Does Matt Holliday Really Like The Mets?

The Mets would love to have Matt Holliday penciled into their Opening Day lineup next season, but the question is; Does Matt Holliday want to play for the Mets?

According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, he has a source who has told him that Matt Holliday’s top two choices in free agency are the Yankees and the Mets, in that order. When that Davidoff wrote that blurb about Holliday wanting to come to NY, Joe D. wrote the following,

Holliday’s agent is none other than Scott Boras. I can assure you that Holliday’s comments had more to do with money and less to do with a burning desire to play for New York. I’m sure that he and Boras are both acutely aware that the Yankees and Mets are ranked first and second in MLB’s highest payrolls. If Holliday really made those comments, it was merely a strategic move to start a bidding war and inflate his value.

Today, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports writes the following:

The thought of free-agent left fielder Matt Holliday signing with the Mets is good for a chuckle. Some who know Holliday say he would prefer not to play in New York. Also, his power to right-center makes him a poor fit for Citi Field. The Mets would not be so desperate to upgrade in left if Fernando Martinez had justified talk that he might be a left-handed Manny Ramirez.

Now there’s a real kick in the groin…

Not only does Rosenthal completely debunk Ken Davidoff’s source, but at the same time he takes a big swipe at one-time Mets top prospect, Fernando Martinez, who has now been passed up by Jenrry Mejia and Wilmer Flores in the most recent Baseball America Top 10 rankings. However, it is somewhat revealing that the Mets would consider giving a 5+ year contract to an outfielder if F-Mart was really waiting in the wings.

Last week, I wrote a blog that asked the question what if the Mets can’t sign Holliday or Bay, what’s the backup plan? (You can read that here.)

With the Red Sox currently negotiating with Jason Bay, and this new revelation from the Matt Holliday camp, the question that I posed last week seems less and less like a hypothetical question, and more and more like the reality of the situation.