it was the #15 overall pick?).
All in all, I think that Cuddyer signing with the Mets only affects his personal fantasy stock slightly, but it bodes well for an offense that struggled mightily for most of 2014. He is leaving the hitter’s paradise at Coors, but as mentioned before, he is a pretty good hitter outside of Colorado. His presence should help the Mets hitters as a solid bat in the heart of the lineup. Also, he is not the only alteration the franchise has made to improve its offense; the team is reportedly shifting the outfield walls in an effort to make pitcher-friendly Citi Field a little less pitcher-friendly, if that means anything (probably not). If he can stay healthy, expect Michael Cuddyer to put up something similar to a .280-.290 AVG, 18-20 HR, 70-80 RBI type of season. Not elite, but a pretty nice fantasy player when on the field.
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