Is Picking Up Julio Lugo Smart?

Around Mets blogs, twitter updates, and forms I have seen a lot of people being negative about a future signing of Julio Lugo and that it will be a bad move for the Mets.  The thing is I just don’t understand how this could possibly be a bad move for a badly injured team like the Mets.  People have even said it would be bad because “Angel Berroa is now in the fold”.  Are you kidding me? You would rather have Berroa over Julio Lugo? I hope he realizes Berroa is hitting .125 on the year.

The fact is offensively Julio Lugo really has not been that bad of a player this year.  Sure he isn’t worth what the Sox were paying him, but the Mets would most likely be getting him at a serious discount so it would not matter.  In 109 at-bats Lugo has posted a line of .284/.352/.367.  That is definitely a big improvement from the options of Alex Cora or Angel Berroa we have right now.

Lugo is posting by far his worst defensive season possible with his defensive value at a -8.2, however, Berroa isn’t doing to hot with a -2.8 and has been terrible over his career and Cora has a -4.6 (also one of his worst defensive seasons).  For the long term I’d put more emphasis on this, but right now the Mets need offense more and Lugo is definitely the best offensive weapon.  He is hitting the most line drives in his career at over 23%, which will play great in Citi Field, and he has grounded  into 0 double plays on the year!!!!

Now while Lugo is no longer a ‘stud’ player I’ve always been a big fan of his play and he won’t give you the leadership of Alex Cora, but he will give you the best option with the bat and on the basepaths until (hopefully) when Jose Reyes returns.  You then get ‘Berroa out of the fold’ by designating him for assignment and then you release Tim Redding and call up Jesus Feliciano?  I say it is by far worth it to pick him up.

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