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The Opening Day Roster: Where Are They Now?

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A lot of this - well, all of it, really - is plowing over old ground, but I thought it was worthwhile doing anyway just as a demonstration. The 2010 Mets opening day roster was full of the products of questionable decisions (as the link in this post title indicates). How did those decisions pan out? Let's take a look. Still on active roster Blanco Castillo Wright Pagan Santana Pelfrey Feliciano Niese Takahashi Traded for minimal value Barajas Francoeur Designated for Assignment Jacobs * ** Matthews Cora Catalanotto Nieve * * Assigned to minors after clearing waivers ** Later traded for minimal value Sent to minors Green On active roster after demotion and recall Mejia Igarashi Tejada Injured Tatis Maine Rodriguez Bay In his own special category Perez With the understanding that even good teams make many roster moves over the course of a season, this list is simply staggering. No less than half of the Mets' opening day lineup, pitcher excluded (Barajas, Jacobs, Frenchy, Cora) has either been DFA'd or traded for peanuts. In other words, no less than half of the players whom the Mets deemed the most worthy and capable hitters in their entire organization have subsequently proven to have zero or extremely minimal value. The rest of the opening day roster was riddled with bad decisions that had outcomes that were entirely foreseeable, such as Oliver Perez' ineptitude, Maine and Green's injury problems, FCat having nothing left, and the Mejia debacle. The Mets did ultimately "correct" many of these mistakes, but the motto for this season should be "A Day Late and a Dollar Short." The Mets' unwillingness to spend resources on glaring holes such as 2B left them exposed, and their unwillingness to make obviously necessary moves until the last possible minute, have cost them numerous games and have brought them to this point. And the fate of many of the players on their opening day roster is an indictment of the judgment of the team's management.