After I complained about Mejia being used solely in low-leverage situations, Jerry Manuel decided in last night's game to use Mejia in one the highest-leveraged situations of the season thus far.  With no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, Mejia came into the game to preserve a 5-5 score.  According to FanGraphs, the situation into which Mejia entered registered a 2.34 of the leverage index, whereas Mejia's previous uses have come in situations ranging from .03 to .55.  Finally, the Mets were using Mejia to "win now," just as they said they would.  So how did it turn out?

Well, we probably all know the answer to the that question.  On Mejia's fourth pitch of the inning, Chris Iannetta hit a home run to give the Rockies their second victory of the series.  Win now, indeed. 

So does Mejia go back to the minors after this setback?  Probably not, as Mejia has a big fan in Manuel.  Before last night's game, Manuel argued for keeping Mejia in the bullpen and giving him a more important role:

"I'm more inclined to kind of continue to keep [Mejia] in the role that he is. But, obviously, making that a more important role that he has down there than he has right now." 

After reading this quote, it comes as little surprise that Manuel trotted Mejia out in the bottom of the tenth inning last night.  He was trying to show Minaya and the front office, who are currently debating whether to send Mejia back to the minors to stretch out into a starter, that Mejia needs to stay in the bullpen.  Of course, that plan backfired, and hopefully Minaya will use the opportunity of Mejia's failed outing to justify a trip back to Double-A for the 20-year old reliever.  

Joel Sherman at the New York Post raised a good question this morning: Why is Mejia still in the Mets' bullpen? Here's his take on it:

It is just one week of a season, but does this one week encourage you that the Mets are contenders this season? For you do not waste your best starting prospect in middle relief on a non-contender.

It may be too early to label the Mets as a non-contender, but there are still plenty of reasons to question Mejia's use in the bullpen.  We are all familiar with the reasons why Mejia belongs in the minors.  He has front-line starter potential, is only 20 years old, needs work on his secondary pitches, and has had little experience in Double-A or above.  Ignoring these arguments, the Mets -- and some beat reporters, like Kevin Burkhardt -- suggested that Mejia should make the major-league team because he can help the Mets win now.  Ergo, Mejia made the Opening Day roster.  But are the Mets actually using Mejia to win games? 

Not really.  If we take a look at Mejia's Leverage Index for his three apperances this year, we can see that he's been used exclusively in low-leverage situations.  His average Leverage Index - called pLI - is at .40 (an LI of 1 is considered a neutral situation).  Mejia's pLI tells us that he's being used when the balance of the game is not really in question. Looking at the game situations Mejia has pitched in confirms the data:

April 7 - Enters game in 6th inning with the Mets down to Florida 4-1.

April 9 - Enters game in 9th inning with the Mets ahead of the Nationals 8-2.

April 10 - Enters game in 9th inning with the Mets down 4-3. 

In Mejia's first two appearances, he did not enter the game in anything close to resembling an important situation. More was at stake in Mejia's last appearance, coming with the Mets down one run in the ninth, but that situation only registers a 0.7 on the Leverage Index scale (according to this Leverage Index table).  What Mejia has not done is enter a game when the Mets have had a small lead or there were men on base, i.e. high leverage situations in which Mejia could help the Mets win games.  Rather, he's being used as a run-of-the-mill middle reliever. 

If the Mets' main reason to put Mejia in the bullpen was to "win now," Manuel's use of Mejia in the first week of the season suggests otherwise. Given the strong performance of the bullpen thus far (21.1 innings, 1.27 ERA), the Mets probably have no need to use Mejia in higher-leverage situations, and will likely continue to defer to Nieve and Feliciano in such situations.  If that's the case, then the Mets need to replace Mejia with whoever's next in line at Buffalo (Parnell, most likely).  

Of course, the Mets will probably refuse to demote Mejia until he implodes or the Mets fall significantly below .500.  I don't want to hope for either of those things to happen, but at least Mejia going back to the minors will be the silver lining of either of those occurrences.  

In a recent poll on the front page, 74 percent of Amazin' Avenue readers voted for Chris Carter to get the final bench spot on the Mets' 25-man roster.  The presumed front-runner for the final spot, Mike Jacobs, only received 14 percent of the vote.  Obviously, the readers here are not big fans of Mike Jacobs, but he may not be such a bad choice.  A few reasons why Jacobs might be a useful addition to the bench after the jump.

