J.J. Putz On Top Of The Mets List

Jayson Stark of ESPN writes the following,

• We keep hearing predictions that the Mets will wind up signing K-Rod for four years and $50-55 million. But don’t bet your copy of “The Life and Times of Jesse Orosco” on a deal that long. One baseball man reports that when he asked a Mets official about the possibility of a four-year contract for any closer, he was told that was a “deal breaker” for a team that still owes Billy Wagner $10.5 million next year, plus a $1 million buyout.

• Meanwhile, how big an upset would it be if the Mets don’t sign any of those free-agent closers? The same source says he was told that, despite talk that the Mets prefer to fill that role with a free agent, if Seattle were to put J.J. Putz on the market, he would go to the top of the Mets’ list.

I guess that means that despite rumors to the contrary, Putz is not really on the trading block. Either that or the asking price is so high that it makes trading for him too prohibitive.

Stark also writes that their are potentially a dozen available closers, and only six teams in need of a closer.

Wow, that certainly is good news for the Mets I would think.