As a mark to the end of the Winter Meetings, the Rule V Draft occurs each year between GMs to prevent teams from stockpiling talent in the minors that other teams could use on their major league roster.
This year, the New York Mets added two names during the Rule V Draft: Orioles pitcher Pedro Beato and Blue Jays infielder Brad Emaus. The latter of the two seems the most intriguing pick-up by Sandy Alderson and company.
Emaus was claimed by the Mets from the Blue Jays, and I fully expect him to compete with Daniel Murphy, Ruben Tejada and Justin Turner for the Mets' second base job in spring training.
Emaus hit .290 with 32 doubles, 15 home runs and 75 RBI in 125 games with double-A New Hampshire and Las Vegas last season, and as the Mets lack better options at second base, he is sure to be in the mix this spring for the starting job.
In the most realistic situation, Emaus does stay on the Mets' 25-man roster to protect him from being sent back to the Blue Jays, but he will most likely play off the bench, with spot starts at second, third and first base. He will be the newer version of what we used Fernando Tatis for, just younger, with more power and better range. Overall, he is an incredible upgrade from what we had.
In all honesty, I’d like to see Emaus make the team as the No. 2 second baseman behind starter Daniel Murphy. Murphy is a complete question mark and we don’t known yet how he will perform on shaky knees, so the confidence management has showed in Emaus is comforting to know that there is a legit backup.
Ruben Tejada should in all likelihood stay in triple-A where he will get the seasoning and hitting work he needs to be an everyday player at the major league level. With the impending Jose Reyes trade talks, it would be the best bet for the Mets to produce a viable backup option if and when Reyes were to be traded.
That leaves us with Justin Turner, whose name has been coming up in recent talks about the second base job. He has many highly regarded ex-players backing him, including current Escogido coach Moises Alou and former Bisons skipper Ken Oberkfell, who say Tuner is a “gamer” and “an everyday player."
This all bodes well for the former Baltimore Oriole, who didn’t make the team out of spring training last year. Turner is out of minor league options, and should be right in the middle of the competition for the Mets second base job, or at least the Mets' backup middle infielder job.
By and large, the status of the Mets' second base job is this group of players job to lose. Any one of these guys has the same chances of outperforming one another, and the decision should go down to the last weeks of spring training. I look forward to seeing how Terry Collins and Alderson figure this one out.
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