Mets have told Jay Bruce he’s their starting right fielder

If you hate Jay Bruce being on the Mets, you may want to stop reading right now.

The Mets outfield situation has been a bit of a mess this offseason, but it looks like the organization has decided what to do. In an article released on Tuesday afternoon, New York Post’s Ken Davidoff is reporting that the Mets have told Jay Bruce he will be their starting right fielder going into the 2017 season.

The news comes after a tumultuous offseason that saw the Amazin’s basically begging anyone to take Jay Bruce off their hands.

New York spoke with numerous teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays, about their outfield surplus. Sandy Alderson and co. preferred to deal Bruce, but the team was also open to offloading Curtis Granderson in his final contract year.

Ultimately, no one took the bait during the winter meetings, and the club came out looking for at least a couple of prospects in return for Bruce’s services. 

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With all those options and potential trades exhausted, it seems the Mets have finally realized and accepted the inevitable: Jay Bruce is staying, at least for the time being.

While most fans will be disappointed to learn this, there’s a chance Bruce has a bounce-back year after his struggles at the end of last season. Sometimes, it takes players more time to adjust to the big scene of New York before they’re able to perform as expected.

Bruce’s value is right now at an all-time low as well, so any return at this moment is probably not worth it. If the Mets are patient, and Bruce starts out the season hot, it might not be a bad idea to use him as a trade chip later on in the season to fill another potential hole that could develop.

Of course, if these report ends up being accurate, the next question the Mets will have to answer is, what happens to Michael Conforto? Conventional wisdom suggests he’ll be starting at AAA Las Vegas to make sure his bat stays sharp. He could also get work in out in center field as that’s potentially where a need could arise.

Next: Mets captain David Wright still has “some good baseball” in him

It’ll be an interesting Spring Training for the Mets, that’s undisputed. We’ll see who performs and who struggles. With the addition of the World Baseball Classic as well, it’s going get quite fun for those of us that like to speculate and predict what’s going to happen. I cannot wait.