According to several reports including Jon Heyman via Twitter, and the original story from Adam Rubin of the Daily News, free agent catcher Henry Blanco could become a member of the New York Mets as soon as today.
The Mets appeared to be closing in on a deal with free-agent catcher Henry Blanco. The Venezuelan newspaper “El Nacional” reported Blanco had left that country Sunday for a physical with the Mets.
Blanco, 38, hit .235 with six homers and 16 RBI in 204 at-bats with San Diego last season. He would presumably be the favorite over Omir Santos, Chris Coste and Josh Thole to open next season as the backup catcher.
I don’t know what this means for Omir Santos, but at this point it’s not looking good. The thing of it is, given the choice, I’d take Santos over Blanco 99 times out of 100.
First off Santos is ten years younger. Do we really need a 38-year old player on the team? Second, Santos has more power and performed quite well defensively last season.
Blanco is a career .228 hitter playing mostly his entire career in hitter friendly parks. Now, one year older and in decline, how well could he possibly translate playing in the vastness of Citi Field?
One good thing this signing might indicate, is that the Mets must be seriously considering prospect Josh Thole for a starting role at some point next season. The only benefit I see in bringing a catcher like Blanco on board, is to serve as a mentor for Thole who is still relatively new to the catching position. From that point of view, Blanco would be more valuable than Omir Santos.
However, some believe that this signing does not entirely mean the Mets are out of the Bengie Molina sweepstakes. What the Blanco signing also does is to give the Mets a little more leverage in potential negotiations with Molina.
Stay tuned…
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i think this news increases odds Mets are planning to package Santos in some kind of deal? i’m guessing they’ve gotten interest in Santos from other clubs. i know a few Met fans deride that possibility, but the guy turns 29 in April and had good rookie campaign…for a catcher with good ‘D’. i think some teams are interested and the Mets seem to be prepping the catching slot to exclude Santos.
Looks like we are having another good off season, first Cora now this. Are there any other 36-42 year old players we can sign?
Serously – I mean we are SO far into the process, I can’t believe how little has been done, every other team has signed on so many big names, geez……….oh wait……
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
KEVIN, SARCASM ASIDE, I BELIEVE <2M FOR 2 VET CATCHERS BLANCO & COSTE IS JUDICIOUS & CONSIDERING NO WORD OF INTEREST IS EMINATING FROM ANYWHERE CONCERNING LACKEY IS A VERY GOOD SIGN FOR OMAR'S STEALTHFUL HISTORY. OUTSIDE OF THE SANTANA ACQUISITION THERE WAS LITTLE BEING RUMINATED OVER OUR INTERESTS IN PEDRO,BELTRAN,WAGNER,K-ROD AT THIS SAME TIME. EVEN TRADES OF CAMERON, BENSON,YOSHII,NADY,CHURCH RECEIVED MUCH SPECULATION & I, FOR ONE, AM HOPING OMAR'S LETTING TIME & PLAYER/AGENT INSECURITY WORK IN OUR FAVOR. FORTUNATLY, FEW IF ANY OF OUR PREFERRED TARGETS ARE REP'S BY BORAS, KEEPING AGENT INSECURITY IN PLAY. WHAT WE DO KNOW, IS AS SOON AS WE MAKE OUR INTEREST KNOWN, OFFICIALLY, COMPETITORS START SNIFFING AROUND, PRICES BEGIN TO ESCALATE. WOULDN'T WE ALL PREFER OMAR "GETTING" AGENT'S CALLS INSTEAD OF VICE-VERSA?
WE STARTED ON 12/01 WITH A DERTH OF CATCHING EXPERIENCE ON THE ROSTER & COACHING STAFF, IT NOW SEEMS THERE'S LIKELY TO BE AN ABUDANCE OF EXPERIENCE & QUALITY TEACHING SAINCE COSTE HAS AN EXCELLENT REP AT DOING SO & LIKELY TO HAVE GREAT OPPORTUNITY IN BUFFALO WITH JOSH. WHILE A MOLINA/BLANCO CATCHING TANDEM ON THE 25 IS CERTAINLY NOT SEXY; IT IS SERVICABLE AT A REASONABLE PROJECTED OUTLAY. IF COSTE IS ON THE 40 IN BUFFALO HIS SALARY IS <500K AS A #3 MLB OPTION, THAT'S REASONABLE
CERTAINLY THE "GLASS MOSTLY EMPTY" CROWD WILL HAVE THEIR FULL OF ANGST; BUT THE ROSTER IN JANUARY/DECEMBER IS MEANINGLESS IT'S THE APRIL ROSTER WE'VE ALL GOT TO BELIEVE IN.
My goodness, this is exciting!
From what I saw of Thole, he had about the same catching instincts as Murphy had leftfielding instincts. No doubt this old scrub can get him up to Johnny Bench quality in no time flat. Oh, our Mets–always thinking!
Your comment cracked me up. Thanks for reminding me about the Murphy experiment and I guess Sheffield was supposed to be his mentor? What a joke. All we could do is laugh (or cry).
Why?
Just a waste of money.
The Mets already have enough back-up catchers.
Great a 38 year old catcher. Lets see the Mets sign him, over pay him, and in true Mets form his knees will explode the second game he plays for them.
One of our problems is that we think that we need leverage in signing a player. Instead, we sign someone who is a temporary stop gap at best. If we want a Bengie Molina, be aggressive and sign him. I really feel that we jerk around too much with negotiations especially when we don’t have the upper hand. UNfortunately, this off season we do not have the upper hand as we may well be heading for a few lean years depending on the healthy return of Jose Reyes, a strong bounce back season from David Wright, a surgically healed Johanne Santana and some further maturity of our younger pitchers.