At some point in the near future, probably sometime this week, the Mets are going to call up Jose Reyes. Since signing a minor league deal with the Mets and starting to play baseball again nearly two weeks after the Rockies released him following his completion of a domestic violence suspension, Reyes has struggled. In 35 plate appearances with the Low-A Brooklyn Cyclones and Double-A Binghamton Mets, he’s hit .200/.286/.233 with one stolen base in two attempts.
To call Reyes up, the team will obviously have to remove someone from its active roster. Right now, the Mets are carrying seven relief pitchers. On top of that being the norm in baseball, they’ve carried an eight reliever at times during this season and gone short on the bench. Since it doesn’t seem at all likely that they would go short in the bullpen, there are seemingly only three candidates: Alejandro De Aza, Brandon Nimmo, and Matt Reynolds.
While the Mets mentioned trying Reyes in the outfield when they signed him, he’s only played third base in the minors. If it’s merely a swap of infielder for infielder, then Reynolds would be the player to go back to the minors. He hasn’t torn the cover of the ball in his major league debut, but his .233/.267/.419 line is good for an 84 wRC+. He’s struck out in one-third of his plate appearances, but he’s given the Mets some power off the bench. And for what it’s worth, he played one game in left field—still his only game out there as a professional. He has options and could be sent to the minors.
De Aza has performed the worst of the three by far. He’s hit .163/.234/.235 with a 31 wRC+ in 108 plate appearances. He’s probably better than that, but there’s no question he’s been terrible this year. He signed a one-year deal and doesn’t have options, so the Mets would risk losing him if he were the one to go.
Like Reynolds, Nimmo has held his own, albeit it in an even briefer amount of time in the big leagues. Called up when Michael Conforto was sent down to Vegas, Nimmo has hit .276/.323/.379 with a 96 wRC+ and one very long home run. He was a big part of the Mets’ comeback win on Thursday night against the Cubs and managed to get on base a couple of times in the series before the hitter behind him hit a home run. He, too, has options, but it seems like he should have every opportunity to stick around until Conforto comes back.