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NEW YORK (AP) — he infielder visited Citi Field on Wednesday after finalizing a $20 million Manny Pina Jersey , two-year contract with the New York Mets, likely less money and a shorter term than he would have gotten before the free-agent market for solid-but-less-than-stellar veterans buckled a year ago.“I think that argument could be made,” he said. “But you deal in reality, and so I’m excited to be a Met.”A switch-hitter who turns 35 in April, Lowrie and is coming off his first All-Star appearance. In his 11th major league season, Lowrie set career highs last year for Oakland with 23 homers, 99 RBIs, 78 walks and 128 strikeouts, hitting .267.“He’s a big wine connoisseur. He gets better with age like many of the wines that he collects,” said new Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, Lowrie’s former agent.Lowrie, wife Milessa, daughter Saige and son Miles likely will live in New York City, possibly in Brooklyn. They have homes in Houston and his hometown of Salem, Oregon, where he keeps his wine collection of several hundred bottles.“Mostly reds. I’ve got California. I’ve got a lot of good Oregon pinot noir,” he said. “Got some whites for my wife. Not a lot — some French.”Lowrie spent the last three years as a second baseman but played all around the infield before that. Van Wagenen plans for him to back up 36-year-old second baseman Robinson Cano, 23-year-old shortstop Amed Rosario and third baseman Todd Frazier http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-orlando-arcia-jersey , who turns 33 next month. Rookie Peter Alonso, Frazier, J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith are possibilities at first.“We have a veteran club and we want to make sure that we’re not overtaxing the players that we have,” Van Wagenen said. “We don’t want to feel like anybody has the need to play 162 games, but if we can manage the workload to get the maximum performance out of each guy, there’s more than enough playing to play time to go around.”Lowrie likely will hit second in the order behind right fielder Brandon Nimmo and ahead of Cano.“He’s going to be in our lineup virtually every day,” Van Wagenen said. “We’ve talked a lot about this offseason of making sure that we are covered in the event that the inevitable adversity happens to our club.”Lowrie will wear No. 4 with the Mets — he was No. 8 on the Athletics, but the Mets have not given out that number since 2001 and seem likely to retire it in honor of Gary Carter.In signing with New York, Lowrie said he is willing to move around the infield.“If you look at look at a lot of teams that have had recent success, they’re very deep, and I think that’s what it takes to win at the major league level at this point,” he said.Van Wagenen has been reshaping the Mets roster, acquiring Cano, closer Edwin Diaz and catcher Wilson Ramos and reacquiring reliever Jeurys Familia. Jeff McNeil will see time in the outfield, and Keon Broxton was obtained to back up Juan Lagares in center.While making these moves, Van Wagenen reads his Twitter feed “every day throughout the day” and is aware Mets fans are clamoring for a big-name acquisition such as Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.“I’m really happy that this fan base is not apathetic, and some of their ideas make more sense than others,” Van Wagenen said. “But they’re all interesting content http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-orlando-arcia-jersey , for sure.”He thinks the Mets are in position to win the NL East and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.“I think that we’re a good team. I think that we’re a complete team. I think that we’re a balanced team,” Van Wagenen said. “We’ve got veterans. We’ve got youth. We’ve got a hunger and a desire to win. And I look forward to showing people that that we’re a team to be reckoned with.” We all know the Orioles aren’t going to be any good this year. The PECOTA projection puts a number on how bad: 57 wins."Not too many years ago, an annual ritual for Orioles fans was to survey the various expert projected records for the upcoming season and then imagine with glee how wrong they would be. That game is over, for now. As this year’s PECOTA projection was unveiled today at Baseball Prospectus, the only thing there really is to say in response to their 57-105 record is, “That sounds about right.”Gone are the days of the Orioles blowing past their projected win total by 15+ wins in three out of five seasons, at least for now. The PECOTA system was one of the first harbingers of doom for the 2018 O’s, seeing a 69-93 record for last year’s squad. If only it had been so good. Where they were once double-digit wins too low, in 2018, PECOTA was 22 wins too high.You probably won’t be surprised