Report: Mets Talk to Tigers About Ian Kinsler
A report (well, a tweet) from MLB.com’s Jon Morosi on Monday says the Mets have had “preliminary discussions” with the Tigers on a trade to bring second baseman Ian Kinsler to Flushing.
The good news is that Kinsler is on just a one-year contract that will pay him $11 million. The bad news is that he turns 36 years old in June and his numbers declined drastically this past season.
Kinsler batted just .236 in 2017; he is a career .273 hitter. While he still hit 22 home runs (down from 28 in 2016), his RBIs went down from 83 to 52.
It looks to me like Kinsler is a player in decline. Unless the Tigers eat most of the money and the Mets send no one of value to Detroit, why not just put Wilmer Flores at second? You would probably get better production at less than half the price.
I’m as big a Wilmer Flores fan as there is, but he’s lethal with a glove on his hand. He’s born to be a DH.