Mets Sign Corey Patterson, Mike Wilson

Outfielders Corey Patterson and Mike Wilson are the latest recipients of minor league deals from the Mets, bringing this off season’s total to like 100.

Is this even news?

The 33-year-old Patterson was once a hot prospect — the number two rated minor leaguer in all of baseball. That was prior to the 2001 season, a lifetime ago. He once hit  24 home runs in one season for the Cubs, but that was in 2004. Lately he hasn’t been able to stick with any club, playing for six teams in four years. Last season he couldn’t even crack the major leagues, getting stuck in Triple-A where he managed 10 homers and a .251 batting average.

Mike Wilson’s story is even worse. Wilson made his major league debut in 2011 at age 28 after toiling in the Mariners system for 10 solid years. They could only stand him for eight games and a .148 batting average before banishing him to the minors again for all of 2012. Wilson has 157 minor league home runs, but if the Mariners found him worthy of just eight games over 11 years, what makes the Mets think he’ll be any better?

Perhaps these signings are just for minor league depth. Yeah, that makes sense because there’s no way these players are major league outfielders.