Neither. While Chamberlain and Hughes were impactful this year, neither has long-term success in the majors the way even Maine and Perez do. I’ll take the Mets young core of Beltran-Wright-Reyes over any 3 position players the Yankees will likely bring back. But both teams need to fix problems over the winter so it remains to be seen who will improve the most before next season.

Mariano will be 38 when next season rolls around. I can see that as a concern, but I don’t see any proof of him slowing down. He appears immune to age and that speaks to his near effortless arm motion. But considering his 2007 stats (I did not watch many Yankee games this year by obvious choice)…..He had 3 loses and 2 blown saves prior to May 8th. This was a time when every reliever in the league was blowing games, which is an early season trend. I don’t grant it much relevance in respect to Mariano’s down-trend. From May onward, he was completely lights out. He is not the Mariano of 2000, but that is not required. Hell, even 80% of Mariano is better than 100% of anyone else. And I am honestly not seeing a Mariano that is at all far from his peak form. He’s phenomenal.

I also think it would benefit him to go to the NL and face batters who aren’t familiar with him. His career interleague and WS stats are phenomenal, and even better when you eliminate the Mets (who have had more success against him) from that equation.

Mariano can go beyond one inning. Has proven to get better as the season progresses. He is automatic in the postseason. Not to mention the instant credibility he would bring to the struggling bullpen. Recent postseasons, and especially this current postseason, has taught us that it is all about the bullpen. If the Mets did happen to make it to October this season, they surely would not have made it too far. And that’s based solely on their horrible bullpen. No sour grapes…just facts.

I would honestly give Rivera $11M-14M per for 3 years. I wouldn’t even blink. Think about it…..we then have an Orosco/Mcdowell tandem with Wagner and Mariano. With Feliciano, Heilman, and an effective Sanchez (best case) or Joe Smith setting them up. That would give us all less concern about El Duque or Humber/Pelfrey developing in the rotation, b/c the best bullpen in MLB history would be backing them up.

This one move would have a positive domino effect on the entire pitching staff. It essentially makes every game next year a 7 inning contest. I would sign Mariano before considering going after another over-paid rotation arm, or addressing the lineup….both of which will likely cost the same amount of dough.

If that doesn’t do it for you…then how about:

BUT IT’S MARIANO PHUKING RIVERA!!!!!

Gun to your head, which team has the better shot at the playoffs next year?

That said, no way do I want the Mets getting Torre as their manager. If he’s willing to be a bench coach, I’d take him in a heartbeat, but there’s no way he would be willing to take a demotion. I would, however, take Rivera in a heartbeat. I hate the Yankees, but I don’t know how anyone could deny that Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher ever, and is still one of the top 3 or 4 in the game today…and I for one would trust him more than I’d trust Wagner right now. But it doesn’t matter, none of it is gonna happen, so why get all worked up about it.