In a post to his blog for the New York Post, Joel Sherman speculates on how the Mets may look to upgrade their rotation in the off-season.
…it’s probably too early to even think about it… that said, i bet Omar Minaya chooses to trade for a pitcher, long before he looks to sign a free agent, if for no other reason than that is typically how he operates, and the open market will just not be that good…
That said, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe believes the Red Sox will listen to offers for RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka this off season.
Matsuzaka will earn $28 million over the next three season, after which he can be a free agent following 2012.
He was 33–15 with a 3.72 ERA in 61 starts during his first two seasons with Boston, but has missed the majority of this season with fatigue in his right shoulder.
The Red Sox won the rights to negotiate with Matsuzaka in 2006 with a winning bid of $51.1 million.
However, according to ESPN.com, “The Mets finished second with a bid between $39 million and $40 million.”
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Just what we need…another overpaid injury-prone pitcher who puts way too many men on base bust shows you just enough to continue to think he will be good
That would be terrible if the Mets traded for Matsuzaka. Especially if they could have traded for Roy this season (I’m not saying they could have, but if they could and didn’t, that’s terrible).
Forget Dice K, the last thing we need is another Ollie..
Go get Chapman.. that kid is electric.
Moments of excellence? Check. Throws about 600 pitches per start, but only lasts 5 innings? Check. Walks a ton of hitters? Check. Vastly overpaid? Check. A safe bet to spend a solid chunk of time on the DL? Check. How is this guy not already a Met?? If they do make a deal and have a 3-4-5 of Matsuzaka-Perez-Maine, the Mets had better hold a lot of Suicide Prevention Weekend promotions at CitiField next year.
Thanks, very funny!
With a rotation of Pelfrey, Perez, Matsuzaka, and Maine the Mets will need four more starters to pitch the other half of every game…
Santana and K-Rod will handle the one win per turn…
Maine is done. Niese is now a Met for good.
would Boston really cut their losses on the 51 mil bid? They certainly cannot have made back that investment in two years…
Please no Dice-K. Is it just me, or do players only last 2-3 years at best when they come over from the japan/korea leauges???
Outside of Ichiro, honestly, name someone over seas who has lasted more then 2 or 3 solid seasons. Quick drops come to mind of Wang (Though just this year, who is to say he becomes the lights out guy he previously was?), Dice K (Really? A gyro ball is his niche???), Igawa (Though he was never really any good).
Hideki Matsui had 4 1/2 good seasons.
There’s also some guy named Ichiro who I think has been around for a year or two.
The suggestion that Asian players are not durable is laughable.
Dice K. No…Chapman Yes.
I agree. Sign a FA like Garland/Marquis/Duchscherer to eat some innings and hope for a solid season while Holt and Mejia continue to develop, and then take a chance on Aroldis Chapman.
If this kid is what they say he is, imagine having this rotation in three years:
Santana, Chapman, Pelfrey, Holt, Mejia
Hey, I can dream right?
When I say three years, I mean 2011. I guess I can’t count, LOL.
Alay Soler.
No comparison. Soler barely threw 88 if I recall, and couldn’t rely on his “stuff.” Any left-handed SP who is under 27 (I say that because of his age rumors) and throws around 100 mph is not comparable to many pitchers.
Sherman also mentions the Mets may have interest in free agent Jose Contreras… That signing would make me puke..
He would be awful. No need to look any further than how he handled his first stint in NY with the Yankees. The pressure would eat him alive.
If Omar signs him no one on this website should ever be allowed to defend anything Omar does or site any positive move he has ever made.
It’s all about context. If Contreras is signed to a $10M/2yr deal to be the team’s #4 starter, I’d say yeah, that qualifies as a terrible signing. If he’s signed to a minor league deal to compete for the 5th starter’s spot, I don’t have a problem with that.
Omar better not be around next year to sign anyone.
John Lackey is a free agent. We will probably finish with a poor enough record to get a top 15 pick in the draft and thus not lose it by signing class A guys. No bargain bin shopping this offseason please.
