With some of baseball's marquee free agents off the table before this week's winter meetings started, baseball's free-agent attention shifts to the large class of next-tier free-agent targets. One of those targets is the perpetually underrated Ben Zobrist.
A late bloomer who didn't play a full season in the majors until age 28, the man sometimes known as Zorilla has caught attention in the continuing analytics revolution in baseball. Zobrist has never been a player who has put up the classically impressive batting average or homer totals but instead has done well at every aspect of the game, from drawing walks to hitting doubles to playing defense at multiple crucial positions. Turning 35 next season, Zobrist now hits the open market for the first and possibly only time in his professional career.
Perhaps the team most aggressive at courting Zobrist this winter is the New York Mets, who surprised many by winning 90 games, putting away the flailing Washington Nationals, and making it to the World Series. With Daniel Murphy a free agent and unlikely to return, an upgrade to Zobrist makes sense at a cursory glance. But it would also be a mistake by the Mets.
