The only way the NY Mets can mess up their final Opening Day roster decisions

Craig Kimbrel won’t make the New York Mets Opening Day roster with either Bryan Hudson and his teenage ERA making it or an unneeded 99th round with Richard Lovelady. It’s not tragic to see either lefty make their way onto the Mets roster to begin the year as neither is going to stick around for a long time. Both are A.J. Minter placeholders.

The big question now is what the Mets do with the position players. Mike Tauchman’s knee injury seemed to make things obvious, but the Mets have been non-committal to handing the right field job over to Carson Benge. With Brett Baty seeing action at the position regularly this spring, the Mets have enough confidence to try him out at a new position in the regular season along with time at first base.

We’re down to a point where three spots are available for two players. It’ll be Benge, Jared Young, or Vidal Brujan sharing them. There’s only one wrong duo to select.

Jared Young is useful for the Mets, but not under these circumstances

Jared Young quietly had a really good season in Triple-A last year and a couple of good at-bats in the majors. Under strict circumstances, he can be of good use. Right now isn’t it.

As unsatisfying as it would be to carry Brujan on the MLB roster at the start of the year, at least he can give you speed off the bench. Young is purely a bat and a left-handed one on a roster with plenty of them. Finding playing time for him is much more difficult. He doesn’t have the glove Tauchman brings or the MLB experience you can count on to make him work.

Brujan and Young would be a mistake by the Mets. Even Benge and Young aren't a satisfying duo. This isn’t because Brujan is a must-have or truly needed. Young can get his chance later on. As an optional player, there’s nothing wrong with the Mets testing out the waters with Brujan and later summoning Young to the majors even before we ever see Tauchman return from the IL.

A .956 OPS last year in Triple-A with a .300 batting average and 17 home runs in 321 trips to the plate, Young showed he’s not a complete waste of a 40-man roster spot. It’s just more difficult to imagine how he could fit into games as opposed to Tauchman. He’ll be a pinch hitter, but for who? Brujan, on the other hand, is speedier than several Mets players. He would get into games on a limited time basis far more than Young ever would.

Of course, the biggest failure would be if the Mets choose everyone but Benge who has shown he deserves a big league opportunity. Otherwise, the fallout is too great. Baty becomes practically your everyday right fielder and first base is potentially weakened. The Tauchman injury allows the Mets to skip an abundance of redundancy. While it makes sense and they have the bodies for it, the move should be to keep Benge and Brujan in the majors with Young asked to head to Syracuse and force the Mets to recall him.