I’m pretty sure that the Angels actually have an option on Lackey…that makes the 2010 FA class loaded in pitching, with Lackey, Halladay and Lee all on the market.
Ha ha ha, as others have posted here, just what we need, another overpaid pitcher with a tired shoulder. No thank you. Pass.
Justin Duchscherer, anybody? The guy was lights last season, and is supposedly rehabbing very well after surgery. He was never really a flamethrower anyway, so my guess is he can return to form if given a chance.
Duchscherer is an interesting thought. He’ll likely be a Type B free agent, so he won’t cost us a pick. And it’d be nice to add another pitcher and not just another thrower (e.g. Oliver Perez). I wonder how much it would take to sign him. My only hesitation would be that in a rotation filled with health problems, do we really want to add a guy coming off surgery?
the guy can’t stay healthy. in his only season as a starter he only made it 140 innings and never has stayed healthy even when he was a reliever.
It shouldn’t be filled with health problems next year, though.
-Santana still has a few good years left in him.
-Pelfrey is a victim to the Verducci effect this season. Otherwise he has been healthy.
-Duchscherer has had injury problems, but with no immediate help in AAA, I’d say he’s worth the risk.
-Ollie never is or was hurt. He is just a head case.
-Niese has yet to miss any significant time due to injury.
Only one real injury bug right there. All other injuries that would occur can simply be labeled as bad luck and coincidence.
I’m a big John Lackey fan. I think he’d fit in perfect as a #2 on this team. And that’s what they need, a true #2, which Pelfrey apparently may never be consistent enough to ever be. And I think it’d be wiser to invest in a Duchsherer or Webb (if available) than trading prospects for Dice-K.
Agreed…..for a change
Yea, I would make him a top priority for the off season.
I really hope this is not the route the Mets go. They should trade for Adrian Gonzalez and buy everything else, including a #2 or #3 starter. The Mets will have about $30 million to work with so they have some cash to throw around. Ideally the Mets would pick up Lackey or Bedard but I’d settle for someone like Marquis or even Wolf for the right price. I also wouldn’t the mind the Mets taking a flyer on, again, at the right price, one of the pitchers whose 2009 was highlighted by injuries like Sheets, Duscherer or Harden.
count me among the Lackey fanboy camp. he’s having a great year after being injured for almost 1/3 of the beginning of this year. maybe that affects his price, maybe not… but he’s just the kind of guy i think we need in the rotation. the IPs have been on a decline since ‘07, which is a warning sign for a pitcher on the wrong side of 30… but i’m still a fan. surely a better option than Dice-BB.
I don’t think Sherman gave us anything we didn’t already know
We really should get Putz and Wags in the pen in August. I have to think we can get something for them after they clear waivers. Both are paid closer money, so are you really going to offer them arbitration? get what you can, save the salary (probabaly 3-4 million) and hope you get Lucky with the prospects.
Ditto Delgado. If he can comeback healthy in a few weeks, an AL team in need of a DH for the playoff push might pick him up.
No argument from me. But, Omar will screw it up. Bet on it.
Just like he screwed up in getting a bonafide ace two seasons ago when we needed one, right? And just like he screwed up rebuilding a bullpen with two of the top five closers in the game, right? (Don’t give me any crap about the Putz injury…he still got the deal done and got rid of Heilman.)
It’s amazing how people get mad at Omar for RUMORS. You gotta love how some people on here are calling for his head just because some writer speculated on him signing Contreras.
YES, the Ollie and Castillo deals were awful. But getting guys like Delgado, Lo Duca, Beltran, Floyd, Alou, Pedro, Glavine, Santana, K-Rod, Putz, and EVEN Francoeur should earn him a little bit of thanks.
I’ve said it before: Omar Minaya is the reason we actually have expectations in New York again.
Easier for the Mets to pick guys off the Waiver wire based on where they sit in standings vs. get guys through to a team that wants them and will give value back.
