The Mets could seek to improve their pitching by signing free-agent catcher Jason Varitek,’ explains Ken Rosenthal in a report for FoxSports.com.
According to Rosenthal, ‘Club officials are divided on how strongly to pursue Varitek,’ with some seeing him as ‘a potential difference-maker for their pitching staff,’ while others are ‘alarmed by his .220 batting average last season.’
Rosenthal says, for the Mets to land Varitek, ‘they would need to move catcher Brian Schneider,’ who several teams are interested in.
Last week, the Washington Post said the Mets and Red Sox had discussed a deal that would send C Brian Schneider to Boston.
Later that day, though, in report for the New York Post, Joel Sherman explained, “The Mets talked several weeks ago to the Red Sox about dealing Schneider, and hopefully signing Varitek”
However, when the Red Sox offered arbitration to Varitek, Sherman explained, ‘the Mets turned away from that scenario because they didn’t want to give up both the money necessary to sign Varitek and the first-round draft pick they would have to surrender in compensation.’
Last month, in a post to his blog for SI.com, Jon Heyman said there were ‘indications,’ based on conversations with other team executives, that ‘the Mets appear open to trading either Ramon Castro or Schneider.’
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how does varitek improve our pitching? typo matt?
i would take tek over miss schneider. also, tek would know how to handle manny. maybe that is why omar is targeting tek????
They both stink…
I think Matt meant that Varitek’s game-calling would improve our pitching.
If they plan on replacing Schneider with Varitek, I really dont see the point. In that case they should just keep Schneider….
I am alittle worried that they wont have enough left handed arms to get out the Phils…..Santana cant pitch everyday…
From what limited Red Sox games I saw last year, Varitek can’t throw out any base stealers — how exactly does that help the pitching staff?
Plus, Varitek is up there in years. And how does giving up a first round draft pick exactly help the team?
I’d stick with the Castro/Schneider platoon and take my chances.
Looking at his stats, he certainly could not help our hitting so it must be pitching.
I want nothing to do with him. Trade Schnieder and get Molina. If not then trade Schnieder and go with Castro and Cancel. 5 million is too much to pay for Schnieder.
JoseReyesForPresident – getting Varitek improves pitching much like a good center fielder improves pitching. He is widely considered the best catcher in the game as far as handling pitchers and attacking hitters.
If they give up a pick for Varitek Omar has lost his mind.
jason varitek is a type A. no thanks
with 2 spots in the rotation, and question marks at 2B and LF, Catcher is the least of our worries.
Game calling is vastly overrated. Especially when you need a cutoff man to throw out a baserunner. What a terrible idea. If you are going to do that you might as well bring in Pudge. Neither can hit anymore.
Our 1st round is long gone.. the best Boston would get is a 2nd…
But as I said before.. they both stink.
And then they would resign Perez and we would not pick until the 3rd round. No thanks.
Imagine John Serling calling a Mets Yankee game next summer.
“KRod’s 0-2 pitch to ARod,
Swing and a miss, in the dirt, the tag is applied by IRod, and the Mets win.
Thhhheeee Mets win!”
Getting Varitek makes absolutely no sense.
There is no upgrade in offense or defense, he is ancient, will cost us more than Schneider and we lose draft picks.
IT MAKES NO SENSE.
Which is why the Mets will do it.
Any chance bringing in a Crash Davis type is what this teams needs, a little leadership?
For the love of good God we got holes to fill, forget about catcher. Especially an old 220 hitting catcher.
Please, I mean I’m thirsty for news, but forget Varitek.
Does anyone know what happened with Schnieder?
I like him, what are they saying his game calling wasn’t good. Seemed fine to me, starters didn’t have much trouble, the bullpen did though.
Which tells you its not Brian, I like him, keep him and move on.
Get a couple of SP’s and I’m gonna say this for the first time . . . GET MANNY.
Man there are some down sides but wow I love watching that dude hit.
Omar would be nuts if he made this move. Why would we take an aging catcher who can’t hit over Schneider?
No improvement there.
tek would also be an INSTANT LEADER. something the mets do NOT currently have. and ummmm. drite is NOT a leader…not yet anyway.
For the 12-13 mil a year Boras will be asking for him, no thanks. I’d resign Ollie at that point before signing Vtek.
Peter,
Isn’t LoDuca the Crash Davis type?
IRod is one of 3 type B free agent catchers. The other guys LoDuca and Gregg Zaun, don’t thrill me. IRod looks like a typical Omar move. Castro would seem the most likely to go because Schneider can make some of the starts against righties
I would trade Schnieder but Varitek NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I would take Pudge first.
