While the Mets pitching is in the spotlight down in spring training, they did make a big offseason acquisition to help their offense, and Michael Cuddyer says he's ready to fulfill the contract the Mets signed him to. NY1's Kevin Garrity filed the following report.
The Mets know they needed to add to their offense this past offseason, and they knew they'd like to add a corner outfielder. They did both when they signed the versatile Michael Cuddyer, who can also play the corners in the infield.
"I had faced all these guys, so I knew what the staff had to bring," Cuddyer said. "And then, I looked at myself in the lineup and the length that this lineup now has, the depth that the lineup could possibly have, and for me, it was a perfect fit."
"What he brings to the table as far as playing the game hard, playing the game the right way, you know, helping kind of with the culture of the clubhouse in moving guys over, playing winning baseball, because that's what it is for him right now," said Mets third baseman David Wright.
Cuddyer will be 36 in March. He only played in 49 games last year because of shoulder and hamstring injuries, but he said he's healthy now and ready to produce and fulfill the two-year, $21 million deal the Mets gave him back in November
"Once the shoulder was healed, I wanted to go out and play. I didn't want to spend another three weeks rehabbing and getting my body back in shape," he said. "It was almost, we were getting into August, so I went out and played, and that's [how I] end up having the hamstring injuries, because my legs weren't ready because they weren't able to do anything for seven weeks. And ultimately, that's where the other injury came."
"The jury was out where he was in his career," said Mets manager Terry Collins. "But I know the reports still came in that he can really hit, you know, that leadership stuff that you just, it's hard to find."
The veteran turned down a one-year, $15 million deal to stay with the Colorado Rockies. The reason? He thinks the Mets are on the verge of winning now.
"I think we're going to be really good," he said. "But again, we have to go out there and we have to work. We can't just rest on the status of of, can we be a good team? You have to go out there and you have to perform. That's bottom line."
Cuddyer was a member of those Twins teams that seemed to lose to the Yankees every year in the playoffs in the early 2000s. Now that he enters the twilight of his career, he hopes to get back to the postseason in a Mets uniform.