So What Do You Think?

By Shari Forst
Posted Saturday, August 4, 2007

I thought, before I do the last of my ratings on the bench players, that I would discuss the moves the Mets made, or move, I should I should say -- obtaining Luis Castillo from the Twins in exchange for a handful of minor leaguers.

Castillo is 31 years old, and has been a solid hitter most of his career.. He has lost his power recently but he is still hitting .300 or above and he is solid defensively. I think it's safe to say Valentin is finished, should he come back. However, my question is -- what about Gotay?

Gotay is 24 years old, and since Valentin went down has been tearing it up at the plate (mainly from the left side). In limited at-bats he has four home runs and a nice amount of RBIs. Not to mention the Mets had three or four second basemen before the tade.

I wasn't against getting Castillo, but I was kind of wondering why they gave up on Gotay so fast. True he is not a proven entity as an everyday player, but neither was Reyes nor Wright when they came up. When the Mets invested in Wright and Reyes, I thought they had turned the corner on the issue of not giving younger guys a shot to play everyday.

I guess my concern is how long will Castillo be in his prime? Ideally, a baseball player's prime is around 28 or 29 years of age, and usually lasts until he is around 34 or so. Sometimes the Mets miss out on looking at the big picture, and I think they may have by not letting Gotay play the rest of the season every day. I felt they needed to look at starting pitching and maybe another corner outfielder since Shawn Green is a terrible fielder and he is not the hitter he was even last year. Moises Alou is old and injury prone, we have been through that. I would have also liked to see them look at another established reliever.

I'm not complaining about Minaya's performance on the trade deadline, I was just disappointed that the team didn't let Gotay grow into the player he looks like he can be.