As you all know by now…
BREAKING NEWS: Mets offer Lowe 3-Year Deal
How dramatic indeed…
While I’m glad that the Mets finally extended an offer to Derek Lowe, who I really believe is the best available remaining free agent pitcher, I am bothered by the fact that they low-balled him.
Much has been made of the fact that Lowe was seeking a 5-year, $90 million dollar contract. Of course, there is no way he gets anything close to that in this disparaging economy.
When the Mets low-balled K-Rod, I thought it was a brilliant move, simply because the market was saturated with closers at a time when only a handful of teams needed one. The Mets were clearly in the drivers seat.
However, I don’t believe that is the case with Derek Lowe. There are at least a half dozen teams all vying for his services, and even his agent Scott Boras underplayed the Mets offer when he said, “We did receive the Mets offer, we also have several other offers”.
The Mets offer was reported to be for three years and $36 million dollars. I always felt that Lowe would end up signing a 3-4 year deal worth $15-$16 million dollars annually.
The offer that the Mets extended to Lowe, seemed more suitable for Oliver Perez, and not the last best pitcher left on the market.
It will be interesting to see how this ultimately plays out, but I hope the Mets didn’t eliminate themselves from the process by tendering what I believe is a laughable offer given the state of the starting pitching market.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
i think the offer is reasonable…maybe a little low but who does this guy think he is…i mean hes not getting any younger and hes not a 18 or 16 game winner every year….and i dont believe there are at least half dozen teams in pursuit of lowe…scott boras says “We did receive the Mets offer, we also have several other offers” i believe this is a boras tactic saying he received several other offers just to try to get the mets to increase their offer…i mean seriously how many teams are in pursuit of lowe?? mets, phillies, braves are out, so are yankees, maybe even the red sox after signing penny…idk im not so sure boras is telling the truth…u can disagree with me if you want.
sad that 36 million is considered laughable. sounds good to me. yanks and redsox are out.so who else is bidding. that might wind up being his best offer. hes 36 and is not considered an ace. teams that arent the yankees arent spending this year. its not a low ball offer. the market is what the market is. the mets don’t have to wory about being eliminated from the bidding.A borras client goes to the highest bidder and the mets will be given a chance to be the highest bidder. boras never leaves money on the table.
I have to disagree. After the deal Brad Penny signed, the game has changed.
If the Mets want to open up Citi Field with a real shot at a championship, they have the opportunity now. Manny, Smoltz, plus any one of Sheets, Perez, Lowe, then add Pedro and Prior for insurance.
With all contracts ending in no more than three years, this is a no brainer. Keep all your prospects and take a real shot. What is the downside?
The Mets think Manny will be an issue? That is so rediculous. THE ONLY ISSUE IS WINNING!
The Mets are about to open a ballpark with 10000 fewer seats, the first three years will be sold out no problem.
Winning makes tradition. Let’s start Citi Field off with a Championship Tradition.
Please Omar and Team Wilpon, Win Now! You don’t have to screw things up for an entire decade to give it a chance. Three year contracts…. this is what you have always wanted.
are you a mets fan that wants lowe or are you trying to arm boras with reasons to make the mets overpay in this economy for this guy? this is a brilliant offer in that they’ll meet in the middle somewhere, say 3/45 and and an option to make it 4/60 to close the deal.
I think eventually he will sign with the mets,but. What if Redsox signing of Penny was insurance,because they are trading 1 of there starters in a package for Hanley Ramirez??Then they go after Lowe,at the reduced rate,the Mets are setting.
Number 1: Lowe is BARELY worth $36 million over the life of the contract. You hve to prop the guy up during the regular season just to get to the post season where he is admittedly good. But do you really think there are other clubs that are willing to give him that? Boras is blowing smoke just like he did with A-Rod on Huge Contract #1 and Carlos Beltran. He successfully got the Mets to go up in price on Beltran by saying that the Yankees were offering a better deal and they weren’t even close!
Number 2: I wont blow smoke like I wouldn’t want Manny’s bat in the lineup, but HE’S STILL MANNNY!! Or do I need to remind every one about 1992 and Bobby Bonilla. 1999 and Bobby Bonilla AND Ricky Henderson. The Mets have a history of getting the wrong “bad guys” to play for them. I say the honeymoon lasts until the All Star break before all Hades breaks loose. Say what you will, but if they do get Manny I hope that it’s for one year with a CLUB option for a second year. By the second year, his shelf life will be done.
My hope to complete the roster:
Joe Bimel (Thanks to the blog for mentioning HIS name)
That “Nelson” relief pitcher from the Marlins(I forgot his name!)
Orlando Hudson
Derek Lowe
Ollie
Manny
The releasing or trading of Luis Castillo.
Baseball is a supply and demand driven sport in terms of establishing a base salary for free agents.
It’s why K-Rod got so little, and Burnett and Sabathia so much.
No player is worth $12 million a year in my estimation. But unfortuantely, feelings, hunches, assumptions, and saying offers are good have nothing to do with the reality of the market economy that is baseball.
