Last week Jose Iglesias announced he is signing with the San Diego Padres on a minor league deal thus bringing his time with the Mets to a close. Let’s not forget the impact though it was small that Iglesias had on the Mets. In 270 ABs he filed a major void for the second base position as Jeff McNeil was slumping and put up a career .337 batting average in 85 games with 91 hits and a 3.1 WAR. His time in the orange and blue will not be forgotten. It is with solemn gratitude that the Mets will be missing his talent on the club. Known for his soft contact and table setting approach, Jose Iglesias beat out 34 infield singles, using his speed to leg out close plays at first. This was a key factor in boosting his batting average throughout the 2024 season. A clubhouse energy and latin singer it cannot be stated how much his presence meant towards the club which went on a historic run all the way to the NLCS and revitalized hope back into a depleted franchise.

But now Iglesias signs back with the Padres and is set to make $3 million dollars if he joins the big league roster. The Padres are the SAME team that kept Iglesias away from the majors for an entire year as he spent all of 2023 in their minor leagues. Even after batting .317 in 28 games with a .892 OPS for the triple AAA El Paso Padres affiliate he still decided to head back to the west coast.

Reports sway between that the Mets offered Iglesias a one year deal after he was originally seeking a two year deal. However after a pretty bleak offseason for the pop star no real offers stood out that showed a team truly wanted him.

The Mets allegedly offered Iglesias a one year deal but he turned it down hoping they would come back and give him a multi year contract. Iglesias turned down these rumors so we cannot truly pinpoint whether the Mets did in fact make an offer. It is a real disappointment that the Mets will be without their icon and frankly their Brand as ‘OMG’ not just became a standout song of the MLB but a franchise favorite for the Mets. Regardless of the fact that the Mets have Juan Soto and Pete Alonso on the team it still hurts that the fan favorite icon is no longer associated with us.

David Stearns took a different approach as he gave Nick Madrigal a one year deal to replace Iglesias talent. Madrigal was looked at as a younger version as Iglesias and had good raw talent however with a poor track record of staying healthy and constantly being injured it was a concern for the Mets to bring him in as a replacement when Iglesias was more proven and wouldn’t have cost much more.

And now it is March 7th and Madrigal is on the 60 day IL and is no longer a consideration for the upcoming season at second base. The Mets instead of just pivoting to sign Iglesias as he was still on the market once Madrigal went down with injury decided to stay internal for the second base position and have their eyes on Brett Baty and LuisAngel Acuna as good backup replacements to compete for the second base position behind Jeff McNeil who will still see majority of playing time at the position.

It is a bummer but Davis Stearns knew what he was doing when he signed Madrigal. Stearns always has been the guy to go internal then sign free agents and always wants to see the pedigree of talent his team has in the minors. Having Madigral on the team allowed for the team to ‘expend him’ as he would have had options to be sent back to the minors. Stearns also knew very much about his injury history and yet still signed him knowing there is a chance he may miss the season and allow time for the young guys to prove himself. The Mets also felt that it was disrespectful to their franchise and to Igelsias to resign him to a prove it minor league deal after the season he had for the Mets and after coming in second in team WAR. It is okay we will have an open mind in this season and let the season play out before making assumptions about this years play.