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At FOXSports.com, Ken Rosenthal writes that free-agent C Jorge Posada can expect a ‘monster offer’ from the Mets.
Of course, last night, upon arriving in Orlando for the GM Meetings, Mets GM Omar Minaya told the Associated Press that he 
is ‘optimistic’ about the possibility of re-signing free-agent C Paul Lo Duca, adding, “The fact that we’re having dialogue is good.”
If the Mets are to offer a five-year, $70 million deal, compared to the Yankees, who have reportedly offered three years, $40 million, Rosenthal wonders if Posada is capable of leaving $30 million on the table.
According to Mark Feinsand in the Daily News, Posada is seeking a four-year deal, with his major concern being the length of the deal.
…omar clearly believes that the Mets need posada’s pride, focus, leadership and experience, because physically it just makes no sense to sign a 37–year-old catcher to a five-year deal, in the national league…zero sense…zero…unless, of course, you feel he can solve this team’s emotional and psychological problems, you know, keep them focused, help communicate between cultures, experiences, etc, and be a model of success that the club is aiming at…in that case, i can understand, i suppose…
Ultimately, Rosenthal writes, “The best guess is that Posada will remain with the Yankees, increasing his Hall of Fame chances rather than entering the unknown in the National League.”
By the way, during his appearances on SNY’s Daily News Live, Bill Madden noted that Yankees GM Brian Cashman flew down to the GM Meetings sitting next to Posada’s agent, Seth Levinson.
Meanwhile, in her blog, Coppolla Sisters, Trey Coppolla does a great job breaking down the catcher’s market, while concluding that the Mets should target Posada, but not if it means giving the fifth year on his deal.
…my sense is that, given last year’s failure, and all that is riding financially on the next two seasons, the Mets are not all that concerned with life next decade…next year is what matters most…and if posada can help this club win, and win in october, then they’ll the cross the 2010, broken-down catcher bridge when they get to it…the thing is, at $14 million a year, that’s a pretty expensive bridge…
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that might be the worst thing i’ve ever heard. I’d rather have A-Rod for 30 mil. Spending $14 mil a year for 5 years on a 40+ CATCHER, when a durable starter AND bullpen is CLEARLY a need, while having your OWN catcher almost BEG to be back on the team….well that’s just not the moves of a smart, big market GM…those are the moves of assinine GMs, like in Baltimore or Tampa
Hey Matt,
Since the polls seem to be popular, why don’t you have a “Who would you rather have; LoDuca or Posada” poll.
I think most people would rather have LoDuca back… it’d be cool to see if I’m right.
Also maybe it’ll open Omar’s eyes enough to realize that signing a 37 year old catcher to a 4-5 year deal is absolutely INSANE
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
so so so so so so so stupid
I think I am the only one on this blog who thinks that Posada would be a terrible acquisition. He just came off a career year and we will be paying him big time for that. His Power is mostly due to the short porch in RF at Yankee stadium. His play at his position is average at best and has been described as brutal on occassion with the passed balls that he is afflicted with. He is a career .277 hitter.
I just can’t see the logic in getting this guy and at this stage of his career. If he were the starting catcher for a team in our division that we were concerned with (Phillies or Braves) then I could see the alternative reason of fighting for him as it would injure one of those teams by his leaving. But last I checked, the Yankees are in the AL not NL.
Please tell me this is all a smoke screen. The problem with the METs is not the production from the catching position. It is quality top of the rotation starting pitching followed by a lack of length in our outings by the starters followed by a poor middle relief core of Mota and Shoe.
Targets in the order of preference should be:
1) Discover and get a true ace to lead the squad
2) If you can’t get the ace, retool by getting an innings eating successful pitcher to augment the middle of the rotation (Blanton type)
3) Dump Mota and bring back a closer in waiting to assist in back end of pen with Heilman who is very good and hopefully a Sanchez that is ready to compete and produces to a level that is 90 % or closer to what he was in 2006
i dont think you’re the only one. 5 years for anyone that age is very risky. posada may have 2 really good yrs left but what happens after that? personally id throw that money @ francisco cordero before posada. nothing is wrong w/ loduca i mean he obviously REALLY wants to come back to the mets. thats someone i want on my team not someone who couldnt turn down an extra 30 million
I am sick and tired of omar going to the Yankees for leadership. It makes me sick.