OLD FORMAT!!!!!!!!!!
Agee,
LoDuca was, and when he was better the Mets had fire.
Varitek, from my understanding, never put needles in his butt, which makes his leadership real, not manufactured.
The type A thing is daunting though.
The MUTS, a team with no leadership, no direction, too many ego’s, and especially a team full with guys who play without HEART. The NO HEART MUTS can do whatever they want to their bullpen, go right ahead. Now go get 2 Starting pitchers and try to fill in those corner outfield spots, which hasn’t been done yet! As long as “Omar the Great” and his joke of a coach are in, the MUTS will go no where. And, the Phils may be older, but the MUTS seem much, much older with an aging Delgado and 2 of the most overrated players ever in Beltran and Reyes. ‘09 will be another year of MUT MISERY for your fool of a team
How much is Varitek asking for?
If he’s asking for at least 4 mil a year I’d love him on our club… But nothing more than 6 mil
As much as I’d hate to lose the draft pick, and as much as I think “intangibles” are overrated, I think signing Varitek could be one of the best things the Mets could do. The guy’s the king of any locker room he walks into. He’d be perfect for breaking up the malaise that currently seems to hang over the club.
I’m probably one of the few that likes Schneider. For me, this move doesn’t make much sense. It’s not like Varitek does everything better than Schneider. He calls a better game? OK, that’s kinda subjective, no?
Moving Schneids and picking up Varitek is barely a wash IMO. I think they actually downgrade by bringing in Varitek…whatever.
Scneider and Varitek are dreadful offensively right now… How I long for the Mike Piazza days…
I don’t see the need for this. Varitex was a great leader for the Sox’s over the years but I don’t no he seems washed up now. He is old and to sign him and give up draft picks seems silly to me.
I am fine with Schnieder against the righties and Castro (if he can stay healthy) agaisnt the lefties.
I would love to know what teams have inquired about Schnieder
I thought the mets got Schneider because he was a good game caller? What happened? Is he not a good game caller now? I say forget about the catcher, get an outfielder and some starting pitching.
Matt… We already gave up our first round pick… We would be giving up a second round pick for any further signings…
In other news, the Braves signed Rafael Furcal… That possibly leaves them open to deal Escobar to DS for Peavy…
So we trade a young outfielder with upside to get Schneider’s great glove behind the plate. Now we want to dump him and get an older, even worse catcher for his “ability to handle the pitching staff” while forfeiting a draft pick.
This is why I never vote higher than 5 or 6 in the confidence rating polls.
And of course, if we re-sign Ollie, we do not lose any draft picks…
“…for your fool of a team”
Is that you, Gandalf the Grey?
like replacing gimpy with kaz matsui…
have to agree, we have more pressing issues….
No FA catchers are good. Varitek is old. Pudge can’t hit and all he does is call fastballs to throw out runners.
I have been an advocate for trading Castro and looking into a guy like Michael Barrett. But trading SCHNEIDER and replacing him with a guy who hit .201 against righties last season and costs a draft pick makes ZERO sense.
I still would be fine with replacing Castro or even Schneider, but I think of the hot stove catchers, I would only replace Schneider with a guy who can be the main catcher, like Molina.
Another player looking for his retirement plan, and who better than the mets to comfort that.. we do have the best retirement plan in baseball where we secure older broken down players guaranteed contracts even if they don’t show up for the whole year… METS RETIREMENT PLAN.. if you don’t believe us, just ask el duque..
as much as I dislike Oliver Perez, If the Mets resign him and sign Manny. The mets will have the same rotation as last year, a much better lineup and a much better bullpen.
considering the Mets finished with 89 wins last season, the addition of Manny, K-Rod and Putz with the only real subtractions being Easley, Smith and Wagner, that would probably make the Mets at least a 95-100 win team
Despite what I said last night about mentioning his name…
I might rather sign Livan Hernandez that trading Schneider and signing Varitek. I do not want to have to listen to Keith and Ron tell Gary all about what a great game Varitek called everytime one of our pitchers gets into the 7th inning.
Such an absolute waste of resources signing that old fool.
We’d trade Schneider for nothing and we’d sign Varitek and lose a 1st rounder. That’s pretty logical. ugh
Livan Hernandez…the same Livan Hernandez who set the record for most hits allowed per 9 innings last year. What?
But Alex, i thought that you have to be of latin heritage to qualify 9at least that’s what keeps being Posted here!)
