The Mets president admits that he favored hitting in front of the defense to strengthen the team. However, Sandy Alderson adds that Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr. came to the club primarily to help with their gloves.
“While some of our players aren’t geniuses on defense, we think our combination is pretty good overall,” Alderson said Thursday.
His comments came during ESPN’s broadcast of the Mets’ 8-4 win over the Washington Nationals in Port St. Louis. Lucie, Florida.
Washington stole three bases from new Mets Brian McCann. Dominican Victor Robles received two of these thefts.
Brandon Nimmo, on the other hand, was caught offside by national team player Jackson Rutledge.
Last year, New York made 32 errors to rank 10th out of 30 major league teams in that category.
“I totally agree with Sandy,” said Mets Dominican manager Luis Rojas. “It’s one of the things we’re working on in this camp. We’re talking about the basic race. I failed in that today. They caught us in first place with the score of 3-2. That should never happen.
“I think we allowed three steals, even when McCann played well. Defensively, we can hurt ourselves and we’ve seen that happen in the past. It happened a year before. “
Gary DiSarcina, field coach, is working to improve, Rojas said.
“We want the players to be able to trust that the defense supports them, so that they are not afraid that someone will come in contact with the ball, will be efficient and will manage the account better. So we need this in the gardens and in the inner box. We also need a catcher to control the base race, so we’ll focus on that first during the camp, for sure.
EVIDENCE IN GRAPEWEAR AND CACTUS LINKS
ORIOLES 6, RED Socks 3 (6 INNINGS)
Starter Dean Kremer fought in his first outing in Baltimore, accepting three rounds and the same number of shots. He issued two tickets and withdrew five rivals.
Mexican Ramón Urías hit a shot three times.
PHILIS 15, YANQUIS 0 (8)
Alex Bohm hit a three-lap run in front of Albert Abreu, who allowed four runs during a group of nine in the fourth inning, including an RBI single by Rhys Hopkins.