Yesterday the Mets traded Byrd and Buck on waivers to the Pirates for Dilson Herrera and a Player to Be Named Later. For the Pirates, this deal is a major push to win now. For the Mets, in the short term, this clears the path for d’Arnaud (in the sense that they don’t have Buck on the bench) and in the long term brings another position player to look at. Keith Law (ESPN) is suggesting that the PTBNL is “solid” but I guess we won’t find out till after the season (waiver rules?).
But let’s focus on Dilson Herrera.
Dilson is 19-years old and projects to play at second base. He was named recently the best defensive second basemen by the managers in the South Atlantic League, but scouts comment that his range and hands play better at second, rather than short stop. He’s actually wildly regarded as more of an offense second basemen with raw power than a defensive one. (Raw in the sense that his “pop” isn’t really developed at this point, but not a lot of “strong raw power” which is usually what we think of when we see raw power). Anyway, here’s some quantitative data:
2011 (Ven. Summer League): 214 AB, 42 R, 66 H, 19 2B, 5 3B, 2 HR, 16 SB, .308 BA, .413 OBP
2012 (Gulf Coast & NYPL): 227 AB, 48 R, 65 H, 12 2B, 5 3B, 8 HR, 12 SB, .286 BA, .341 OBP
2013 (SALL): 423 AB, 69 R, 112 H, 27 2B, 3 3B, 11 HR, 11 SB, .265 BA, .330 OBP
Statistically, he had a power drop from 2012 to 2013, but his doubles amount on pace over the last two years. He’s also 19, so the results of any power he might have is still developing.
For the most part, he’s an intriguing prospect with some interesting numbers despite his small size (5 10). He is playing better defense at second this year than scouts thought he would and when he ages over the the next couple of seasons, it will be interesting to see how that translates into his numbers matching his potential.
Part of his intrigue though stems from a lack of position prospects in the Mets system at the upper level.