I am sick and tired of hearing anything that comes out of Ken Rosenthal and Buster Olneys mouth.
The only guy I can trust that’s not from this blog is John Delcos.
Please note, people, that Rosenthal is just speculating. He’s saying the move is “expected” but by whom? He’s not saying he has inside info that it’s going to happen.
If Omar did offer Posada a monster contract then he should be committed to Bellevue. Period. Put him in a straightjacket.
There’s no way a catcher that old deserves a monster contract from a NL team.
Having said that, I listened to Carlin/Jones on the FAN this morning and Jones said that Posada was the MVP of the Yankees team this season and that the Yankee players would agree with her. That’s just her opinion, but seeing how she spends a lot of time with the team and she doesn’t seem to have an agenda, I don’t doubt here opinion.
She also said A-Rod “sucks the life out of a room” when in the clubhouse because everything is always about him.
rosenthal loves to spout out opinions and “stories” based on little to no facts. He makes his living on it in fact.
Ultimately, Rosenthal writes, “The best guess is that Posada will remain with the Yankees, increasing his Hall of Fame chances rather than entering the unknown in the National League.”
I dont know what’s a bigger joke; signing Posada for five-years, $70 million or that anyone thinks Posada is a
Hall of Fame catcher.
posada’s a type A FA, right? so losing him would cost us our first round pick in next years draft.
mortgaging our future for an aging catcher? i don’t get it. a lo duca/castro platoon would be cost-effective and perfectly fine productivity-wise. ive always liked lo duca and i enjoy knowing someone on the mets isnt afraid to speak their mind. losing him would be a big loss to the personality and character of this team.
I really don’t care how high the payroll goes. But I do care about that if the dollars spent in some places (catcher or 3b (see arod)for example) affect the teams aggressiveness in going after free agents the team actually needs.
I have been a lifelong Knick fan (unfortunately). They have spent the money. They have spent bucketloads of money. I used to simply buy into the hype each year that the talent assembled for those dollars was well spent. But over the past 7 – 8 years….I have come to realize that it is not simply procuring the best talent that wins, or spending big money on that talent. It is finding all the right pieces to fill needs. The knicks are a text book example of how to spend money unintelligently.
I think a Posada signing or to a lesser extent the AROD signing would be much the same. The positions of need are not 3b, shortstop or Catcher. They are starting pitching and relief pitching. THe METS hit enough last year. Just did not pitch well enough down the stretch.
i advocate spending the resources on the needs of the team. Not overpaying for average guys that slot in the area of our needs like say paying Jason Jennings 4yrs and 40 m. I advocate going after and targeting premier players at positions of need (through trade if necessary).
what really scares me about this is that rosenthal usually has a pretty good idea of what’s going on with this team.
I’m hoping this is just a story put out there by the organization to lower the asking price for LoDuca, or for leverage in a potential trade.
I heard something on mlb radio this weekend and I thought I would throw it out there. What do you think it would take to get Ben Sheets off of the Brewers. I do know he is injury prone but if/when he gets healthy, he is our ace. It would be less expensive than Santana and we might not have to compete with the Yanks to get him. Also, I like Bedard as well but wonder what the Orioles would want. I don’t think we have the minor league talent that the Rays or giants are looking for to get Kazmir or Lincecolm.
I don’t think that Cashman wants to trade Hughes and Kennedy/Chamberlain and Cabrera for Santana.
They still have very little proven talent under the age of 30, and definitely would want to keep young bats, and also Chamberlain or Hughes might even put up Johan-like numbers.
I’m telling you, the Dodgers can have Johan any time they want if they sign A-Rod.
There is no reason to get Posada for that much. The only upside is that he would probably be playing 1B after next year. But that will still have us looking for a catcher next year.
That’s not an upside. At catcher, his offense is way above average. At first base, he would be average at best. We don’t need an average first baseman.
we have a below average first-baseman now.
And yet Posada’s numbers at 1b would be worse. Probably better obp but lower power and lower rbi production than Delgado who clearly had a down year and is on the backside of his career. I think he rebounds this year in walk year. I think hitting .275 with 30 hrs and 110 rbi is on the docket for him
NO POSADA!
