Eduardo Escobar’s Tenure Offers A Template For Who The Mets Want To Be

Upon his trade to the Angels last Friday night, Eduardo Escobar was tied for 83rd in Mets history with 24 homers, alphabetically right in between Robinson Cano and Angel Pagan. His 145 hits tied him for 131st with Derek Bell, who may or may not still be living on a boat in Chelsea Piers. And among players with at least 500 plate appearance for the Mets, Escobar’s .720 OPS tied him for 94th with Roger Cedeno.

All of which is to say Escobar will not rank among the most prolific players in franchise history. But if the Mets ever get to where they want to go — and to be fair, the destination of sustainable and perpetual World Series contention seems farther away than ever during a miserable June that is hellish even by the Mets’ standards of miserable Junes — his tenure will be looked back upon as one of the small but pivotal moves in the right direction.

Escobar was one of the lower-profile moves the Mets made during the flurry of pre-lockout activity in November 2021 in which Mark Canha, Starling Marte and Max Scherzer joined Escobar in putting pen to paper on contracts worth a little more than $255 million combined. The quartet provided 12.7 in WAR last season, per Baseball-Reference, while infusing into the Mets a sense of long-missing professionalism.

While there was no price too high to pay to sign a Hall of Fame-bound ace such as Scherzer, the additions of Escobar, Canha and Marte seemed to be overpays with an eye on providing a bridge to when they could be replaced by homegrown talent.

And with Brett Baty, a third baseman and 2019 first-round pick, racing through the system no one seemed to be a shorter-term solution than Escobar. But unlike in the pre-Steve Cohen days, Escobar’s two-year, $20 million deal would not be an impediment to promoting Baty if he proved ready.

Baty’s time appeared imminent when Escobar hit .214 with 12 homers, 44 RBIs and a .646 OPS through Aug. 28. But Escobar surged over the final five weeks, when he helped make up for the absence of Marte (broken middle finger) by hitting .328 with eight homers, 25 RBIs and a .982 OPS and winning NL Player of the Month honors in September.

A slow start this season by Escobar (he hit .125 with one homer, six RBIs and a .402 OPS) coupled with Baty’s blistering opening nine games at Triple-A Syracuse (he hit .400 with five homers, nine RBIs and a 1.386 OPS) resulted in the baton being unofficially passed upon the Mets recalling Baty on Apr. 17.

But unlike previous usurped veterans — looking at you, Rey Sanchez in 2003 — Escobar didn’t sulk nor make the transition any awkward than necessary. Escobar was often seated next to Baty in the dugout and sat next to him on at least one team flight, as captured on Escobar’s Instagram.

Escobar also increased his production as a part-time player by hitting .323 with three homers, 10 RBIs and a .922 OPS in 26 games (19 starts) following Baty’s promotion. On May 19, Escobar — who’d stolen 21 bases in 1,290 big league games entering the evening — came off the bench in the 10th inning, stole second base and scored the tying run in an eventual 10-9 win over the Guardians.

The win didn’t spark a turnaround for the Mets, but Escobar providing the antithesis to the Bobby Bonilla experience circa 1999 — when Bonilla either couldn’t or wouldn’t pinch-hit after losing his everyday job, thereby leaving Bobby Valentine with what amounted to a 24-man roster — provided more evidence the Mets are building a better culture under Steve Cohen, even if it’s not translating into immediate contention for a championship.

And in a neat twist, Bonilla’s $5.9 million contract in 2000 — the one the Mets couldn’t just eat but instead famously agreed to defer with eight percent interest from 2011-2035 upon releasing him on Jan. 3, 2000, guess what folks, he’s got his annual $1.19 million coming to him on Saturday! — works out to just under $10.7 million in 2023 dollars.

Trading Escobar and eating all but the pro-rated minimum part of his $9.5 million salary this season in exchange for minor league pitching prospects Coleman Crow and Landon Marceaux is another sign of the improving culture and approach.

In the end, the Mets paid Escobar well for a short period of time, learned they’d properly judged his character when they made the correct move in benching him for a younger player and then did right by him and the franchise with a trade that worked out for both parties. As far as legacies with the Mets go, that’s a pretty good one.