David Lennon of Newsday, tweets that the following players have been non-tendered by the Mets:
OF Cory Sullivan
OF Jeremy Reed
RP Lance Broadway
SP Tim Redding
Nothing that wasn’t already expected there, but it’s worth noting that only Sean Green remains of the trade that sent “six players” to the Mariners and Indians in the J.J. Putz deal.
Other Notable Non Tenders
The Oakland A’s have non tendered outfielder Jack Cust. Cust has led the American League in strikeouts for three consecutive seasons, including 2009 when he struck out 185 times, after a season in which he whiffed 197 times. I’ve heard some rumblings from Mets fans who see him as an opportunity, but I say no way. You have to draw the line somewhere. Besides I thought the idea of acquiring a player was to improve the team not make it worse. Two thumbs down.
Colorado has parted ways with Garrett Atkins. The 29 year old corner infielder is coming off a terrible season in which he batted just .226 with 9 homers and 48 RBIs. However, before this past season, Atkins was a solid offensive force and a key component in the Rockies offense. Between 2006 and 2008, Atkins averaged .301 with 25 homeruns and 110 RBIs. He is righthanded and would certainly add some power off the bench while filling a platoon role with Daniel Murphy at first base. Two thumbs up.
heard Steve Somers talking on Fan about Bay and SF Giants…..a 5 yr….not sure if he was peculating or reporting….the Mets must keep at the guy….and then sign Lackey. This thing is for real. They had best ‘get it’. i like Correia as an addition if not tendered by the Padres.
What about Jonny Gomes of the Reds (and Rays before that)?
Good call. Actually considering what’s going on, he looks as good a shot as any we’ve got. We should sign him now.
Gomes can’t really play defense. Like Cust, he’s pretty much strictly a DH and doesn’t have much (if any) value in the NL. Neither would be a bad bat off the bench, but the Mets need to sign a defensive star for the bench, especially if they sign the defensively inept Jason Bay.
Who will be the OF defensive replacement with both Reed and Sullivan gone? Looks like we just created another hole to fill? Who’s winning this race internal to the Mets, the diggers or the fillers? Looks to me like the diggers are pulling ahead. It’s getting beyond time to do some filling. Omar should have started filling last June. Instead we’re still digging holes. We’re also collecting catchers, but apparently not starting pitchers. Redding might have been one to hang onto just in case Omar comes up dry on his FA pitching wish list (if such a list even exists). Broadway of course was not even a decent PTBNL. I guess if we come up short on starters, there must be a younger brother or at least a cousin of El Duque and Livan coming over on the next raft from Havana.
Reed and Sullivan would have made around $1mil each in arbitration. They are clearly not worth that much so they had to be non-tendered. Better replacements can be had at the major league minimum.
OK, I guess Omar will show up with Emil Brown again.
mask, regarding your defensive of there’s always angel or did u forget about him; only difficulty therre is omar’s severed all other safety lines making bay a “must”sign alongside lackey. there are now 2 st invites without any guarantees(aka tryouts) i’d like to see tendered 1) atkins as option to repl tatis, 2) mike jacobs. i’m also wondering if omar may be thinking p/u church for that 4th of option? aince atl dfa just as kc did with jake. re. jake i’d attempt to assign him as a hojo special spring project & offer a little cash for mex to tutor him defensively as a power alternative should delgado reinjure oblique or something. anybody? mask? what’s yr thoughts? it’s certainly all about options at this point. to absolutly avoid a ’09 scenerio, i’d use our superior financial position(best in east,nl) to upgrade the replacement quality in buffalo which should satisfy that community with, what better be, a competitive aaa operation with upgraded former ml castoffs. omar did a decent job at adding a certain depth, quantity where it hadn’t existed prior to last season. how else could he have filled more than a 1,000 d/l days without being held for ransom for replacements. mask, don’t knock the brown p/u since it cost very little & all we saw was his name in print. ink is cheap, possibilities/options are priceless. it fall under “u never know” if it went good or “sh*t happens” if went bad. better the experimenting occur off the 40 than on.
back to the topic, based upon a perceived improvment this winter ub vnzl, i’m suprised to see broadway jettisoned so quicjly & though he’d make a halfway decent longman for our pen.