No, no, no to Varitek. Talk about washed up. I’m all for dumping Schneider, but only if they replace him with either A) a catcher of the future, or B) one that can hit.
and Varitex fails on both counts (as in most of his ABs).
and it’s not like he is coming super cheap. More $ than Schnieder, and losing anothe draft pick?
Pa-sssssss
If they can’t find a viable option, just keep what they got and figure it out next year.
stick guy:
lol..
either way.. catching is soooo overrated, look at the teams tha have won the championships?? is great pitching more than anything, the pitchers can shake up a catcher’s signal if they don’t like it.. the catcher marks where he wants it and the pitcher’s job is to throw it there period!!! is carlos ruiz a better catcher than irod? or varitek? or any of the molinas for that matter? no.. nor he’s recognize a great catcher becoz he also was platooning his position.. NO TO VARITEK!!! haven’t the mets learn their lesson with a bunch of old players!!!!!!
if Ramon Castro can stay on the field (very unlikely), then you have a pretty good platoon.
Schneider batted .254 with 9 HR last season and he played a lot more than he was supposed to.
If Castro can stay on the field you are looking at a combined .250+ BA 20 HR from the 7th or 8th spot in the order. Considering both play very good defense thats not a liability at all
Its also tough to be a leader in the clubhouse when you are hitting 210 and are new to a team. Not to mention that game calling is pretty much impossible to measure and completely overrated. (after all, the pitcher has to make the pitch)
I’de like to know why this is even being brought up when we need 2 SP’s?
schneider was hurt last year and towards the end he played very well.. what do we want? mike piazza offensive and ivan rodriguez defensively form into one as a catcher? schneider is fine..
Piazza called a good game I always thought. He couldn’t throw at all, but he called a decent game and then went and hit 35+ hrs.
Varitek can call the greatest game of all time, but if he goes and puts up a 600 OPS what’s the point?
Gee, all last year we heard how Schneider was such an awesome game caller. Were we lied to? No, not by our Met front office. Couldn’t be, could it?
I’d be happy if Castro ran on a treadmill every day until spring training. He’d be a pretty decent starting catcher if he could stay healthy. But he’s probably having donuts and beer right now…
Varitek is washed up. He’s no better than Schneider these days so what’s the point?
Can Piazza still hit? I don’t care if he can’t throw out runners.
Schneider is fine, but Cancel would be just as good.
Actually Cancel and Gustavo Molina (I think) were fine last year.
Don’t sign Varitek. Huge waste of money.
How bad must the catching position be in general if a guy who hit 220 last year is a type A
Hmph. My cat swings a bat better than Varitek.
No Tek.
They’re divided over this? He’s older and more expensive than Schneider and not any better. And he’ll cost a draft pick. What is there to be divided over this would just be stupid.
Any possibility of a sign and trade between Boston and the Mets for Varitek and Schneider? I don’t actually know if thats ever been done before but it would be a way for the Mets to not have to give up the picks. Additionally, would the Mets have to give a pick because they are already giving it to the Angels for K-Rod?
thebigdawg
yes we would have to give up a second rounder.
Keep Castro. He’s a very good backup catcher–both as a hitter and catcher– and could start if he’d stay healthy. You don’t want two poor hitting catchers (Varitek/Schneider).
Would it be a waste to sign Varitek and give up a second round pick for him, then sign Perez, oliver, who I dont like but just so we dont give the pick we get for Oliver to the sox. But follow me here,,,,, then trade Oliver for a package of top prospects to bolster the farm.
Then trade for Bucholz with Boston who I believe reported willing to land a top minor leauge cater for Bucholz. Talk to me people!
So in theory, Schneider for Bucholz
I don’t know why we are even talking about Varitek. At his age, who is to say he will be a defensive upgrade and he didn’t hit much for a team stacked with hitters. I agree Schneider was a bit of a disappointment but if we are going to change our catcher, go after a young promising catcher like Saltalamachia (sp?).
I think we’re looking at this all wrong…. Heres a guy who is an artist behind the plate( 4 NH’s) , and despite his age hit as many HR last year (13) as Martin and Pierzynski with over 100 less at bats. I want Molina too, but he’s a sloth and he wont come cheap, not to mention the only reason he got 95 RBI’s last year is because no one else on SF could hit. Varitek’s not an everyday guy anymore but he’ll go 110+ games and would be a good influence on this team and far superior to Schneider even if he hits .200. Great leader and a change of scenery could do him some good….
Varitek knows how to work the pitchers and is a real field general. He knows how to compete and win, but I certainly couldn’t justify spending money on him.
I kind of like Jared Saltalamacchia, but the Braves gave up on him, and I don’t know if there is a tremendous upside to him.
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