Daily Archives: January 14, 2009
Ben Shpigel of the New York Times believes the 
Mets and Alex Cora have agreed to a one-year, $2 million deal, “according to a person in baseball with direct knowledge of the team’s plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about the acquisition because it is not complete.”
…the news here isn’t cora, but that shpigel was able to break the record for Most Words Used to Source the Signing of a Back-Up Middle Infielder… congratulations…
Tonight, live at 7 pm EDT, I will be a guest on Danny Picard’s I’m Just Saying, which you can listen to by clicking here.
The show airs from 6 pm to 7 pm, and Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports will also be a guest.
To watch this week’s New York Baseball Today: Hot Stove Edition from SNY.tv, during which Ted Berg talks with me and Steve Lombardi from Was Watching about the Mets starting pitching options and whether the Yankees should trade Nick Swisher or Xavier Nady, click play below:
In the end, Derek Lowe and the Braves agreed to a four-year, $60 million deal, while Omar Minaya’s best reported offer stopped at three years, $36 million.
From what I can gather, while Minaya may have been 
willing to give Lowe a fourth-year option, he was never going to guarantee the fourth season – and, frankly, according to published reports, and people close to the GM, he is not too disappointed with the results.
Nevertheless, on Dec. 10, the day the Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia, I ran a poll on MetsBlog.com that asked, ‘Would you give Lowe a four-year, $66 million deal,’ and 71 percent of people said, ‘No.’
Oddly enough, that is exactly the deal that would have topped Atlanta’s winning bid – and yet, at the time, the more than 4,000 people who voted did not want to make such an offer.
Meanwhile, a week later I asked, ‘Would you sign Lowe to a three-year, $50 million contract, with a fourth-year option,’ and 66 percent said, ‘Yes.’
In other words, as recently as mid-December, the majority of this site’s readers were essentially on the same page as Minaya and his staff, i.e., willing to offer a three-year deal and willing to give a fourth-year option, but unwilling to go to four guaranteed years.
For what it’s worth, I was in the minority – as I would have given the extra money and years necessary to sign Lowe.
Tagged Poll |
Jon Heyman of SI.com believes free-agent RHP Freddy Garcia is talking to a few teams, including the Mets, ‘and is expected to make a deal in coming days.’
Last month at the Winter Meetings, his agent told reporters that a recent MRI revealed that Garcia has no structural damage in his shoulder, just tightness, though Heyman reports he has been given a clean bill of health since pitching in winter ball.
…most people around baseball keep connecting garcia to the White Sox, though it would not surprise me to hear that he gets a minor-league offer from the Mets and other teams…
Speaking of pitchers…
The Padres re-signed RHP Mark Prior to a minor-league deal.
The Brewers and Trevor Hoffman officially agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal, according to the Associated Press.
Chris Haft of MLB.com believes the Giants may look to trade Noah Lowry during spring training, and keep Jonathan Sanchez.
Paul Byrd will remain a free agent until the middle of the season, says Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, at which point he’ll look to sign with a contending team.
Lastly, the Dodgers, D’Backs, Rangers and Cardinals are interested in free-agent RHP Kris Benson, reports Roch Kubatko for MASN.
The Red Sox have shown interest in free-agent OF Adam Dunn, reports Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com.
However, according to Rosenthal, it is longshot the Red Sox sign him.
Rosenthal believes Dunn and Bobby Abreu could end up accepting a one-year deal this off-season, because the market for hitters next off-season is so thin – short of Matt Holliday.
Yesterday, however, on ESPN.com, Jerry Crasnick said Dunn is still looking for a four-year, $56 million deal.
When the season ended, I kept focusing on one word: consistent.
I argued that the Mets needed to sign a front-end pitcher, a closer and a hitter who were ‘stable,’ who could be counted on to deliver essentially the same performance every day – even if it wasn’t the best available performance. To me, being consistent is important when relying on Carlos Delgado to prop up the middle of your batting order. It’s important when John Maine and Johan Santana are coming back from surgery. It’s important when your bullpen was a total disaster.
J.J. Putz, Sean Green and Francisco Rodriguez were perfect additions for the bullpen. I thought Derek Lowe would have been the perfect fit for the rotation, but he is now on the Braves.
To me, Dunn would be a good fit for left field, though he struggled against the Braves and Phillies last season and he’s another left-handed hitter.
Manny Ramirez would be an obvious solution. He will deliver better results, but he will cost more money and might check out mentally mid-way through the season.
Oddly, I’m not even that big of an Adam Dunn fan, who, by the way, may be the most polarizing player in the online baseball community. The thing is, if Delgado again gets off to a slow start, I know Dunn will bat sixth and keep hitting home runs and drawing walks, he’ll keep moving the batting order along, day in and day out, because that’s what he does – and it is what he has always done.
