Thursday night when the New York Mets open up the second half of their season in San Francisco a familiar face will be patrolling center field. Carlos Beltran, arguably one of the games best players
will make his season debut following knee surgery.
Beltran's return while good news for the team will result in a lot of re-shuffling for the Mets outfield. The current center fielder, Angel Pagan, was probably the teams best player in the first half of the season. He has the highest batting average on the team, hitting .315.
So the problem seems to be how to find time for both Beltran and Pagan and figure out who to sit between the other two outfielders. Left fielder Jason Bay and right fielder Jeff Francoeur have struggled throughout the first half. Last year Bay was an All-Star belting 36 home runs for the Red Sox. Bay homered every 15 times at bat and earned an 18 million dollar a season free agent contract with the Mets. So far this season, Bay has 6 home runs, hitting two in one game, twice. He has homered every 52 times at bat. He has been a major disappointment and has heard more than his share of boos from the Mets faithful.
Jeff Francoeur, is batting a paltry .253 and after starting the season red hot, he has just 3 home runs since June 1st. What Francoeur does have is a cannon for a right arm and has thrown out 8 runners on the bases. He is also a very popular player in the clubhouse.
So which outfielder will lose the playing time ? At first, it appears to be Francoeur. It seems that he and Pagan will platoon in right to start things off. Beltran will need rest coming off of surgery, so he won't play every day getting one or two days off each week. Bay will need to start hitting if he wants to play. It would be tough to sit down a player making 18 million dollars but Bay was benched for his own bobblehead doll day on Sunday.
Carlos Beltran will be a welcome addition to the team but there are three other players who will need to produce to get their playing time.
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