New York Mets: Grading the Potential 2012 Bench

On pretty much every National League team, you are going to have five bench players. Out of those five players, you want good players, but you basically want four different roles filled.

Those roles are...

1) A pinch-runner

2) A power bat that can hit a home run at any time

3) An outfield defensive replacement

4) A back-up catcher who is a quality replacement

In addition to that, your pinch-runner can be a great contact hitter and your defensive replacement can have great speed, etc, but you basically want those four roles filled in one way or another.

I'm going to grade the Mets' bench on which roles are filled by which players (or lack thereof). I'm grading these players on a role or bench player only scale, so understand that if I give a bench player an "A," I'm not saying he's as good as Miguel Cabrera. All I'm saying is that they fill their role perfectly.

As it appears on the Mets' website right now, the Mets' bench is made up of four players. Those players are Scott Hairston, Justin Turner, Ronny Cedeno and Mike Nickeas. Clearly, that means there is one player who is going to make the team out of spring training.

Personally, I believe that player is going to be "Captain" Kirk Nieuwenhuis. There are no reports to this, it is purely personal opinion, but if it weren't for a shoulder injury, Kirk probably would have been with the team at the end of last season. The Mets also have two backup utility infielders that I think are likely to make the team.

Scott Hairston

Scott Hairston is the Mets' backup utility outfielder. Hairston can play all three outfield positions, although I wouldn't exactly call him a defensive replacement.

I understand that with Duda starting in RF, the Mets will probably use a defensive replacement late in games quite often, but I'm just not sure Hairston is that guy.

Hairston had a decent year with the bat. He only batted .235, but he did hit seven home runs in only 132 ABs. That's actually decent as far as pinch hitters go. He was only 3-for-19 in "late game" ABs last year, but two of those hits were home runs.

Hairston received 41 ABs as a pinch hitter last season. In those 41 ABs, he only got eight hits, with three of them being home runs. He also drove in just six runs. Ideally, you want to see more production out of a bench player as a pinch hitter.

So as far as the four positions you want filled from your bench, the closest Hairston comes to filling any of them is the home run threat, and even that is by a slight margin. Averaging one home run per every 19 ABs isn't bad, but only three of those came as an actual pinch hitter.

Bench Player Grade: C

Kirk Nieuwenhuis

The knock on Nieuwenhuis is that he does everything good but nothing great. There are really two ways you can look at something like that.

You can either say that because of that, he'll never be more than an average major leaguer but will probably always have a spot in the league, or you can say that he will never succeed because he doesn't excel at any one thing.

Personally, I like to believe the former. If Nieuwenhuis got steady playing time, as I believe he might at some point this year, I think he would be able to develop even more and consistently perform better than average.

So basically, when you look at Nieuwenhuis in relation to the Mets' bench, he is kind of their "do it all" guy. He will most likely be the defensive replacement that comes in for Duda late in games. He will be their contact pinch-hitter and could potentially even be their pinch runner as he does have decent speed.

Because "Captain" Kirk can do a little bit of everything, he will get a higher grade, but it also gets knocked down a little because he doesn't do anything at a superior level.

Bench Player Grade: B

Ronny Cedeno

The problem with Ronny Cedeno is that he would most likely be considered the Mets' defensive replacement, something New York doesn't need at all. Ruben Tejada was actually a very good defensive shortstop last season and should continue to be.

Cedeno also isn't going to hit much, as evidenced by his .246 career average with only two home runs in 413 ABs last season.

Cedeno could be used as a pinch-runner, but most likely as just a faster replacement as he only has a 59 percent career stolen base success rate.

As you can probably tell, I don't necessarily dislike the Mets' signing of Cedeno, but I also don't really understand it. The one thing you really can't argue about Tejada is that he is good defensively. The Mets essentially have two very similar players playing the same position and the move doesn't make any sense to me.

By all indications, Cedeno will start the year with the club, but personally, I believe that if Josh Satin continues to hit in AAA, he will eventually take over Cedeno's bench spot.

Bench Player Grade: C

Justin Turner

Turner came on like gangbusters last season as he batted .325 with 20 RBI in his first full month with the team in May. After that month, Turner cooled off significantly, but still managed to have a productive season.

Turner can play both 2B and 3B well, and in an emergency type situation can also play SS. This means that he does have some value as a defensive utility infielder.

Turner's pinch hitting numbers are way too small of a sample size to judge anything, but in 10 ABs, he had four hits, including two doubles and three RBI.

Turner has the potential to be a quality contributor on a daily basis as the first player off the bench.

Bench Player Grade: B

Mike Nickeas

Mike Nickeas probably wouldn't be in the major leagues if the Mets had any other options for a backup catcher. 

In 21 games last year, Nickeas got 51 ABs and hit just .189 with two extra base hits. Granted, the backup catcher tends to be more of a defensive position, but those are numbers that you never want to see at the major league level.

The Mets did sign Rob Johnson this offseason, but I don't know if I would call that another option. Johnson hit just .190 last year, but that was in 179 ABs, a much larger sample than Nickeas.

I think Nickeas wins the job out of spring training, but if a younger catcher emerges out of the minors, they might get a chance to unseat him.

He is a quality defensive catcher, so that role gets filled, but you ideally want a backup catcher that has a little more offense. Nickeas is 29 years old, so I'm not sure how much more, if any, developing he will do.

Bench Player Grade: C-

Overall Bench Wrap-Up

In regards to the four roles that you ideally want filled by your bench that I mentioned in the first slide, the Mets really only fill one: Nieuwenhuis would be a quality defensive replacement for Duda in right.

The Mets also "sort of" fill a couple of the other roles, as Cedeno and Nieuwenhuis would be serviceable pinch-runners, Hairston has some power and Nickeas is decent defensively as a back-up catcher. In other words, the Mets have roles established, but they just don't have the best talent to fill those roles.

The grades for the individual players were B, B, C, C and C-, so obviously the grade for the bench as a whole is not going to be great. Because the Mets managed to fill some specific roles, the grade gets raised a little, but they really need to bring in better talents to plug the rest of the holes on the bench.

Overall Mets Bench Grade: C