Lowe will end up getting close to the numbers I mentioned in this post. Not because he is worth it, but because that is what the market was set at by Burnett.
Boras doesn’t need my help to drive the market, he has the Yankees who have already set the market with middle relievers at $4 million per season, and mid level pitchers at $16.5 million.
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
OE D. YOU SOUND LIKE THE PERFECT BORAS’ PATSY. THERE IS NO OTHER DEEP POCKETED CLUB IN THE HUNT FOER LOWE TO BORAS’ CHAGRIN
THE PHILLIES HAVEN’T INKED A BIG NAME SINCE THOME & THAT WAS ONLY IN ANTICIPATION OF NEW STADIUM UPTICK IN REVENUE. BOSOX ARE CONTENT WITH PENNY & OBVIOUSLY ARE DONE WITH LOWE. OMAR HAS PLAYED A BEAUTUIFUL GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS & YET BORAS, FOR ONCE, ISN’T PLAYING THE TUNE. HE CERTAINLY BLEW IT WITH MANNY; BY INKING TEX TO YANKS ELIMINATING 2 BIG CLUBS FOR MANNY IN NYY & BOSOX. IF BOSOX INKED TEX, YANKS GET MANNY & BORAS’ JOB WELL DONE. NOW HE’S STUCK WITH MANNY, LOWE, PEREZ & SHEETS IN A DEPRESSED MKT & ONLY 1 SPENDER ON HORIZON. AS AN OPENNING BID 3/37 WAS BEAUTIFUL. LARGE ENOUGH TO NOT BE IGNORED BY PRESS & NEEDING PUBLIC COUNTER BY ANY TEAM STILL IN MIX, IF ONE EXISTS. WITH A PROMISE OF AN EASIER TIME ON SHEETS, HE MAY GET TX TO MAKE A COUNTER GUARANTEED TO NOT WIN JUST TO TWEAK OMAR. LOOK AROUND, ONLY COMPARED TO NYY ARE THE METS’ AS SALARY CONSTRICTED AS MANY OF U BELIEVE. PERHAPS BECAUSE I LIVE IN NC AWAY FROM YANKEE BS, I SEE THE METS FOR WHAT THEY ARE, THE ONLY NL FRANCHISE WILLING TO ADDRESS THEIR NEEDS WITH COIN OF THE REALM. MOST NL FRANCHISES ARE ONE & DONE SPENDERS, LIKE PHILLIES, CUBS, SNAKES, FISH. THEY SHOOT, THEY MISS, THEY HIDE. METS SHOOT, MISS, RELOAD & SHOOT AGAIN, ETC., ETC. AS NEEDED. YANKS ARE DRIVEN BY BOSTON & VICE VERSA. NO NL TEAM IS ATTEMPTING TO DRIVE METS. THEY’VE BEEN #1 LEAGUE SPENDER FOR SOME TIME. NB. THE WILPON HARD CAP HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO STAY 1 PLAYER UNDER THE LUXURY TAX LINE. FRED ONLY WANTS TO WIN WITH CHARACTER & REFUSES TO RELIVE ‘86 WIN WITH CHARACTERS. TO FRED, LOSING WITH CHARACTER IS PREFERENTIAL TO WINNING WITH CHARACTERS. TAKE IT TO THE BANK! EITHER WAY IT’S MORE COMPETITIVE THAN ATL OR PHL & STL. WHERE L STANDS FOR LOSERS IN FRONT OFFICE. IN SCHURHOLTZ’ LAST YR AS ATL GM, HE ADMITTED TO TRYING TO BUILD A WILDCARD TEAM; JUST IMAGINE ANY NY GM SAYING THAT TO THE PRESS & LIVING.
Anytime the supposed terms of an offer are leaked out to the press, you have to ask yourself who did the leaking and why. On some rare occasions, it is the team leaking to show their fan base that they are trying; this is usually the small market or low payroll teams trying to placate their fan base. However, this is the Mets and this is Boras. It seems to me unlikely that the Mets are the ones to leak here. Boras is the one who has the incentive to leak to try to get more teams interested and to the table. Since the reported offer by the Mets was much shorter (3 yrs vs. 5 yrs) and lower in annual $ ($12mm vs. $15mm-$16mm), Boras may be trying to signal to some of those teams that could have an interest but may not have thought they could afford Lowe to step up to the table with offers. When you are running an auction, your objective is create the appearance of multiple bidders, whether real or just imagined. In this case, Boras is hoping that by putting the Mets offer out there, he can either get a higher offer from someone else or get the Mets concerned that their offer is low enough to invite other bidders and hope to get them to effectively bid against themselves to some extent. Both sides are probably playing this right so far.
DKA.. Right on. If we can’t get Lowe at around the price we offered–Then we should sign Oliver and Redding.
Don’t forget th LF. I still like Burrell.
Happy new year to all.
Deebo – Yankees never made an offer to Beltran. Beltran actually had Boras call the Yankees and said he would sign with them for discount (6 years $87 million). The Yankees said no thanks and then he accepted the Mets offer.