Mets C Mike Nickeas and OF Fred Lewis both elected to become a free agents after being removed from the 40-man roster last week, according to ESPN New York.
Matthew Cerrone, MetsBlog.com
Nickeas is a back-up catcher, at best. Frankly, watching him last Spring and seeing how his teammates and coaches relied on him for insight and feedback, I bet he could be a really good coach one day. For now, though, I'm sure he'll welcome testing out the open market. I wouldn't be surprised to see him re-sign with the Mets to go to Triple-A. But, it's pretty clear from reports that the Mets would first prefer to find a more powerful, veteran catcher to team up with Josh Thole (who will have a job on this team so long as R.A. Dickey is wearing blue and orange).
