Mets Jambalinka: Ruben Tejada, Matt Harvey, Domingo Tapia

Chris Walendin’s piece on the Mets’ effective payroll got me thinking about the switch from Jose Reyes to Ruben Tejada. There’s a chance that 2011 was Reyes’ career year, only he did it in 586 PA rather than 700+ PA. Reyes accumulated 6.2 fWAR last year. This year, 60 people have registered predictions for Reyes over at FanGraphs. Combined, they project slightly more playing time for Reyes – 624 PA – but a drop to 4.5 fWAR. Meanwhile, Tejada last year had 1.8 WAR in 376 PA. If Tejada matches his 2011 production over 624 PA, he would be nearly a 3.0 WAR player, at minimum wage instead of the eight figures that Reyes is pulling down. Meanwhile, 26 people have projected Tejada over at FanGraphs and they combined to give him 574 PA this year and a 2.4 WAR. Tejada has never been a highly-touted prospect. He didn’t earn a big signing bonus and he never appeared on a Baseball America Top 100 list. But he was in the majors doing a solid job at age 21. He’s not going to be as prod...