Jed Lowrie gets $20 million. Mets get nada
The Brodie Files series takes a look at the first-year Mets’ GM’s moves. Here’s the latest installment:
His jersey hangs in a locker in Citi Field -- No. 4 if you’re interested -- looking every bit as if Jed Lowrie is just off in the cage or the trainer’s room and will be slipping into it shortly for that night’s game.
But except for perhaps a tour of the place prior to his signing in January and a couple of cameo appearances since, Jed Lowrie has rarely been in the home clubhouse at Citi Field this season.
That is because since the earliest days of spring training, Lowrie has been on the sidelines, and when the team went north on March 28, the 34-year-old infielder stayed behind on the 10-day IL.
His initial complaint was “soreness behind the left knee,’’ which was later formally diagnosed as a “left knee capsule sprain.’’ Since then, Lowrie’s woes have morphed into something vague and impossible to pinpoint; last month, GM Brodie Van Wagenen said, “At this point, his left side is causing him problems, from the knee to the hamstring.’’
He went on to spout some gobbledygook about his “kinetic chain’’ being out of whack. Bottom line is, Lowrie has had multiple setbacks of unspecified nature. He is currently on the 60-day IL and it is increasingly doubtful that he will play at all in 2019.
“He’s just doing baseball activities at this point, trying to get to where he can get into a game,’’ Mickey Callaway said last week when pressed for specifics. “He’s not close to a rehab assignment, it doesn’t seem.’’
Right now, Lowrie is the textbook definition of “sunk cost.’’
Coming off the first All-Star season of his career in 2018, when he hit .267 with 23 home runs, 99 RBI and an .801 OPS, Lowrie was expected to provide infield depth behind 36-year-old Robinson Cano at seclnd base, 33-year-old Todd Frazier at third, and the young and erratic Amed Rosario at short.
Of course, he has provided none of these things.
But on the positive side of his ledger, Lowrie is a former client of CAA, where his agent was one Brodie Van Wagenen, and he attended Stanford University, alma mater of -- you guessed it -- Brodie Van Wagenen.
And it’s not as if there were no other options besides Lowrie when the Mets were shopping for an infielder.
There was Jonathan Schoop, 27, a former All-Star himself, who signed with Minnesota for one year at $7.5 million. He is currently batting .260 with 14 homers, 39 RBI and a .779 OPS.
There was Mike Moustakas, 30, a former three-time All-Star, who eventually signed with Milwaukee for one year and $10 million. His numbers are .263-25-53 and an .885 OPS.
And there was D.J. LeMahieu, a three-time All-Star, Gold Glove winner and former AL batting champion plucked off by the Yankees the same week the Mets signed Lowrie, for two years and $24 million. LeMahieu is currently leading the AL in batting at .336 and has a healthy .900 OPS.
The Mets also could have done what the Yankees did and rolled the dice on five-time All-Star Troy Tulowitzki, who like Lowrie was injured early in the season -- he appeared in five games -- and has not been seen since.
The difference? The Yankees had to assume just $550,000 of Tulowitzki’s $20 million per year contract.
The Mets owe that same $20 million to Lowrie even if that jersey never comes off the hanger.
