In a video for ESPN.com, Buster Olney says, “If the 
Mets do not sign Oliver Perez, if they sign a cheaper starting pitcher, they’ll have money available, and, at that point, they may go look at Bobby Abreu.”
According to Olney, GMs have told him they would not be surprised to see Abreu accept a one-year, worth less than $7 million deal.
…the buzz from around baseball suggests LHP Randy Wolf could end up accepting a deal similar to Jon Garland, i.e., one year and $8 million…
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{ 106 comments }
Difficult to vote re those choices. It shouldn’t come down to that… Their starting pitching as well as their line up is in dire need of an upgrade…
You’re right, both need help. But I don’t want Wolf, he’s just not any good. If/when we get Perez back, they should look at Abreu, Dunn and whoever else might be available through a trade.
Exactly..neither is ideal, but 3-4 yrs of Ollie puts this team in a better long term position, by locking in your front 4. They could bring in Holliday the following offseason to stabalize the offense, with F-Mart playing in right.
My choice would be 4years Ollie and 1year Abreu
why cudnt they just sign both abreu and perez. if perez gets 12 mil that wud leave payroll at 133-135 depending if garcia makes the team.then annother 7-8 mil puts them at last years number
Wolf stinks. He shouldn’t even be a topic of conversation.
As nice as it would be to kill two old birds with one stone, I’m not a fan of Wolf. For all the concern about Sheets’ medical history, Wolf hasn’t been an iron-man himself.
With all the spare arms Omar’s been aquiring, I would be much more inclined to ink the high-talent risk in Sheets knowing that Garcia, Niese, et al are around, though no sure-things themselves.
exactamundo
Yeah, I nearly choked when I read the Mets liked Wolf better than Sheets because of Ben’s injury history. At least Sheets is good between injuries.
In fact, I looked it up. Here’s how many starts they’ve made over each of the last 5 seasons:
Wolf: 23, 13, 12, 18, 33
Sheets: 34, 22, 17, 24, 31
And Innings Pitched:
Wolf: 136 2/3, 80, 56 2/3, 102 2/3, 190 1/3
Sheets: 237, 156 2/3, 106, 141 1/3, 198 1/3
In other words, Sheets has made more starts in 4 of the last 5 years than Wolf, and pitched more innings in all 5 years. And Sheets’ worst ERA+ in that period is way better than Wolf’s best.
There must be something really scary in Sheets’ MRIs. I wonder if teams have paid equal attention to Wolf’s. Because in terms of past performance, there is no criterion by which Wolf is worthy of shining Sheets’ shoes.
i’d rather sign Sheets and Abreu or sign Manny and have a weaker rotation although I will admit we would have to trade for a SP at the deadline if we want to win in the playoffs…
Why doesn’t Sheets’ torn flexor tendon concern you?
Forget Wolf Abrey and Perez….Sign Manny for 2 years and 45 Million. At that point you pay exactly what you would for Oliver and lesser bat over the same period of time. This is ridiculous. Mets have a chance to win the World Series next year with a Manny acquisition. They haven’t won in 22 years. If they win with Manny and then he becomes a cancer for one year big deal. I just don’t understand the reasoning
that is the dumbest post i have ever read on here, so you want to go into the season with a rotation of santana pelfrey maine redding and garcia –
second the mets have a chance to win the ws with perez back
they havnt won in 22 years, i wonder how much of that you have been complaining … december of 06 you were probably saying the same thing except instead of manny you were saying zito, last year you were probably telling omar to get erik berdard
so you want to put all your eggs in one basket and sign him for what 3 years? so if they win the ws and then the organization goes under for the next 5 years you wont be complaining like you are now? please…all you do is complain
pitching wins
This is so misguided on so many levels.
For a start, Perez is going to cost max. $11 mil per year. At least one of Dunn or Abreu is going to go for somewhere around the $8 million mark or maybe even less. So that’s $19 mil per, which is a lot less than $22.5 mil per.
Secondly, $45MM for two years is overpaying for Manny, when the current buzz is that the Dodgers would not be outbid if they offered $30MM for two, and that the Giants main concern in entering negotiations for Manny is to make sure the Dodgers don’t get him on a one-year deal.