62, I haven’t forgotten about Pagan and see him as the 4th OF’er, which is one reason why I think we need to sign Bay asap as well as to induce top line pitching to come here. Atkins and Jacobs are weak possibilities as adds although Atkins stats say he may be headed downhill for good. Those kinds of guys would be experiments if we get them cheap enough and are willing to jettison them if they show nothing. Cust may be somewhat better. As far as Brown goes, he got into one game and had a horrendous running blunder going through 1st and headed to 2nd when we already had someone standing on it. He was gone the next day. I don’t think that experiment will be coming back anytime soon. I was also surprised Broadway got dumped as I thought they had hopes for him in BP at least. I forgot who we gave up to get him, and I’m guessing that is another deal with no reward.
matt capps would be a good pickup for the bullpen
Out of chaos, opportunity my Mets brothers. Matt Capps, Chien-Ming Wang, D.J. Carrasco are no-brainer pitching sign-ups ASAP. Wang, ironically carries the bigger ??, but if he can prove he’s healthy and his mechanics are re-adjusted (and he can run the bases and not get hurt for the season!) he’s a worthy risk in my view. No clue why Capps walked the planet last year, but he’s worth a shot also. Carrasco wants to be a SP. His #s past 2 years in the AL are not too bad; 33 in April; why not?
Kelly Johnson, 2B, 28; Garrett Atkins, 3B/1B, 30; Jack Cust, DH/OF, 31.
Johnson needs a scenery change; Atkins’ OF decline worries me, but maybe he can be revived and his 1B defense looks good; Cust is my dark horse.
i know the rap on the guy. He is a swing and a miss guy, but still has a pretty good .OBP and can hit HRs regardless. His defense is not good, but i say we can replace him in the late innings in tight games and he’s well worth the risk.
All good opportunities that you point out especially for a team pleading poverty. Kelly Johnson stands out to me. Garrett Atkins is a mystery as to why he disappeared, perhaps he needs a good opthalmologist. The 3 pitchers you list and Cust all provide something and have the potential to be worked into the roster. But for the Mets, there are opportunities for pickups off the scrap heap. I hope Omar doesn’t take his sweet time on this. If the Mets go the route of Omar in his time on this, the few good ones will be quickly taken elsewhere and all that will be left are the true scraps. Every one of these are better pickups than Elmer Dessens, for instance. OK Omar, it’s in your court, what are you going to do, continue to sit there with your feet up on the desk?
Also, why did we sign Cora, when Kelly Johnson is now sitting there for the taking?
If SF is the team that offered 5 yrs to Bay, we have nothing to worry about because he said he would like play there, give him a 5 yr deal for 80 mil, backload it let the 1st year salary be about 10 mil and go get Lackey please, i am already re-signed to Murphy being the starting 1b next year even though i really don’t like it.
Exactly. The minimum that should be done is to get Bay signed first and then go heavily after Lackey. The Mets need to up the offer to 5 yrs with $80 mil on the table. Hopefully that makes them the front runner. After his bat is in the stable, they need to go after pitching heavily with Lackey, Halladay and Marquis as the objectives. They need to get 2 of those 3. The non-tendered list is good as roster fillers and bench players better than the ones we currently have. Signing Cora early was a mistake.
Like you I have been beaten down into accepting a year of Murphy at 1B. I don’t care about Molina as I’m happy to go with the 3 catchers we have as another 1 yr patch job. Put the $ into the LF’er and 2 starters. Everything else is minor garnish to the main dish.
yes, Omar’s got to get moving. Bay, Lackey, Marquis…and these non-tendered guys give us a tremendous opportunity to mix and match, but we have got to be fast and aggressive and opportunistic. i worry, as you guys do, that we’ll procrastinate. i view the F/A batch, now available, as an incredible chance to remake our team. Yes, Kelly Johnson does stand out; Atkins worries me but worth the risk; Cust very intriguing; and the 3 pitchers, Wang, Capps, and Carrasco are as good as many of the F/A hurlers out there after Lackey, with Wang carrying about as much risk as a Sheets or Harden or Bedard.
Is it nuts to view Cust as a cheap alternative to Bay? Then, go all-out to get Lackey and stack up on pitching? And sign Kelly Johnson!
I agree wholeheartedly. We seem to have evolved to a plan. How long will it take Omar to get clued in? There is no excuse now why the Mets cannot pull off 2 or 3 signings next week. Even it is just some of this low hanging fruit. Inactivity will allow them all to getaway and there is no excuse for that to happen. Do we have a prayer of trading Cora off somewhere after picking up Johnson?
yeah, trade Castillo for ‘something’, but i was wrong about AZ being a good option. Ryan Roberts, their 2B, looks pretty good. Oh well.