Angels reporter Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times believes free-agent RHP John Lackey will get at least a five-year deal, worth around $100 million, while Chone Figgins will likely land a five-year, $50 million deal on the open market.
In 158 games this season for the Angels, Figgins hit .298 with a .395 OBP, 42 extra base hits and 42 stolen bases.
…i get e-mails from readers all of the time suggesting the Mets sign figgins to play second base… he’d be a wonderful No.2 hitter behind Jose Reyes, no doubt about it… he was treated a super-sub during the first few years of his career, playing games at second, shortstop and the outfield… but, he’s turned in to quite the impressive defensive third baseman… and so, i have to think some team will gladly sign him to a long-term deal to be their prominent lead-off hitter, and starting third baseman… the Mets, on the other hand, would need to first move Luis Castillo, and then convince figgins to switch back to second base, where he has not played regularly since 2005, and they will probably have to overpay to sway him to do it…
…three other things about figgins, 1) everytime my wife sees his name on screen, she says, ‘Shown,’ 2) he has the same birth date as SNY’s Ted Berg, and 3) he might be Willie Randolph’s doppelganger…
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Reyes and Figgins at the top of the order would be sick. Too bad the Luis Castillo contract comes back to haunt us again. Ughhhhhhhhhh cant stand that guy.
Neither Lackey nor Figgins is worth that amount of money.
I mean if money was no object then I’d say sign Holliday and Lackey and you’re offseason would be mostly over, but that’s not the case.
I get the sense the Mets will try to land Holliday, but it won’t work out.
Honestly, I expect the Mets to pull off lesser moves like these (not that I’m advocated ANY of these):
(1) Signing Adam LaRoche to a 2-year deal to play 1B.
(2) Signing either Vlad Guerrero, Jermaine Dye or Bobby Abreu to a 2-year deal to play LF.
(3) Trading for Miguel Olivo to play C.
(4) Exploring a trade for a reliable #3 starter, since the price in terms of players will be high for a #2. I can see the Mets reach out to the Braves and see if a deal can be worked out for Lowe.
In the end, I expect the Mets to make moves, but I just can’t see them making a huge sigining, but rather a serious of smaller moves to build the overall depth of this team.
Vlad WOULD be the type of player the Mets would go after, hoping he can reclaim his glory days.
Unfortunately these days he’s an overweight injury-prone defensive liability with a shred of the offensive prowess he once possessed. Imagine him trying to run around right field for us? He’d injure himself jogging out there to start an inning. That guy will end up in the American league as a DH; he simply can’t play the field anymore.
It would also help him quite a bit if he attempted a bit of conditioning in the off-season, maybe lose about 20 pounds.
Anyway, I could easily see the Mets signing him because we missed the boat 6 years ago when he was still good, so of course they’d like to sign him now that he’s old. Our front office sucks
Yea I remember Fred Wilpons CHEAPO excuse… “We are concerned about his back issue so we couldn’t guarantee the 7th year”.. How did that work out for us? Having Guerrero and Piazza in the heart of the order would have done wonders for this franchise.
ITs another example of Mets ownership not going over the top… AROD & MANNY are two of the many other examples.
What about the Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana examples?
Yeah – because we’d all love to have Manny and his steroid-based contract now! $20mm for 2010 for the guy you saw last week whiffing vs the Philthies…what a bargain!
Not.
Im not referring to Manny last year … I’m talking about him the prior year when we could have traded him for a bag of balls.. And oh what happened we collapsed.
And as for Santana and Beltran we HAD to get them cause we had no one else. I’m talking about adding the missing piece to what we have. Your telling me you were happy with Daniel Murphy starting in left field last year? And didnt think we needed another big bat in the lineup? If you didnt think so than you are naive.
It is a fact that the Wilpons dont go the extra mile to insure an almost guaranteed contending team. Again if you dont believe it than you are either naive or not paying attention.
When was Manny ever available for a bag of balls?
Remind me who the Dodgers gave up for him at the trade deadline two years ago? The Pirates made that deal work with Jason Bay – the Dodgers gave up nothing. We didnt even attempt to bring him in. We would have won the division that year if we did so.
