The Mets entered Monday night’s Subway Series against the Yankees at 54-50, in third place in the National League East and 2 1/2 games out of the second wild-card spot. Collins practically salivated at the thought of Cespedes and Bruce together in the batting order of NY, which entered with an NL-low. Hererra needs big league at-bats so that he can be ready for when the Reds are ready to be good again. “He’s an RBI machine”.
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The 29-year-old Bruce is hitting.
The Mets’ offense has been at the heart of the team’s inconsistencies this season, and in adding Bruce the Mets are fortifying their offense with one of baseball’s most productive players this season.
Remember, it was right before the end of last year’s trade deadline that NY plucked Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers.
And in the same way that Murphy has become a daily obsession among a lot of people (even those who weren’t all that insane about him as a Met), such will Herrera’s career now become an object of fascination.
The only exception, he said, was leaving his auto in Cincinnati.
Is that realistic? On the first day of September, that might be an easier question to answer. “It feels good to get those swings off and to see the work that I put in in the minor leagues and the work I put in up here, to see it pay off is rewarding”.
As such, Bruce (who also has 25 homers) was supposed to face the Cardinals 13 more times – now he’ll only face them three.
Cincinnati will try to reverse that trend on Tuesday behind right-hander Dan Straily who went from a long reliever to being among the Reds’ most dependable starters. The past couple years have been tough. “I’m looking forward to that”.
“We didn’t have anyone protecting him”, said Alderson of the Mets slugger, who was acquired at the trade deadline previous year.
The deal was announced two hours before the deadline for completing trades without waivers.
Bruce figures to be slotted into the middle of the Mets’ lineup, but it’s less clear where he fits in the outfield. It’s no secret that they wanted to move Bruce; they just didn’t have much success trying to do so up until this point. It’s a duty that might also be shared by Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto – also lefthanded hitting corner outfielders.
“I think he’ll make a big impact”, Collins said in a press conference. I’ve thrown up in my mouth at every reference to him as the National League’s RBI leader, as if that imparts any useful information whatsoever (he’s knocked in Joey Votto, second in the league in OBP, 24 times). 205 in such situations. Bruce is shown in action last week. 360 average with runners in scoring position, and that certainly caught the team’s eye.
Wotell is the team’s 16th ranked prospect while Herrera was considered the second baseman of the future.
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“When it happened, I was very, very excited”, Bruce said.
