Veteran outfielder Ender Inciarte, whom the Mets designated for task final week, rejected an outright task in favor of free company, per Minor League Baseball’s transactions log. Inciarte, who started the season on a minor league cope with the Yankees, signed with the Mets shortly after being reduce free within the Bronx. He was within the Majors every week later however tallied solely eight plate appearances over 11 video games, functioning primarily as a late-inning choice off the bench for Mets skipper Buck Showalter.
It’s fairly a special place than Inciarte discovered himself simply 5 years in the past, when he was representing the Braves as an All-Star at this level in the summertime. That 12 months noticed Inciarte bat .300 for the second time in three seasons and take residence the second of what could be three consecutive Gold Glove Awards. A standout table-setter and all-world defender at that time in his profession, Inciarte batted .300/.347/.401 with 20 homers, 78 doubles, 17 triples and 59 stolen bases in 420 video games/1857 plate appearances from 2015-17.
Inciarte regarded like a core piece for the Braves, who rewarded him with a five-year, $30.525MM extension in December of 2016. He gained his second and third Gold Gloves within the contract’s first two seasons and likewise smacked 21 homers with 50 stolen bases, usually making the deal appear like a sensible funding.
A again pressure price him greater than two months of the 2019 season, nevertheless, and he injured his hamstring not lengthy after getting back from that first prolonged keep on the injured listing. He posted respectable however diminished numbers on the plate that season, however Inciarte’s bat utterly cratered in 2020 and hasn’t but rebounded. He’s turned in only a .197/.262/.271 slash line since Opening Day 2020, and whereas that’s a small pattern of 228 plate appearances, Inciarte hasn’t fared nicely in Triple-A, both. He’s additionally handled additional hamstring points alongside the best way.
A crew needing some protection in middle area and/or some velocity off the bench may check out Inciarte, however it appears likelier he’ll discover a new group on a minor league contract after the All-Star break. At 31 years previous, it’s doable Inciarte may get wholesome and reemerge as a viable huge league outfielder. He nonetheless has common or higher defensive scores relationship again to 2019, however they don’t stack up with the elite charges he posted previous to the again and hamstring accidents that started in that 2019 marketing campaign.
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