It’s possible that the Mets might swing a minor deal between now and Thursday afternoon, perhaps even grab catcher Bengie Molina or a mid-level starting pitcher off the free-agent pile.
...
“Overall, I feel that some of the free agents that are out there,” Minaya said, “it’s going to take a little bit longer than in past Meetings.”
As is custom at this point in the winter, the main snag between the Mets and some of their free-agent targets—Matt Holliday and John Lackey in an ideal world, Molina and Joel Pineiro in a more realistic one—is contract length. Many of the available mid-market starting pitchers are asking for contracts of more than two years, whereas the Mets are unwilling to commit long-term deals to most of them.
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In the interim in Indianapolis, they will continue to have dialogue with player agents—the Mets met with Fernando Cuza, the agent for Molina, on Tuesday—and will continue to keep abreast of the trade market.
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After the Yankees, Tigers and D-backs agreed in principle to a three-way trade that, among other things, would send Edwin Jackson to Arizona, Minaya admitted that he inquired about Jackson only to learn that Detroit was underwhelmed by what the club had to offer.
So it goes for the Mets, a team unwilling to spend gobs of money, unable to woo clubs with their prospects and unsuccessful in their initial attempts to make something stick in Indy. With so many needs, from a starting left fielder and catcher to a No. 2 starter, the Mets are bound to strike soon.
NTNgod
Posted: December 09, 2009 at 01:08 AM |
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Ryan Church will likely be available in 10 days.
Um. Yay?
Truthfully, this paragraph fill me with a nausea-inducing fear.
Poor, poor Mets. Just a stumbling, mid-market team waiting for scraps after the big dogs eat.
It never works for them, but the Mets might be smart to lay low in the early rounds of the offseason. Reluctant to make a huge splash, uncertain about the direction of the club...
NYC journalists seem to think that this behavior is unconscionable, of course.
But they have so many holes to fill, I don't think you can lay low on ALL of them.
Of course, given what they seem to want to do (give B Molina $6M!!!) maybe waiting would be best.
What if their plan is wait and see what is out there? The FA market is weird and you can sometimes get bargains late in the offseason on second tier free agents because while some of them get big deals, others end up signing reasonable contracts. Look at Jon Garland or Rnady Wolf last season.
If they have a plan of resting on their haunches for this season instead of doing something stupid, I'm all for it, truthfully.
If Lassus is this pessimistic, we are screwed.
If that were pessimism, I'd agree with you. We're in a weird spot. Injured players coming back, ownership seemingly confused of their own financial status, a free-agent pool of mediocrities. I think that taking it easy for a year is smart. Now, I love baseball as much as championships, so perhaps I'm more forgiving of a year treading water.
At the same time, I'm a little pissed off that we're wasting a year of our awesome players. I'm not all sunshine. But I just don't think this is the best time to be either be acquiring or trading players, and thus view an off-season more Buddhist in nature as completely acceptable, and not really pessimistic.
I don't see why just resigning Delgado and rolling the dice again isn't a more popular option. That's really what I'd be doing this offseason. Resign Delgado for a year and go hard for Lackey. Keep catcher as it is now, the three headed suck monster, most catchers suck anyway. Start Frenchy and Pagan in the outfield. You can always try and pick up another bat in the season if the season is meaningful.
The Mets have holes but I don't think they have the creativity, talent, or the money to fix them this offseason. But they aren't doomed for next year. I think just how bad they were by the end of last year is weighing on everyone's mind. But if Beltran, Wright, and Reyes are all healthy and hitting next year, they'll be in the race. Which might not be ALL that a fan of a team with the resources of the Mets should hope for, but it ain't really that ####### bad either.
I actually tend to think that the biggest mistake the Mets are making this offseason is to have not fired Omar. Not that he necessarily deserves it, but it's pretty apparent that he needs to win this year for the sake of his job security. That's close enough to a lameduck status to impair his already somewhat questionable judgment.
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