And I still would have signed Manny even with the steroid issue. He was still a better option than Daniel Murphy (what a joke he is), and Angel Pagan (can’t stay healthy). Not to mention he signed a 1 year deal with a second year player option. He would have been worth the gamble.
I dont hear you arguing the Guerrero or AROD points.
Oh yeah, I remember when the Dodgers won the WS in 2008. Man that was a good series. Manny really contributed.
I know how much unrequited love you have for Daniel Murphy, but Manny out in LF at CitiField for 60 or so games would have been hilarious to watch, in a sad clown kinda way.
Still waiting for you to acknowledge the fact that the Wilpons have spent a lot of money over the past 5 seasons.
They won the division … how did we do???
I never said the Wilpons dont spend money .. I said, like millions of other fans say, that they dont spend money to put the mets over the top when they have the opportunity to do so… And I listed three perfectly good examples. I didnt say they dont spend money in general.
Didn’t the Redsox put him on out right waivers, pretty much “claim him and he’s yours”?
Yep, ARod sure put Texas over the top.
Ok you want to compare the supporting cast we could have surrounded AROD with compared to what the Rangers surrounded him with???? You just made a terrible point. If we had AROD and Piazza along with the other guys I promise the Braves dont win 14 or 15 straight divisions and we DONT CHOKE it up the last couple of years.
I would prefer Figgins to the almighty O-dawg. I guarantee you this, if the mets sign O-dawg all you fans that want him now will complain next season about his production.
When O-DAWG hits 40+ doubles, hits .290, plays gold glove caliber defense while also providing veteran leadership on a team with NO fight … I promise you won’t hear a peep out of me about ODAWGS production.
And when he gets benches for the Met equivalent of Ronnie Belliard (Alex Cora)?
I won’t hear anything from you because O-dawg will be either benched or hurt.
Yea cause Luis Castillo who has been an absolute bust even with a decent season this year is a better option… Please.
Ah I did not say Castillo was. I want Figgins.
Oh if we could get Figgins instead… Sign me up… Although his post season performance was a little discouraging but I’d still take Figgins over ODawg… without a doubt.
I thought you were making a case for Castillo. My bad.
I guess I didnt read your entire post. Or any of it lol
It’s all good.
Lackey is worth the cash but in no way is Figgins worth 10 a year. He’d make for a good 2b, but not at that price / years.
I know the sample is small, but he disappears every year in the playoffs.
So does Arod. Wait, not this season.
Lackey is not worth 20 million is that a joke. He is worth 15 million max. Id go NO higher have 5 years at 15 million per…. take it or leave it.
I agree Lackey is not worth 20 per year. I like him a lot and want him to pitch for the mets, but not at 20 million.
Everyone needs to relax about the cost of these players as it is all being speculated by the m @ rons in the media.
NO CHANCE any of those guys get close to that in this type of economy, especially when The Yankees won’t be bidding on either player. The Yankees are the team that escalates the price on these free agents.. If they aren’t involved no other team will overpay for them. Why would they? That would be bad business… So everyone relax cause I have a feeling that we are going to have an offseason like 2005-2006 when we brought in tons of expensive talent…cause lets be honest after the last three seasons this franchise HAS TO!
This is true 99% of the time. The exceptions being when Omar outbids himself for Ollie and Luis.
lmao! Ouch the truth hurts!
hahaha very true. I forgot about when Omar bids against himself. haha
Question: If Ollie is paid $12mm, and Santana is paid $23mm, where does Lackey fit in?
Answer: A lot closer to $20mm than to $15mm.
You cant go by Ollies contract because only our GM would bid against himself and over pay…and Santana is or was the best pitcher in all of baseball and we were pinned against the clock to get a deal done so his agent had the advantage.
Lackey is becoming a free agent in a weak economy and most likely without the Yankees bidding on him…No one is gonna thru 20 million at him … I say 15 to 18 over 3 to 5 years but not 20 mil or more per year. Thats is way too much.
20 a year for Lackey is crazy – I thought there was all comments from him directly looking at the 75 / 5 range. Maybe his playoff apps made his stock go up, I don’t know.
