Before tonight’s loss to the Cincinatti Reds the Mets announced that they made a trade within the division acquiring 25-year-old right fielder Jeff Francoeur from the Braves for Ryan Church. Church had been manning right field for the Mets, but will now swap positions with Francoeur and man the right of Turner Stadium.
Both players are having sub-par seasons with Ryan Church batting .280 with just 2 homeruns in just 232 at-bats thanks to his typical injury bug and Francoeur batting .250 with 5 homeruns and just 12 walks in 304 at-bats.
Franceour has by far the better potential at just 25 and having hit 29 homeruns in a season, driving in over 100 RBI’s twice, playing a full 162 games twice, and already winning a gold glove with one of the best arms in baseball. Downside is that his numbers have declined the last two seasons.
Ryan Church has already peaked as a .275/.340/.450 player, which is solid, but not spectacular. Church will always be a solid player offensively and devensively who tends to get injured often.
So while the Mets are taking a risk by aquiring Frenchy it is a smart risk in my opinion as someone who has always liked Francoeur and thinks he can settle down as a .270/.295/.490 player, but will put up some spectacular years offensively and always give you gold glove caliber defense, which will be very very important in Citi Field. Plus, while Church was a class act I like the attitude that Francoeur will bring to this team and hopefully spark them to a turn around(although unlikely).
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