Staying true to the theme of the off-season, the Mets signed former Florida Marlin Taylor Tankersley and much-traveled, bench player Willie Harris to contracts.
The left-handed Tankersley comes to the Mets via Florida having bounced back and forth between the major league club and the minors, He own a career 4.58 ERA and a pretty hefty WHIP of 1.52.
Ideally, the Mets will have Tankersley take a crack at the left-handed specialist role since Pedro Feliciano has moved cross-town and is now wearing pinstripes for that other team. Somewhat more encouraging than his total career stats, Tankersley has faired better against left-handed batters with lefties hitting just .217 career-wise off of him. He’s also been effective with strikeouts with a K/9 of 8.72.
Typically, those lefty specialists find themselves in high-leverage situations with runners in scoring position. Looking at those stats for Tankersley, for his career, hitters have batted just .139 against him in high leverage situations and .208 for his career with runners in scoring position. With these kind of numbers, Tankersley could fill the role nicely if he can control his walks.
Willie Harris on the other hand is the kind of player that’s nice to fill out the roster with as extra window dressing. Aside from spot starts, he will most likely be relegated to pinch-hitting duties and defensive substitutions assuming he makes the team out of spring training. Harris has a career .239 batting average, with very little pop (just 37 career home runs) and some decent speed (101 stolen bases). He hasn’t fair well at CitiField the past couple of seasons collecting just three hits in 38 at-bats for a 0.97 average.
Though Harris’ versatility to play both the outfield and the infield with serve him well giving manager Terry Collins the opportunity to make double-switches and pinch hit were needed.
Overall, Harris and Tankersley could prove to be adequate role players for the upcoming season. Certainly, not the big-name players that Mets fans dream about, but with limited payroll flexibility, these minor additions and small moves could round out to be wise maneuvers at a small price.
