Mets Worst Free-Agent Signings: No. 5 Jed Lowrie
This offseason, we’re looking at the Mets’ history with free agency. The first half of our list began with names like Familia, McCann, and Castillo. Next is an infielder who played with the Mets from 2019 to 2020. The word “played” is used very loosely.
If someone is on a roster but never gets a hit, is he really on the team? That bit of baseball existentialism was born from Jed Lowrie‘s two years in New York — comprised of eight plate appearances.
Carlos Correa will likely forever remain tied with Jed Lowrie on the all-time hit list. And his leg was supposedly in better condition too.
By the simple measurement of on-field playing time, Lowrie is the worst use of money by Brodie Van Wagenen or any Mets general manager. The agent-turned-executive passed on the likes of D.J. LaMahieu and instead took his old client, who was fresh off an All-Star season with the Oakland A’s in which he played in more than 153 games and posted at least a 120 OPS+ for the second straight year.
Despite his recent success in the Bay Area, it was an unusual move considering the team had already acquired Robinson Cano via trade to play second base and witnessed the potential of Jeff McNeil for the back half of 2018.
Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
Lowrie was signed to a two-year deal worth $20 million and with it may have bought himself the power of invisibility. Lowrie’s game log on Baseball-Reference has more white space than text. The jokes write themselves, and the joke was ultimately more on the Mets than the player.
Lowrie was diagnosed with a knee capsule sprain during his first spring training with the Mets. And if you were looking to read any other details you were mostly out of luck.
He was out of action and out of sight. That July, Van Wagenen said Lowrie was suffering from something called posterior cruciate ligament laxity. The mysterious nature of his health lingered for the rest of the season but sort of cleared up in September when he showed he could play and he was an actual living being.
Lowrie made eight trips to the plate, all off the bench. He struck out four times. On September 19, he drew a walk in Colorado and that’s what saved his on-base percentage from not being .000. He never made it past first base and never took the field.
Peter Gammons wrote in April 2021 that Lowrie claimed he was prohibited by the Mets from getting surgery following the 2019 season to address a knee fat pad impingement and threatened to file a grievance against Lowrie if he had the procedure. It was one of the last vestiges of a Wilpon regime that often restricted players’ well-being. Instead of potentially being healthy for the abbreviated 2020 campaign, Lowrie never appeared.
“When you’re questioned on social media or by people behind your back, I consider it to be nothing more significant than gossip,” Lowrie told Gammons in The Athletic. “I’ve had some injuries, but this last situation with the Mets was really frustrating.”
Once the season was done and Lowrie was free from the Mets’ restraints, he had that surgery. With the miracles of modern medicine and common sense, he returned in 2021 as a healthy second baseman in a return to Oakland.
He played in 130 more games than he did for his entire two years in New York with 112 more hits and 14 more home runs. Although he had clearly peaked in 2018, it would have been nice to see what he could have contributed to the Mets. Or see him at all.
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