According to Jon Heyman, the Mets were strongly involved with Kike Hernandez. Heyman noted that the interest was while Porter was the GM, so I’m not sure if the interest stays as strong without him.

The main attraction for the 29 year old is his ability to move around the diamond. Over his career, he has played every position besides squatting behind the dish as a catcher. In 2020, he played mostly second but also all of the OF positions, 1B, and 15 innings at short. In 2020, he was at 0 OAA at every position, but his best position is second where he had a plus 4 OAA in 2019. However, in 2018 he collected plus 4 in CF according to OAA. (From earlier article on MetsJunkies).

Hernandez is a right handed bat with little pop. His OPS has only been above .800 in two seasons (2015 & 2018). He owns a .240/.313/.425 career slash line over 690 career games.

In 2020, he had a down year for the world champions, Los Angeles Dodgers. He hit .230/.270/.410 over 48 games. His hard rates were above average but that was one of the few offensive pluses for Hernandez. (From other Article on MetsJunkies)

Still, his versatility is a main attraction and a perfect fit for every bench. Also him batting right handed makes him even more of a fit. Flexibility on the bench is something I think is very important.

According to Mike Puma, the Mets also had interest in signing Trevor Williams. Williams was DFA’d by the Pirates and would provide depth in AAA. Williams has struggled over the last two seasons, pitching to a 5.60 ERA over 201 innings. However in 2017 and 2018, he was a very solid starter, pitching to a combined 3.56 ERA over 321 innings. In 2018 he was able to limit hard hit contact at a very good rate.

Williams won’t get a MLB deal or a 40 man roster spot. He could be a depth piece who has pitched in the majors over the last four seasons, being successful in 2 of those. We also know how bad the Pirates are in developing their pitchers, so who knows there is something in Williams. At least the risk is low.

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