PORT ST. LUCIE – The second part of Omar Minaya’s big winter gamble finally arrived in camp yesterday morning, and the Mets can only pray that their angst about Jorge Julio begins and ends with his difficulty obtaining a visa out of Venezuela.
For nothing less than Minaya’s reputation and the Mets’ season could be tied to how well Julio and Duaner Sanchez chaperone the ball from the rotation to the trustworthy Billy Wagner.
Minaya’s predecessor, Jim Duquette, continues to be stung by being on watch when the Mets controversially exchanged Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. This is Minaya’s Kazmir moment; the debatable decision to thin his starting-pitching depth to obtain Julio and Sanchez.
Minaya said he “didn’t see [the trades] as gambles because you have to look at the big picture.”
For the record, Mets executives will tell you the big picture in moving Kris Benson and Jae Seo was about imbedding power arms into the pen, adding a couple of intriguing secondary pieces (John Maine and Steve Schmoll), and gaining greater roster and financial flexibility.
Behind the scenes, though, Mets people will say Seo overachieved last season and that his stuff is not better than that of prospect Brian Bannister. And it is well known now that the Mets found living with Kris Benson’s contract more tolerable than living with Anna Benson.
When they saw an opening to remove both, they pounced, even if it meant obtaining essentially Armando Benitez Lite, the talented, but erratic Julio.
“When you look at the trades, you get wrapped up in just a piece of the puzzle,” pitching coach Rick Peterson said. “But if you look at the whole puzzle, which means covering about 1,450 innings for the season, we have a much better looking overall puzzle with [Julio and Sanchez].”
Julio pitched to a 1.99 ERA in 2002, but in subsequent years his ERA rose and his hold on a closing job was relinquished due to a skittishness in keeping the ball in the strike zone and in the park.
Julio, who took a physical yesterday and threw off a mound, said his 5.90 ERA as an Oriole last year was attributable, in part, to “not knowing my job.”
Willie Randolph, however, said he did not intend to discuss a firm role for Julio, explaining that he will mix and match before the closer as he sees fit, rather than establish an iron-clad formula. But Minaya’s gambit would almost certainly prove to be foolhardy if Julio and Sanchez are not flourishing as the main ingredients in the seventh and eighth innings.
Sanchez must prove the change-up he learned from Dodgers teammate Eric Gagne – that has the Mets so enthralled (bullpen coach Guy Conti called it the third best in camp after Pedro Martinez’s and Aaron Heilman’s – can help him better cope with lefty hitters, who batted .310 off him last season. Peterson will try to get Julio to work down in the zone more to diminish the home-run ball.
Peterson is encouraged with the array of arms he has to choose from in the pen, calling it the most talent ever at his disposal. Only Wagner, Julio, Sanchez and righty specialist Chad Bradford have guaranteed jobs. Peterson forecasts a feisty competition among righties Heath Bell, Bartolome Fortunato, Yusaku Iriki, Juan Padilla, Schmoll, Alay Soler and Mitch Wylie for relief slots.
But that is a competition for supplementary parts. Minaya needs Julio and Sanchez thriving in front of Wagner or else the Mets’ season – and the GM’s reputation – are both going to be endangered.
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Julio’s Orioles stats (s, lcf)
Yr. IP W-L ERA HRs Svs
2005 71.2 3-5 5.90 14 0
2004 69.0 2-5 4.57 11 22
2003 61.2 0-7 4.38 10 36
2002 68.0 5-6 1.99 5 25
2001 21.1 1-1 3.80 2 0
Car. 291.2 11-24 4.20 42 83