If Delgado comes back and plays healthy he is not going to agree to arbitration knowing the Mets would risk taking the one year deal on him vs. him getting security of two years, same goes with Wagner, if he can show he is healthy he is far more likely to get a decent two year deal than the benefit of accepting arbiration from the Mets.
Are either Putz, Delgado or Wagner type A free agents? I would think the injuries do not play in their favor. Type B gets us one pick?
Wagner is a safe bet for Type A, as is Delgado with his type B status. Believe it or not Fernando DP Tatis and old man Shef are both on the bottom rungs of Type B status. Putz is neither type A or type B having missed a significant chunk of time in both seasons. The draft picks assuming arbitration offerings and FA signings will net more than most trades would.
How is wags a safe bet for Type A? You think 6 weeks of stats will put him in Type A status?
I believe the formula takes the last two seasons into consideration. Not 100 percent sure though.
Compensation rankings are directly related to how players perform vs other players at the same position…
Those 3 have 0 chance to return any draft picks.. and with all cost a ton in arbirtration should they accept it… so it’s not even worth the risk if they did bring back picks…
So a total wash pretty much.. that 9 million dollar option for Putz seems insane to pickup right now.
I wouldn’t mind picking up Putz’ option for next season for two reasons:
1) It never hurts to have enough solid arms
2) We can afford it. Why not give him another chance and let him become trade bait next summer?
Delgado deserves another chance as a Met, too. I’m sure he feels like a brand new man now that his surgery is done, so why not sign him to a one year deal worth around $8 million or so and let him play first base until Ike Davis is ready?
Wagner could possibly be traded this August if he returns. If the Mets are going to pick up Putz’ option, Wagner will walk. If they aren’t going to pick up his option, they will probably off Wags arbitration.
Putz certainly will have his option picked up, Mets are not going to just let him walk.
Wagner and Delgado if they come back and perform will at worst be Type B.
They must come back in time and perform first. Besides, I still think they need to re-sign Delgado. I don’t care for Wagner much if he can’t be traded, but this team would be much better off trading Daniel Murphy and keeping Delgado at first base until Ike Davis is ready.
Plus, I’d much rather Davis learn from Delgado than Murphy, whether it be in ST or during the season. It just makes more sense, especially if the guy has a chance to hit 25-30 HR and drive in 100.
Trade for King Felix and sign Chapman. That’d be nice.
Like Seattle would even consider that…
It is possible if they think they can’t sign him long term. Think of the contract he would get.
If he is traded, it likely won’t be until after 2010 because he isn’t a FA until after 2011. Besides, you’re talking trading the farm for this guy. NO one player is worth the farm system in this economy.
unless seattle believes they have burnt him out by 23, no way are they going to deal him.
they have $20MM coming off between Beltre and Batista, of course they have taken on horrible contracts in Jack Wilson, Ian Snell and their signing of Carlos Silva, not who knows, but I have to suspect they are going ot buy out two years of Hernandez free agency this off season.
Why offer any of them arbitration? If you do offer it to Delgado or Wagner they could accept and probably receive more salary than we’d be willing to pay for them. We need them to come off the books so we have money to sign a LF and a catcher and possibly another stater if we don’t manage to trade for one
also am i the only one that wouldn’t say no to Dice-K?
I’d offer Delgado arbitration because he isn’t going to win his case. Cases are decided based upon a player’s performance that previous season, and considering Delgado has been on the DL the entire year, I’d say the Mets win that case hands down as long as they don’t low ball him.
To answer your second question: yes.
I actually wouldn’t be opposed to Dice-K either. He has a full no-trade, but I imagine he’d waive it since he’s not happy there.
I assume the Mets wouldn’t have to pick up any of his posting fee and sadly, $9 million per year isn’t that bad for a guy with his potential. He’s erratic and drives you crazy, but move him to the pitcher-friendly NL in the pitcher-friendly Citi Field and that’s a chance I’d be willing to take if the cost wasn’t too high in terms of prospects.
Hopefully Omar won’t be around to make these decisions.
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