Even with Manny, our offense would be no better than the Phillies’, and our rotation would be worse than theirs. In other words a strategy of “just Manny” likely concedes the division. We need at least one more quality arm in the rotation, and I’d rather see Perez + Sheets, which would cost less per year than just Manny.
Where is the neither option?
Ditto
I would also vote “neither”.
Really the question is, would you rather have Ollie next year over Wolf, + 2 draft picks, and $5mill in the budget to chase after other players?
Tough call.
But, Ollie is probably better right now, much healthier, and has way more upside. Plus, he would only be a little more expensive, so why not go with Ollie and Abreu instead, and have a Sp locked up next year too?
THAT BUM ABREU BETTER NOT SIGN WITH THIS TEAM.
Matt made a great point in a previous post. OP, even if he does not pan out for us is a lefty SP, with great “stuff,” he will always be tradeable.
1 yr of abreu/wolf will put us right back in this same position next year. id rather lock up SP now and have money/trade chips for matt holiday/whom ever else might be a FA or available for trade next offseason.
Yeah for the Mets…. Why get the best when you can get mediocre. Yeah for the Mets for not trying to field a championship team. Boo the Yankees for trying to win at any cost. What a bad thing for the fans.
Where is the vote or “none of the above?”
I have enough of these cheap owners- they are not getting any of my money.
Sign Manny you won’t get my money, Fred.
Yeah those cheap MFs only paying more than 26 of the other 29 teams.
reposting to avoid moderation:
as erratic as ollie is, it’s not like he’s total crap. there are worse things than having a decent lefty in the prime of his career.
such as the other option.
If Mets are so cash strapped that we are reduced to the likes of Wolf
then I would rather take my lumps with
Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, Niese, Redding
have had*
I want no part of Randy Wolf unless he gets a Freddie Garcia type deal. This is total BS. For what I’m paying to see this team, I shouldn’t have to decide which gaping hole needs to be filled. Sign Sheets if his arm isn’t about to fall off. If not, then go to Perez. Then sign an outfielder – preferably a righty – that can hit. I don’t need to mention his name. If not, sign Abreu or Dunn for a year. We need both, period – now get it done.
When did the expectations get so low for this franchise?
Why is Ben Sheets not listed as an option? Wolf is garbage and Perez is a heacase who no team wants (except the latin loving Mets, of course!)
Let’s leave ethnicity out of it
Could be that torn flexor tendon thingy.
Since the pitching options are risky/cloudy at best, even more reason to say forget all of them and sign Manny Ramirez. Why can’t that be option C here? If I had to pick only one, I’d pick him over the rag tag and headcase pitchers left on the market. It’s a no brainer- but the Wilpons don’t think with their brains, only with their wallets.
Something to do with two gaping holes in our starting rotation.
You can’t afford to be giving away 60 games before the season even starts, let alone having the bullpen’s arms falling off in the second half again.
Neither
Thank God ESPN is never right about anything. Hopefully Paige’s report is true…anyone hear anything more about that? What did he say, exactly? That a little birdie told him that Omar was meeting with Boras to discuss Manny?
So is Sheets not considered an option for the front office?
Perez
Wolf
Sheets
Believe it or not
as much as people want to ignore it, ethnicity is a factor with this Mets regime
Maybe they’re concerned, like everyone else seems to be, with Sheets’ torn flexor tendon.
He might need that thing to pitch.
I hear you, but if he really was injured why not accept arbitration from the Brewers…he knew teams would look at his medical records…kind of a head scratcher
so theres 30 comments, and about half of them are from you complaining about the wilpons, ethnicity, or the fact we are setting for mediocrity…can you let the man (Omar) work, you complaining now is outrageous, the offseason is not over…its like you watching the first 6 innings of a met game last year and thinking its over…just relax and let him do what hes paid to do
my comment above is directed at mistermet
after 6 innings of a mets game last year…i was over…haha…they lost
yup, corry sullivan, tim redding, etc. all latin……
please stop with this, its SPORTS for godsakes! this should be fun…
Ethnicity certainly seems an issue with you, since you comment about it every chance you get.
mistermet—
EVERY post you ever make is a complaint…and many of them are your “ethnicity” idiocy as well.
JJ Putz is WHITE, as it Redding, and we also have some other white and African-American players. Perhaps you have noticed that there are A LOT of Latin players in baseball.
You will be the next to get banned, and the movement has begun.
