Mets Trade Rumor: Mark Loretta
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by Dmarine40
The Mets went from a surplus of second basemen to having second base become a question mark in the matter of two days. Jose Valentin is now pretty much done for the year, and Damion Easley is on bereavement leave. Ruben Gotay has been stellar at the plate, but we've now discovered that he really isn't that great in the field as we saw in his game blowing double play error yesterday. Now the Mets are calling up Anderson Hernandez who is the second base version of Rey Ordonez both in the field and at the plate. So an interesting trade proposition was brought up on WFAN this afternoon with Chris Carlin. What if the Mets made a deal to acquire Mark Loretta from the Astros? Not really I name I would think of, but the numbers made me think. Loretta is batting .401 with runners in scoring position, and batting .342 with runners in scoring position with two outs (I'm salivating). Mark Loretta is a career .299 hitter with decent speed and a great glove (only 6 errors this year and 5 while he was playing out of position at shortstop). Since Loretta is not a marquee player and is not a spring chicken by any stretch I don't think it would take much to get him. The Astros are planning on rebuilding now that Biggio will retire and they have a young core that they might get rid of Loretta for a mid-level prospect. I like this idea the more I think about it. Loretta would be solid in the two hole and add some security to the infield. I still feel that we need to ride Gotay until he cools down, but having an experienced veteran at second base as we head towards the playoffs would be a nice addition.