What team would give him $20 a year? Rangers? BoSox?
Cot’s has the top 15 annual contracts for starters:
Starting pitchers
The highest-paid active starting pitchers, by average annual value:
CC Sabathia, $23,000,000 (2009-15)
Johan Santana, $22,916,667 (2008-13)
Carlos Zambrano, $18,300,000 (2008-12)
Barry Zito, $18,000,000 (2007-13)
Jake Peavy, $17,333,333 (2010-12)
A.J. Burnett, $16,500,000 (2009-13)
Jason Schmidt, $15,666,667 (2007-09)
Derek Lowe, $15,000,000 (2009-12)
Roy Oswalt, $14,600,000 (2007-11)
Mark Buehrle, $14,000,000 (2008-11)
Roy Halladay, $13,333,333 (2008-10)
Ryan Dempster, $13,000,000 (2009-12)
Chris Carpenter, $12,700,000 (2008-11)
Bronson Arroyo, $12,500,000 (2009-10)
Kevin Millwood, $12,000,000 (2006-10)
Where does Lackey fit on that list – just the recent ones? Dempster? Lowe? Burnett? Peavy?
Don’t complain about the Mets being cheap and then expect that somehow they can just convince the player & his agent to forget about the other contracts (even the bad ones!). Lackey is a stud pitcher, despite his W-L this year.
In his whole career, he has given up 1519 hits in 1501 IP. Over the last 6 years, he averages less than 1H/IP. He averages less than 1HR/9IP – and Anaheim is not a big park. His K/BB ratio is about 3:1 in recent years, and he walks less than 2.5/9 IP.
And all those are AL stats.
Imagine Lackey with a 10% reduction in hits & walks allowed, and a 10% increase in Ks — from the combination of moving to the NL and its weaker lineups, plus pitching @ CitiField instead of the Big A. Now pay for it…
Who cares what other pitchers got paid… Lackey isnt going to automatically make 20 mil a year cause other players in the past have…No chance he gets that much in this economy and with the Yankees not bidding… If the Yankees dont bid on him Lackey is looking at 15 to 17 million per year. He isnt as good as the top 3 guys on your list.
So are you argreeing with me? I dont understand your point…
No – I don’t agree with you. Even w/o the NYY bidding, there’s still LAA & TEX vs NYM. He will compare himself to Jake Peavy (who has slightly better WHIP but gives up HRs at a higher rate), and should get identical $$ absent a bidding war, but will probably get a longer deal as a true FA. So, that would be 5 yrs for $87.5mm or 6 for $105mm ($17.5mm per). From there, it’s easy to see it going to $18 or $19per
I disagree with you but I guess only time will tell who is correct.
Peavy is 4 years younger than Lackey. Age plays a huge part in contracts. Not to mention Peavy is a bonifide ace – Lackey is more of a number 2 starter than ace.
I expect Lackey to get a 5 year deal worth 15 to 18 million per. On the max side the deal will be worth $90 million in my opinion. Unless ofcourse the Yankees are involved.
i’m sorry…… doppelganger?
Matt got a thesaurus for his anniversary.
Minaya will make one big signing just to appease the fans, but the end result will still be a crap season. i hope that he proves everyone wrong.
i hope so 2
Does this guy get a cut? Those numbers are absurd.
Yikes, these are pre-recession prices.
I agree with the post about the Yankees driving up prices, and I don’t see them going after anyone major unless they want in on Holliday. Holliday is probably the only one that gets close to $100m but he probably tops out below that. I am in the Lackey camp– he would be a killer pitcher in the NL, particularly behind/next to Johan and in our ballpark.
The Mets will sign Holliday and get us excited then claim they arent done then they will sign scrap heap SPs like freddy garcia and maybe add a no name bullpen guy like matt wise. By this time ST will start and all our excitement will have worn out and turned into anger frustration and the feeling of “here we go again”. And on we go to another 80 win disappoinment (if healthy).
I gotta believe that Omar is going to get the missing pieces, a three year old kid could see the holes the Mets need filled and Omar has to be on it. This is pretty much his last chance
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