Get a life and find a new hobby you racist numbskull!
How the hell can ethnicity explain the relative values placed on Wolf vs. Sheets?
That’s entirely absurd.
I’m not sure why the Mets don’t look at Sheets. I know that most of us will dissect every single move the Mets make regardless of if it’s on our wish lists, but they always seem to gravitate toward mediocrity. So so frustrating.
If the Mets picked up Sheets and Dunn, even Abreu and said FU to Perez, I would be extremely pleased. They could sign El Duque after that and I wouldn’t care.
Their medical staff must be convinced that his current injury has a great potential risk to get worse (which is a view shared by a number of teams), and Sheets at the moment seems to be requiring a substantial amount of guaranteed dollars. It’s a dumb move by Sheets, IMO, in this market, which is cutting contract values in half (or more) from last year’s.
The way this staff is built, they need a pitcher that will eat innings, otherwise they won’t need until September to collapse…as much as I don’t like Perez, he’s about the only guy left who’s going to give you 180 innings, unless someone is available in the trade market that we don’t know about.
i thought they were giving perez a deadline of this weekend and today they were moving past him
Yeah, this Perez s*** is getting old. Let him sign with another team that is offering him three years. Yeah right. We should be lowering our offer at this point as nobody but us will give him more than a year
there is a rumor going around that they are meeting with boras today in NY, but from reading your past comments enterkrod, you will try to turn it to believe they have moved past perez and are talking to boras about signing manny haha
lol….honestly….i just wish they would do something…perez is waiting this long to sign with the mets (since we all know thats the only team interested) and thinking he is the best thing out there…trying to get top money…i wish omar would just do something already…and maybe omar will get a few words with boras about manny…hahahaha…
I would guess that depends on whether they are having any active daloge right now. I fully support moving on if Bora$ is refusing dialog on the contract offer on the table right now.
Yes, Perez and Abreu should be the choce or Perez and a decent bat, not either or. I would rather have a real wolf in the dugout than Randy Wolf
I think Buster may be wrong on this (surprise suprise). I think if the Mets sign Ollie for 12-14 a year for 3 they would HAVE to still consider a 7 million 1year steal for a guy like Abeu or Dunn that, like them or not or the type of player they are, would improve the line-up. Even if they had to sign Ollie a little top heavy, like like $10/13/ and $15
I would love Ollie and Dunn. Dunn would bring a lot of pop, RBI’s, good OBP and great protection to the lineup. I just wouldn’t bat him in the 2 hole like some people are saying. If we got Dunn or Manny I would bat them in the 5 hole behind Delgado and Beltran in the 6 hole to give Dunn/Manny protection. Look what Manny did for Ortiz, and Manny/Dunn can do for Delgado.
Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Delgado
Manny/Dunn(if we get one of them)
Beltran
Church
Scheinder
SP
You can also bat Church in the 2 whole cause he was awesome there last year seeing a lot of fastballs every time Reyes was on but having Castillo in the 7 or 8 hole makes the back end of the lineup worse. I hate Castillo in the 2 hole cause he doen’t hit anymore but he does give Reyes a lot of time to steal second.
If we do get Dunn/Manny I would send Murphy to AAA so he can keep getting at bats and hopefully get good at 2B just in case Omar is able to get rid of Castillo. Murphy would look real nice in both the 2 or the 7 spot of the lineup.
Manny would have to go earlier in the line-up. Beltran could hit 5 maybe reyes, wright, manny delgado, Beltran or Reyes beltran Wright Manny Delgado. We are not liekly to get manny though so the point is probably moot.
I know where not getting him but if we did having him behind Delgado is the best way to go. Take a look at the numbers Ortiz put up with Manny behind him and than look at the numbers when Manny wasn’t in the lineup. Its night and day. If Manny is behind Delgado, they can’t pitch around him and put someone on for Manny, so Delgado will see a lot more fastballs.
Take a look at Andre Ethier from the Dodgers. Once Manny went to LA, Ethier was the 4th most productive OF in all of baseball. He batted almost .400 the rest of the season with really good pop.
I like Perez but the money for him is to excessive and he’s too inconsistent. I’d rather give him 2 years, because if he doesn’t show signs of being a top 2 pitcher for us after 2 years it’s not going to happen.