Yanker anteaters have no place on this team.
unless posada is a cross between winston churchill and vince vaughn and produces like johnny bench i say pass too..
im all for running the price up on the yankees though..
If Omar really did offer Posada a huge $ LT contract, then sign me up for the Fire Omar campaign!
Not only would it be a terrible move, it would prove that he really has no idea what he is doing, and is going to fall back on just overpaying for whatever big name is out there (never mind how old they are).
last year was an outlier year for Posada, and at age 36 and a catcher, the odds are pretty low that he can replicate it.
I’m not really a Loduca fan (I personally think you can stick the fork in him, since he’s done), but Paulie and Castro (with Paulie on a 1+1 deal) would be better than this.
Torrealba isn’t exciting. I would take a flyer on Barrett first.
Even better, try for a trade. Paulino? Not sure if he is the answer, but at least he is young and has some upside. Or how about Shoppach? He is at the right age to really go on a tear, and he is blocked.
In any case, is Omar really working all the creative angles to make the team better? Or just panicing and firing up the old checkbook?
And forget about all the nonsense about him being a calming influence, blah blah blah. If he is moving around behind the plate like the old man he is, who’s going to listen to him?
If Omar really thought they needed someone like that, he should have fired Willie and brought in a new manager and coaches.
I would rather have A Rod than Posada (expecially if one of them or DW is going to be at first soon).
God, I hope this is just smoke screen. It was bad enough watching Piazza the last couple of years of his contract, and I liked him. Posada is a Yankee through and through and I never liked him. If the Mets actually go through with this deal, they may as well rename themselves The New York Yankees – Flushing Branch.
A five year $70M deal for a 37 year-old catcher makes NO SENSE whatsoever. I have faith that Omar is smarter than that; I just hope someone like Jeffy Wilpon isn’t behind the scenes pushing the deal.
NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This team is going down down down.
It will be hard to be a Mets fan next year if they sign some of these guys they’re talking about.
I don’t care what team they are on, I WILL boo Posada and Arod if they are on the Mets next year. From the first time they come to bat until they strike out to end a failure of the regular season.
I really thought this team finally had management who knew how to win. Guess not.
You gotta believe…I guess.
Let’s not go jumping off a bridge just yet. There were a lot of Sammy Sosa rumors a few seasons ago that came to nothing.
There’s so much hype and innuendo out there right now, I won’t believe anything until I see the press conference.
Agreed on the negative sentiments. I’m fine with the LoDuca/Castro combo. Decent to good defense, and above average offense out of the catcher position. Key is that we need a lineup where this position is batting 7th or 8th.
ARod is the one Yankee FA I really want (would love Rivera, too, but it doesn’t make sense and won’t happen). Having Posada move leagues and hit in a pitcher’s park is a recipe for disaster.
… and signing A-Rod, thus moving and potentially messing up DW and/or Reyes DOES make sense???
THIS MUST BE A JOKE!!!
NO MORE OLD GUYS!!!!!!!!!!
WHEN WILL WE LEARN?!?!?!?!
No f-ing way
Look I am a big Omar defender, and I never pipe up during this hot stove speculationathon….but I have to chime in to say, has Omar lost his mind? This makes no sense at all. None.
Above average out of Lo Duca and Castro? Catcher is not a position of need? I think you guys are out of your mind. Paul Lo Duca at this stage of his career plays older than Jorge Posada, who didn’t take a full time catching gig until he was 26, and wasn’t a catcher to begin with until his early 20’s. He’s definitely playing more fresh than Lo Duca was last year, who at this point couldn’t hit a pinata, let a lone a baseball.
Lo Duca (who has hit .272 last year, with a .311 OBP and a .378 OPS for a .689 OPS. This is just beyond pathetic. Jason Tyner, the guy known for not hitting 1 home run in his first 1300 or so career at-bats, had an OPS of .687 last year. Essentially we are getting Jason Tyner production from out catcher. That is not a good thing.
Posada has only had an OPS under .837 once since 1999, essentially he’s the most consistent hitting catcher in baseball. I am not a proponent for paying him 5/70 but a more reasonable 4/56 is absolutely fine in my opinion, and is definitely a lot better than giving guys like Torrealba a 3 year deal. The guy couldnt even hit IN colorado, what would his numbers look like for the mets?