Staying and Leaving New York

The weekend's baseball headlines had a New York connection, with reliever Zach Britton re-upping with the Yankees, while the Mets traded backup catcher Kevin Plawecki to the Indians for a trio of prospects.
The Yanks and Britton seemed like a logical deal -- especially after David Robertson moved onto the Phillies. With 139 saves in his 3-1/2 seasons the Orioles closer, he made a good impression on Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone. And, as you've heard me say before, lefties have more value in Yankee Stadium. Now a full year past his achilles injury, and still just 31, he joins Dellin Betances, Chad Green and fellow southpaw Aroldis Chapman in what should still be one of the most intimidating bullpens in baseball.
Plawecki is a different story. You knew that after the signing of free agent Wilson Ramos, either Plawecki or Travis d'Aranud would be leaving Flushing. The Mets still have a lot of faith in the flashes of talent d'Araud shows on occasion and valued that more than his frequent pattern of injuries. A backup catcher might be more important to the Mets than most teams, due to Ramos' recent fragility. Of course like that axe behind the "break glass in emergency" panel, the Mets hope they don't need to write d'Arnaud on the lineup card more than once a week.

(My image of Britton is from the August 11th, 2018 game between the Yankees and Rangers; I captured Plawecki 10 nights later when the Mets hosted the Giants at Citi Field.)

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