I’d rather take Sheets, I like his stuff better despite his medical history, and of course his amount of innings last season makes ya a bit more worried, but 10M+ for a guy who will pitch 8 innings and 2 hits 1 day, and 2 starts later walks 7 batters in 5 1/3 innings, it really is a worry that if your going to spend that much money you need better consistency and I just don’t have faith that this guy will improve to a 12M salary for 3 or 4 years.
For the life of me I can’t fuigure out why they like Wolf more than Sheets. I understand the injuries, but I though that is why we brought in Garcia and Redding, so we have depth beyond Niese if there is injuries. Ollie is over priced in todays market…maybe not last years, but this year it is clear he is not going to get 3 years at the money he is asking for.
Not to mention Wolf isn’t exactly free of injury risks/history himself.
i say sheets and manny…call it an offseason
I hope they break talks off with him today to send Boras a message, an they start talking with Sheets and if that fails, go to Wolf and Abreu.
Why not save the money for MANNY, seriously just sign Ben Sheets, trade for Dontrelle Willis, (include castillo in that deal) and were set..maybe sign a few relievers and then were fine!!!
Manny is just too much money and the Wilpons, in this economy, aren’t going to gamble with opening a new stadium (a lot of money btw, lol) aren’t going to open up their wallets if they want to complete the rotation as well.
Billy Wagner is killing us!
Castillo > Dontrelle….seriously
Did I just write that? wow.
nah, Dontrelle’s a better hitter :-P
it’s not that easy.
As for relievers, we’re set in the pen, but why would you want Willis? Have you seen him lately? A .500 record in 2006, 10-12 in 2007 and thn only pitched 8 games in 2008, he’s not what you want.
YOu have a better shot with Sheets or Wolf.
am i the only one who thinks redding is going to be really good next year?
i agree….i liked the acquisition of him….good number 5 starter
I think so…
Redding, with our offense and bullpen, can potentially be the very best 5th starter in the game. Absolutely.
I think he’ll be decent if he isn’t relied heavily upon.
I’ll join the crowd (and glad to see there is one). I thought it was a great move.
So, to rephrase the poll:
So, for the sake of argument, which would you rather have:
A. An 86 win team
B. An 89 win team
just do something already….ive been waiting for something since december…im not even excited to hear who they acquire…im not just aggitated…lol…first it was like alright awesome…now its just lets just sign him and go to spring training already
Would you rather have Perez and Abreu or Perez and Sheets with no additional offense.
I like Perez and Sheets just for the fact it’ll give the Mets one of the best rotation in baseball.
I don’t see how either of those are realistic options.
It looks like Mets will have about 8 mil to spend after Ollie. Which means that both options are viable options.
I’d have to go Perez + Sheets.
We have to expect some fall-off, but last year Tatis+Murphy were a better offense than Abreu (who, at 35 this season, also can’t be relied on to keep producing at last year’s rate), and an 18′ fence probably won’t help Abreu’s fear of the wall (there’s no way I’d let him anywhere near Citi’s right field maze).
In comparison replacing whichever it would otherwise have been of Garcia, Niese or Redding with Sheets is night-and-day, clearly worth several wins, depending on Sheets’ health.
in my opinion, in Perez doesn’t make up his mind by Tomorrow, game over. Move on, because it’s really annoying all the fans that this guy really is asking for too much than he’s worth and is dragging this out too long. It’s getting ridiculous, and it’s time to move on if he can’t make up his mind.
Idc if it’s Boras’ fault this is still dragging on, just end it, send a message to the guy that the only team trying to sign this guy is not gonna budge for more than 10M for 3 years.
I agree it is VERY annoying, but as Sheets is an injury risk, Ollie is the only young starter out there with any success, so he and his agent are sure to milk that for all it is worth….but as it seems we are the only team who really wants him, I do think we see Ollie back soon….
