How are the Ex-Mets Doing?

The Mets bid farewell to several familiar faces this off season. On this off day, let’s check in and see how they are doing:

R.A. Dickey was of course the most prominent 2012 Met to change teams. The Cy Young Award winner is struggling in his first season in Toronto. He is just 2-5 with an unsightly 5.36 ERA. After averaging a strikeout per inning last season, Dickey has 33 strikeouts in 42 innings this season. He has also walked 17 batters. If he continues at that clip, he would walk 85 batters if he goes 200 innings. Last season Dickey walked 54 batters in 233 innings.

The team’s 2012 catching tandem, Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas, both went to Toronto in the Dickey deal; the Blue Jays said they needed both of them because they had experience catching the knuckleball. Strangely, both of them are now in the minors, as the Jays apparently decided prior kunckleball catching experience was not required. At least they are in familiar surrounding — they are in Buffalo, where they toiled when the Mets Triple-A team was there. Thole is hitting .361 while Nickeas, his backup yet again, has a robust .114 average.

The Mets decided to eat the $18 million Jason Bay was owed for 2013 and send him away rather than watch him for another season. He latched on with the Mariners, where he is not a full time outfielder but he is getting a decent amount of playing time. He is also doing reasonably well, although the bar for Bay was pretty low. In 65 at bats Bay is hitting .262 with three home runs and nine RBIs. Considering he hit .165 with eight homers and 20 RBIs in 194 at bats in 2012, Bay is nearly an all-star in Seattle.

Scott Hairston hit 20 home runs for the Mets last season, yet despite how desperate they were (and still are) for outfielders, Sandy Alderson refused to give Hairston a two-year contract. He got it from the Cubs, and he is proving Alderson correct. Hairston is hitting just .132 with three home runs and seven RBIs. He is being used mostly as a pinch hitter — he has only 38 at bats in 23 games.

It looked like Mike Pelfrey had finally figured things out — after three 2012 starts for the Mets, he had pitched to a 2.29 ERA. But then his arm fell off and he was out for the season. The Twins signed him, and so far he has reverted to his old frustrating days. Pelfrey is 3-3 with a 6.35 ERA in Minnesota. The sad thing is that if he were doing this in Flushing, he wouldn’t even be the worst Mets starter.

Jon Rauch is now in the Marlins bullpen. In 13 innings over 11 games, Rauch is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA.

Backup infielder Ronny Cedeno can’t even crack the lowly Astros starting lineup. He is still a backup, hitting .304 in limited time.

Kelly Shoppach is also seeing limited time in Seattle, where he is hitting .277 with a home run.

So overall none of these players is doing particularly well with their new teams. No regrets by the Mets.

UPDATE:

I forgot all about Andres Torres. I guess I wanted to forget that he ever wore the blue and orange. He is back in the black and orange of the Giants where, shock of shocks, he is playing his usual mediocre brand of baseball.