Ordinarily, I would be leery of locking in a player with Dunn’s faults to a long-term deal, but if he’s willing to accept a one-year contract, say for $8 million or so, like Rosenthal suggests, I just can’t understand why the Mets would prefer Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis instead. And I like Muprhy and Tatis, but will they be enough if Delgado goes in to any sort of slump, or if Ryan Church does not rebound as expected, or Luis Castillo falls apart and Brian Schneider is unable to hit better than .257.
Let’s say Delgado disappears again, or gets injured…
How will the Mets avoid a slump with Tatis, Murphy, Church, Castillo, Schneider and the pitcher occupying more than 60 percent of the lineup?
Lastly, like last season, the above scenario puts a ton of pressure on Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran, who, by the way, while very good, are not the most consistent players either.
Johan Santana talked this morning with reporters during a conference call, and said he would love to play in World Baseball Classic.
However, he first needs to see how his knee responds in spring training.
Santana had arthroscopic surgery in October to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.
“The WBC will be a medical decision,” he said, “and the team will need to approve it… There are a lot of things here that the Mets want to protect, and if they don’t want me to play I will not play.”
Santana said he has yet to pitch in a game since September, so he needs to see how he develops when he starts working out in spring training, i.e., ‘one step at a time,’ as he put it.
He feels he will be ready to play in the WBC, “but at this point I don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
Minaya told him that if everything goes right, he can play – if not, he said, “they will not let me go.”
Santana said he has kept up his conditioning during the off-season, riding the bike and not putting too much pressure on his knee, while keeping on the program that was given to him by the trainers and doctors.
He said he has been doing everything this off-season that he normally does, adding, ‘I’ve actually been doing more.”
Santana says he expects to start throwing next week, while playing catch and long toss, which is his normal routine.
According to El Universal, Fernando Martinez has 
been let go from Leones del Caracas of the Venezuelan Winter League.
“Martinez is a great player,” Leones President Luis Avila told the newspaper, “but unfortunately he couldn’t hit as we hoped. We informed him of our decision yesterday and he took it in a very professional way.”
Martinez was replaced on the roster by Armando Rios.
…thanks, as always, to Andres M for the link and translation…
Last during Hot Stove on the MLB Network, 
SI.com’s Jon Heyman said the Rangers, Dodgers, Brewers and Cardinals are all in the market for a starting pitcher, ‘and so Oliver Perez will do better than people think.’
Ben Shpigel of the New York Times believes the Mets have not made an offer to Perez, despite what had been reported by Heyman, who said earlier in the week that Omar Minaya made a three-year offer.
…i was recently told the same thing by some one close to the team, and i notice other people writing the same…
…again, there may be some confusion about the definition of ‘offer.’ …seriously …it happens all the time… i’m starting to realize that half of what goes on in these reports comes down to interpretation, some times from the same source to different reporters… anyway, i’ll save that for another day…
Nevertheless, Shpigel says the Mets will make an offer to Perez in the next day or so – again, as has been similarly reported by other outlets.
…from what i can gather, Scott Boras can likely get a four-year, $48 million deal for perez, if not more… the thing is, while they may be open to giving him a four-year deal, i do not believe the Mets plan to offer perez more than they were rumored to have offered lowe, i.e., $12 million per season… i believe $12 million would be the absolute max… in other words, perez is far from a slam dunk…
…for what it’s worth, at the start of the off-season, i felt the Mets had zero intention of bringing perez back, despite reports that minaya preferred him to lowe – reports, by the way, that i believe have been overstated… they like perez, don’t get me wrong, i just feel lots of people in management still see him as too much of an unknown – emotionally and physically – and they’re not confident in what he’ll deliver in exchange for such a steep price tag…
By the way, also on the MLB Network, Heyman said the Mets may look at Ben Sheets or Randy Wolf, “if they don’t get Perez.”
Shpigel makes a similar comment, writing, “They are also weighing a run at Sheets, but are wary of his injury history.”
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also…
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Tagged Oliver Perez |Alex Cora is close to finalizing a one-year, $2 million deal with the Mets, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI Radio in Boston.
In 75 games for the Red Sox in 2008, the 33–year-old Cora hit .270 with a .371 OBP, while playing second base and shortstop.
In his 11–year career, he has played short, second, left field, third base and first base.
He is hitting .245 through 2,800 career at-bats.
…i was hoping they would sign David Eckstein instead, but, like Ty Wigginton, he’s probably holding out for a starting job some place…the thing is, cora may end up being the starting second baseman before the season is over…
…from what i understand, the Mets had been eyeing cora for a while, because they had been in search of a middle infielder who could serve as a back-up, but be trusted to step in and start at second should Luis Castillo stumble yet again…