I agree. From what I have heard and read, Omar and Boras are looking to see who gives up first. Going after guys like Sheets will give Omar more leverage…
I’d rather have Sheets and Hudson, or Sheets and Abreu, but it just seems like Minaya loves Latinos so much that he wont give up on this deal.
i like sheets and manny…but being that niether is going to happen…yes everyone….im now officially doubting it…lol…me being the manny ringleader…lets sign perez and being that it seems like omar is set with this crap offense…lets just go to spring training and show how this offense will not be enough to contend….
crap offense? you mean the best lead off hitter in the game, one of the most versatile player with power in beltran? delgado getting his swing back? do i need to say anything about david right? church? murphy hasnt shown us anything but greatness the last two months, castillo and schieder cant get any worse, plus you are forgetting how much castro can rake..crap offense is an absurd comment to make
Definitely not a crap offense but you are delusional if you think it’s as great as you make it out to be.
enterkrod—oh no, have you taken off your Mannyac (c)(r)(tm) hat and shirt?? Say it ain’t so! LOL…
I promise man, you are going to love our team with your man KRod and my man JJ saving every single game we would have lost in 2008! And the 2nd most runs is going to get us at least 95 wins this year!! Mark it down!
Matt…there’s absolutely NO REASON this team cant afford Perez and Abreu on a one year deal. I understand we cant splurge for Manny, but 7 extra mil for one year shouldnt be a make or break for anyone, and its a joke if it comes down to it and we lose Abreu.
Sign Manny and trade for pitching.
Bring in Washburn and 3.5 million for Marlon Anderson and Johnathan Sanchez for Murphy or Church.
The problem I have with Ollie is 2008 was his walk year
his outlook coming in was to put his best foot forward so to get a big payday come free agency
And this is what he did:
10 – 7 4.22 era
On top of this his inconsistancy was incredible
wtf is so hard here? Omar, you lost out on the guy you(and I)wanted, ollie for all his “stuff”
cant be trusted on a 4yr contract,sheets obviously is still injured(as usual),wolf IS the
kind of guy you give a Garcia type deal to b/c
he cant be trusted due to his injury history.
The only Move you can possibly make which
would significantly improve this team is to:
SIGN MANNY!!!
SHHHHHHH,
Don’t say the M-word
Just sign Perez, and try to latch onto Wiggington if he is really gettign hung out to dry on a short, lower $$ contract.
why would you trade Murphy when Manny has what? 2 years left in him, and thats probably as much as we’ll give him.
To be honest, I’d rather hold onto Murphy and Church, because I’m not too excited about F-Mart.
For those of you so against Wolf and so enamoured with Ollie, please take a good look at their stats last season. They are virtually identical. And for those of you who keep saying Ollie has “upside” please realize that he’s been pitching in MLB for 6+ seasons now and he is what he is….a mediocre pitcher. If sgining Wolf cheaper,and for only 1 year allows us to get Manny its a much better move for us. Signing Ollie for anything over 3 years and anything close to $ 10 million per is absolutely ludacris. He’s just not that good.
Wolf,when healthy(and that aint often) was
the very definition of a mediocre pitcher.
Ollie’s better than that only b/c he’s usually
healthy.But 4/48 is a mistake.
Ollie is also 5 years younger than Wolf and can pitch in NY…
Yes. Perez is clearly more talented and younger than Wolf. Perez is so inconsistent, however, that his aggregate performance is slightly better than Wolf’s.
There is nothing that says Wolf can’t pitch in NY either. Perez has shown a penchant for being able to pitching “big” games, but also has a penchant for blowing up frequently.
Million dollar arm and a 5 cent head. Perez is a thrower and it remains to be seen if he’ll ever be a pitcher.
Perez for a guaranteed 3 years is as much of a risk and is more expensive than signing Ben Sheets for a year.
The Mets will be sorry if they sign Perez, but it looks like it’s likely to happen. I like Perez and all because he’s good when he’s on, but you never know what you’re going to get with him.
But as Matt has pointed out more than once, there’s always a trade market for an under-30 lefty with a live arm. Even if he’s a bust teams are likely to think they can fix him.
The last 5 seasons, Wolf has made 23, 13, 12, 18 and 33 starts (c.f. “injury prone” Sheets: 34, 22, 17, 24 and 31 – more starts in 4 out of the last 5 years than Wolf!). Perez on the other hand has no history of major injury.
Sheets is a huge risk – if he’s the only pitcher signed and he only pitches half a season, that means we play half the season with no genuine #2 and two marginal #5s in the rotation. If we get Perez *and* Sheets, I’ll be happy because we can make do if we don’t get a full season of Sheets.
could we have a manny pedro option?
screw pedro.
I loved his years ago but hes way out of his prime, he should just retire.
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