Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports believes the Braves are among eight teams interested in Billy Wagner.
According to Rosenthal, the agent for Wagner, Bean Stringfellow, says, “Teams that called are aware that he’s a Type A free agent, and they’re calling anyway.”
Meanwhile, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com says that while the Phillies have bigger fish to fry than finding a replacement for Eric Bruntlett, it’s important because they have very little depth behind Jimmy Rollins. Zolecki says the Phillies are looking at John McDonald, Omar Vizquel, Jamey Carroll, Ronnie Belliard and Juan Uribe as possible replacements.
Finally, According to Bill Ladson of MLB.com, Scott Olsen, who tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder, says his arm is 100 percent.
Olsen appeared in just 11 games and went just 2-4 with a 6.03 ERA for the Nationals in 2009 after being traded from the Marlins along with Josh Willingham last winter.
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Type A free agent with interest, and we gave him away for an old, fringe prospect.
Well played, Omar.
You may end up being right. But, I would wait and see how this plays out. There is no draft-pick compensation unless the Red Sox offer him arbitration, which there is a small chance he could accept.
What I still don’t know is why the Mets waited so long to put him on waivers. I know this is just rehashing, but it seems like he should have been put on waivers as soon as he was activated, so there’d be less of a shot of a team claiming him without watching him pitch a few times.
Of course, maybe the Mets hierarchy truly felt he would fail in his comeback…I don’t know…
I think your questions precludes the possibility that the Mets wanted to trade Wagner, who was quite possibly one of the only trade chips they had.
Right he was their one chip to trade at the break, but they boxed themselves in by forcing themselves to trade with the BoSox. They couldn’t even manage a top 30 prospect from the BoSox minor league system.
I think there is more to it than that…Life isn’t a one way street, and I think its important to do right by the player also. Other agents/players take note of these kinds of things knowing that the organization will do what is best for the player.
At the same time, don’t look too much into the fact that teams are calling Wagner….As mentioned, the Sox still have to offer arbitration to Billy. There is a chance that his salary thru arbitration is higher than other teams are willing to go, and he stays in Boston.
I think what bothers me and has bothered me since the trade went down, is who the mets received. Carter may be a fine player, however, mets already have Murphy playing first. The mets also have Davis in the minors. Not to mention the fact that this offseason, we fans are talking about getting A Gonz, or Overbay or just someone else to play 1b. This, to me, reassures this trade was bad. I say bad because should have gotten a 2b, or a pitcher for Wagner, or plain and simply, kept him and received the draft picks. Poor baseball decision by the mets front office.
Heres where I agree with you. Even though Wagner is suggesting that he would consider a setup role with the Red Sox, I don’t think that would have been the case with the Mets.
I think he wanted to move on, and so we would have been in a much better situation to offer arbitration and net some draft picks. Yes it would have hurt his value on the open market, but a team like the Nats with a protected 1st rounder would have made the leap on Wagner.
And if in the horrible event that Wagner accepted the arbitration, then we would have had a very nice setup man, who we STILL could have traded during the season and gotten something similar to what we got from Boston.
That is where I scratch my head at the move.
I hated the trade then I hate it now. Im sorry there is no defense for that move and if it really was to save the 2 million dollars left on his salary then that is PATHETIC. couldve gotten 1-2 draft picks before the 2nd round to go with our #6 overall pick. Horrible, horrible move. Oh and don’t worry the Red Sox WILL offer him arbitration and they will get our draft pick(s), but then again they are an intelligent franchise.
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