Opinion: The Basket Solution
Instead of signing Oliver Perez to what could end up 
being a four-year deal, possibly worth as much as $12 million per season, I suggest the Mets use a ‘Basket Solution.’
Yesterday, I asked readers of MetsBlog.com what Perez was worth, and the more-than 4,400 people who voted essentially said he should get a four-year deal, which pays him roughly $13 million per season.
“He’s possibly one of those guys who can win the Cy Young award every year,” Billy Wagner told New York Post yesterday, when asked about Perez. “It’s just, which Ollie is going to show up?”
From what I can gather, free agent Randy Wolf is likely to sign for between $7 and $10 million, but the Mets are unlikely to offer more than $5 million – the same can most likely be said for free agents Jon Garland and Pedro Martinez.
Meanwhile, people around baseball believe free agent Ben Sheets is open to accepting a one-year deal, for roughly $6 million with major incentives – such as Brad Penny and John Smoltz accepted from the Red Sox.
However, Sheets is also a Type-A free agent and was offered arbitration by the Brewers, which means a club would lose a draft pick if it signed him.
The Blue Jays have been listening to offers for Roy Halladay, but there is no evidence they are seriously open to trading him – unless the deal 
included a top-flight pitching prospect I would assume.
Lastly, the buzz in San Francisco suggests the Giants will move Jonathan Sanchez or Noah Lowry, but will likely require a major-league bat in return.
Nevertheless, John Maine, Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey will be counted on to make 90 or so starts for the Mets in 2009, leaving 60 or so starts to come from other pitchers.
However, don’t forget, Maine is returning from shoulder surgery and Pelfrey is entering only his second full major-league season – not to mention Santana had knee surgery in October. In other words, nothing is a given in the current starting rotation. So, the Mets need to be very careful with how they structure those 60 other starts.
The Mets should use the same money it will cost to keep Perez, and instead sign Sheets and one of Garland, Wolf or Martinez, or a pitcher acquired by trade, who, with Tim Redding and Jon Niese, will be more than capable of filling the missing 60 starts, and also can be called upon in case Maine, Pelfrey or Santana ever become unavailable.
