Adrian Gonzalez is a New York Met

by Darren Meenan January 14, 2018

Late Saturday night, the Mets signed veteran Adrian Gonzalez. I'm #TeamDom, but in no way hate this move. Sure, you can say the Mets are picking on leftovers, but if there's something left in Adrian's tank, they're getting it off the value menu.

Adrian Gonzalez will make $22.3 million this season. The Mets will pay about 550K of that.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) January 14, 2018

Last season, Adrian Gonzalez's saw the disabled list for the very first time. An aching back and the rise of Cody Bellinger left Adrian off the Dodgers postseason roster. In his final AB on September 26th, he hit a dinger, and then it was curtains on his LA career.

Dating back to 2006, Gonzalez played in no less than 156 games per year while making the ASG 5 times, and won 4 Gold Gloves. His 2017 was surely a down year on the field, but he did serve as a mentor for Bellinger while he was getting acclimated to the bigs.

Cody Bellinger said Gonzalez had been kind in sharing defensive positioning tips and other suggestions to calm a rookie's wandering mind.

"I don't really pay attention the most," Bellinger told the LA Times. "He really kind of locked me down: This is the big leagues, you've got to focus on every pitch."

In July, Gonzalez told Times columnist Dylan Hernandez that he had come to appreciate "a different perspective" at this later stage of his career.

"You're not worried about all the other things that a young kid would worry about," Gonzalez said then. "I'm not trying to make it to an All-Star game, I'm not trying to win a Gold Glove. I'm just trying to have fun. I'm just trying to help the team win."

This is great to hear when it comes to the Mets and Dom Smith, but I don't see Adrian coming here with hopes to coach our rookie. This guy is a gamer, and that 1B job is in his sights. Spring Training is just a month away, and the competition will be on.

Not sure how so many are ready to give up on Dom Smith. Dude barely had a cup of coffee in Queens.
— Darren Meenan (@DarrenJMeenan) January 12, 2018

I'm hoping Dom sees this as motivation. I don't feel he's gotten a fair shake from not only the fans, but the press and team. I think this kid could be a star, but if I'm wrong, the Mets just gave themselves a pretty good low risk, high reward backup plan.