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After looking at the Mets' current payroll and future payroll obligations on Cot's Baseball Contracts, I came to the following two conclusions: 

1. The Mets cut payroll in 2010 by 10 percent, and the team's current payroll obligation for 2010 sits at $125 million (compared to $139 million last season). 
2. The Mets have already committed $108 million dollars to the 2011 payroll, and that number may be as high as $133 million when we consider arbitration-eligible players that the Mets are very likely to retain in 2011. 

That's right – the Mets, more or less, have committed more money to their 2011 payroll than its currently spending on its 2010 payroll. Some thoughts about this situations after the jump.

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In the aftermath of the Mets' dismal 2009 season, some commentators in the Mets blogosphere argued that the team's woes stemmed from Omar Minaya's failure to surround his core group of players -- David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran -- with "complementary" players.   This argument makes sense on a gut level, but it raises an important question: what do we mean when we talk about "complementary" players? To answer this question, I compared the Mets' roster over the last four seasons to the Phillies' roster over the same time period. I chose the Phillies as a comparable team because, like the Mets, the Phillies' roster has been built around a three-player offensive core -- Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jimmy Rollins.  By isolating these core players and focusing on each team's Top 7 non-core offensive WAR producers, we can see what types of players outside the core helped to contribute to each teams' offensive production over the last four seasons.

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While it seems every other major market team is making big moves this offseason (Yanks, Red Sox, Phillies, Mariners, Rangers), the Mets have done pretty much nothing but sign backup catchers.  This has led to some moaning among Mets fans, but as James pointed out earlier today, the Mets can still significantly upgrade their roster by signing and/or acquiring some of the remaining free agents and trade candidates on the market.  Combine a Sheets signing, a Holliday signing, and an acquisition of Harang to a healthy Mets roster, and all of a sudden the Mets look like contenders. 

Unfortunately, I have little faith that Omar will sign and/or acquire two solid starting pitchers during the offseason. The Mets currently have four pitchers on their roster penciled into the starting rotation: Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, and Perez. That leaves room for one more pitcher.  Thus, the Mets have two options:

1) Sign an injury-prone pitcher like Bedard, Sheets, or Duchscherer to a major-league contract.  To hedge the risk of signing one of these pitchers, also offer minor-league deals to formerly successful starting pitchers looking to make a comeback. 

2) SIgn or acquire a reliable starting pitcher to take the last empty spot in the rotation.  

In Scenario 1, the Mets would sign one of the three high-reward, high-risk free agents, and probably pair that signing with additional signings of low-cost starting pitchers that can be placed in Triple-A.  Potential candidates include Chien-Ming Wang, Noah Lowry, Daniel Cabrera, Rich Hill, or any other pitcher that would be willing to sign a non-guaranteed, one-year deal and pitch in Triple-A.  Niese and Figueroa would provide additional insurance in Buffalo.  

In Scenario 2, the Mets would sign or trade for a starting pitcher who has consistently thrown 200+ innings while performing at or above league average.  Potential candidates include Joel Pineiro, Aaron Harang, Doug Davis, John Garland, Jason Marquis, etc.  

Why can't the Mets follow both Scenario 1 and Scenario 2?  Because that would require the Mets' front office to be creative, and the Mets' front office is not creative.  Signing both an injury-prone pitcher and a more reliable starting pitcher to a major league deal would require the Mets to place more than five starters with major-league contracts on their 25-man roster, which means one of those pitchers would have to move to the bullpen.  Unfortunately, I don't think the Mets are willing to place any of their current starting pitchers in the bullpen.  Perez would be a nightmare as a reliever used in high-leverage situations, and the Mets are not likely to send him to the bullpen to collect $12 million dollars for mop-up duty.  Maine has the potential to be a good reliever, as he has an ability to induce swinging strikes when his fastball is working.  But if healthy, he would certainly be more valuable as a starter.  Plus, Maine is one of "their guys," a starter on the team since 2006.  And let's not forget how Minaya refused to allow Heilman to even step foot in the rotation after establishing himself as a decent reliever. Moving a player from the bullpen to the rotation, or vice-versa, is not something Minaya is prone to do.  

Thus, despite the potential for the Mets to place the likes of Harang and Sheets in their rotation, I am not optimistic that such a significant upgrade to the rotation will occur.  My prediction: the Mets sign Pineiro, Garland, or Marquis, and Niese eventually replaces either Maine or Perez in the rotation (whichever one gets injured first).