to learn that this is the worst projected record for any team by far. The closest team is nine wins better, a 66-win projection for the Marlins. The other 100-loss teams from last season, the Royals and White Sox, check in at 71 and 70 wins, respectively, in their 2019 projections.The specific projections are, not surprisingly, no more pretty than the record. This is a team that is expected to score the second-fewest runs in the AL, with 655 runs scored. They are expected once again to be the worst team in MLB at allowing runs Domingo Santana Jersey , with 910 expected runs allowed. That’s worse than even last year’s 892 runs allowed. It’s not going to be pretty. The only difference between this year and last is that we know it ahead of time.The ugly foundation on which this whole house is built are the player projections. They are gruesome, too. How gruesome? How about: No one expected to throw a pitch for the Orioles, starter or reliever, will have an ERA lower than 4.39. Of the five pitchers projected to start the most games for the team, four will have ERAs higher than 5. At least, that’s what PECOTA says. This is very close to what happened last year.This would not be a great beginning for the Mike Elias rebuilding project. The record doesn’t matter. The fact that seven or eight pitchers may have a revolving door of failure as 4th/5th starters doesn’t matter - only Dan Duquette’s platoon of failed pitching evaluators ever believed those guys might be good or even acceptable, anyway.What would be unfortunate for the Orioles building for the future is if even their next wave of trade bait underperforms. It’s a sad thing looking at a team before the season even starts and knowing that anyone with value is getting dealt for prospects in July, but that’s how it has to be for the O’s for the next couple of years. If they’re good, they’ll be gone.Worse still if they’re not even good. Mychal Givens with a 4.59 ERA as a closer would probably not fetch very much. Dylan Bundy with a 4.64 ERA, probably the same thing. On the hitting side, a .242/.306/.421 batting line for Mark Trumbo or a .245/.311/.382 batting line for Jonathan Villar aren’t going to inspire dreams of July mega-deals either.One thing that can be said about this year’s team is that there is room for improvement. After last year, duh, of course there is. While I think even the most starry-eyed optimist would have a hard time concocting a scenario where the O’s get above, say, 70 wins, I like the O’s chances to squeeze out a few more wins just from having Elias and his newly-hired nerds providing information to a coaching staff that can actually apply that information to specific players in a meaningful way.Perhaps I’m the biggest idiot of all for really believing in this possibility. Maybe the 2018 Orioles were bad because Duquette assembled a collection of players who were operating at their best and still completely outmatched. After having watched way too much of those losers, I don’t think that is what was happening. Nothing could have made those dopes into a playoff team, but smart Eric Sogard Jersey , modern thinkers could have probably made them better than they were.Defense is one big area where things could get a little better with mostly the same people. The 2018 Orioles were the worst team in MLB at turning balls in play into outs with a .310 BABIP. An Opening Day lineup with three real outfielders would be huge. An analytics department that can figure out what pitchers should be throwing and where the fielders should be standing would also be huge.The PECOTA projection doesn’t expect a whole, real outfield. The most playing time in left field is Trey Mancini at 45%, followed by Joey Rickard at 35%. If that’s really how left field looks for 80% of the season, that’s not much fun. If Chris Davis doesn’t have a miracle rebound, it will be brutal to watch him bat 536 times as PECOTA projects. I suspect new manager Brandon Hyde will not live up to those and other playing time projections.There’s not much that anyone can do to change the fact that this season is going to suck. The Orioles are not going to win very much. They were never going to win very much. That’s not part of the plan.If fans and the team are lucky, some surprises will emerge. Perhaps Renato Nunez can continue serving as a decent stopgap at third base rather than ending up with his sad PECOTA-projected .687 OPS. Maybe the Richie Martin Rule 5 experiment at shortstop will go better than a .203/.256/.321 batting line.And maybe someone, anyone, can manage to look like a competent starting pitcher and stay healthy in the process. Luis Ortiz, Dillon Tate, Yefry Ramirez, David Hess, John Means - please, someone surprise us and save us. Thank you. If enough things go right, maybe the Orioles will only lose 99 games.