Mets Trying to Trade Jed Lowrie in Latest Embarrassing Attempt to Save Money
By Michael Luciano
After making the 2018 All-Star game with the Oakland Athletics, how did 35-year-old infielder Jed Lowrie's follow-up campaign go? Well, somewhere in between horrible and as bad as humanly possible.
Lowrie barely saw the field in the first year of a two-year contract with the New York Mets. Now, GM Brodie Van Wagenen already appears ready to cut his losses and ship Lowrie out of town.
The Mets reason for working to trade Jed Lowrie to make Marte or Porcello move is that they don’t want to exceed luxury tax threshold. To be fair, only three teams last year went over limit, Yankees, Cubs and Dodgers
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) December 11, 2019
While it gets lost in the shuffle after the Edwin Diaz/Robinson Cano trade debacle and constant Mickey Callaway platitudes, Lowrie's 2019 was an abject mess.
Lowrie didn't even play until the middle of September, as it seemed like every month he had a new, mysterious injury. He only stepped u to the plate eight times as a Met, walking once and striking out four times while failing to record a hit. For those of you keeping score at home, that's an OPS+ of -61.
Brodie Van Wagenen on Jed Lowrie: "We've continued to try to diagnose what Jed's issues were that kept them out this season. We'll continue to do that with the plan for him being 100 percent ready to go for spring training."
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) November 12, 2019
You couldn't conceive of a worse first season in Queens for Lowrie, and now it appears that his short, disappointing Mets tenure could be over after just eight plate appearances.
With the Mets looking to add a big name in free agency, they're hoping to offload Lowrie and his $10 million salary in order remain under the luxury tax threshold.