27
2010
Meet The Mets? Free Agent Pitchers Would Rather Not
An article by 
So far this offseason, the Mets have failed to lure a free agent pitcher to Flushing. What was supposedly their top priority (signing a starting pitcher), has turned into an endless series of questions regarding why the Mets can’t get any pitchers to sign with them. In a span of 24 hours, the Mets and their fans have once again been subjected to watching two more free agent pitchers who were supposedly on the Mets’ radar sign with other teams.
Ben Sheets parlayed his year off from baseball into a one-year, $10 million contract with Oakland and Jon Garland will now peddle his wares in San Diego after signing a one-year deal with the Padres.
I was looking at some of the free agent pitchers (Sheets and Garland included) who were supposedly being considered by the Mets to be a part of their 2010 roster and noticed something interesting. Tell me if you notice any similarities between these pitchers:
- Doug Davis: signs with Milwaukee for one year, $5.25 million.
- Jon Garland: signs with San Diego for one year, $4.7 million.
- Jason Marquis: signs with Washington for two years, $15 million.
- Ben Sheets: signs with Oakland for one year, $10 million.
- Randy Wolf: signs with Milwaukee for three years, $29.75 million.
All of them signed relatively short deals. All of them signed for less than the average annual value of Oliver Perez’s contract. However, what I noticed the most is that all of them signed with teams that finished with losing records in 2009.
Davis and Wolf signed with the Brewers, who at 80-82, finished in third place in the NL Central, 11 games behind the first place Cardinals. Similarly, Garland chose to sign with the fourth-place Padres, who finished 20 games out of first and Sheets signed with the last-place Athletics, who finished 22 games behind the Angels in the AL West. To make matters worse, Marquis signed with the Nationals, who finished with the worst record in baseball.
Most free agents prefer to sign contracts that promise them big money, long-term security or the chance to play for a contender. None of the pitchers listed above signed for anything near the amount of money given to this year’s top free agent pitcher, John Lackey. Not only that, the teams who signed them were able to do so without investing too many years in them.
Why did those pitchers prefer to sign short-term deals with losing teams for reasonable dollars? Isn’t Citi Field known as a pitcher’s park? Why wouldn’t they want to come here where they can pitch in a spacious ballpark and put up good numbers so they can earn a fatter contract the next time they become free agents?
I guess word has gotten around that the Mets are no longer one of those teams that players would jump at the opportunity to play for. They’d rather play for other second-division teams than the one currently playing in Flushing. It’s a sad indication that this team is not going in the right direction. They’re not doing enough to put a team on the field that can compete with the Phillies, Marlins and Braves. Heck, even the Nationals have been making noise in the free agent market.
When the Mets signed Jason Bay last month, we thought it would be the beginning of many press conferences announcing new additions to the team that would help put them back into contention. So far, that signing just looks like a piece of bubble gum placed over a leak in the Hoover Dam. It served to hold things up temporarily, but as these other free agents are finding new addresses that do not begin with the letters N and Y, the dam is going to break and the fans are going to let their displeasure flood Citi Field. Of course, that’s assuming the fans will even go to Citi Field…
About the Author: Ed Leyro
Ed Leyro was hatched in the Bronx, but spent most of his youth in Queens at Shea Stadium. Apparently, all that time spent at Mets games paid off as Ed met his wife (The Coop) for the first time at Citi Field during its inaugural season. Guess the 2009 season was good for something after all. In addition to his work at Mets Merized Online, Ed also owns, operates and is head janitor at Studious Metsimus, where he shares blogging duties with Joey Beartran. For those not in the know, Joey is a teddy bear dressed in a Mets hoodie. Clearly, Studious Metsimus is not your typical Mets blog.
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Nice analysis, Ed. You nailed it. While I was only in favor of going after Lackey and Sheets, there is really no vision and no plan. These non-moves were a consequence of not wanting to spend money and not because there was an actually strategy in mind. If I’m wrong on that I wish Omar or Jeff would actually articulate what the strategy is.
Great post! I feel your pain in regard to thinking that the Bay signing was going to be the first of many press conferences showing a new stud holding up his Mets jersey.
The Mets are amortizing the Jason Bay contract with the additional sales of season’s tickets which had been slow. This was a calculated move by the guys with the green shades to keep Mets fans on the hook. This is their one and only big signing.
Fourth place at best for 2010. Watch out for the Nationals!!!
I have read that the Mets never made offers to Garland or Sheets. If that is the case, how can you conclude that pitchers do not want to play for the team? Can you really make the statement that they would “rather accept short-term deals for losing teams” when offers were never made for them?
I think the important question is “why didn’t the Mets make offers to these pitchers?”
Intelligent piece, Ed, but I take exception to the case of Marquis. He could not have made it any clearer that he wanted to be a NY Met, including major coverage in the hometown papers.
Humbly, Marquis was the slam-dunk, no brainer deal that the Mets had to make this offseason. Why it didn’t happen is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
You are absolutely right that at the moment this does not look like a very competitive NL East team, and that’s inexcusable.
I don’t know. Are the Mets going after these pitchers, or are the newspaper and blog writers leading us to believe that the Mets are going after these free agents? I think the Mets stayed quite in a weak free agent market. Not going after free agents just to make fans think the team is improving, and then being stuck with mediocre players for 2-3 years.
I don’t know. Are the Mets going after these pitchers, or are the newspaper and blog writers leading us to believe that the Mets are going after these free agents? I think the Mets stayed quite in a weak free agent market. Not going after free agents just to make fans think the team is improving, and then being stuck with mediocre players for 2-3 years.
This was a very weak free agent class, we all know this. The crown jewels being Matt Holliday (overrated), Jason Bay (you get what you pay for – and we got him), and a bunch of retread pitchers. That said, we need at least a decent 5th starter because there are more question marks than exclamation points in the rotation (the only punctuation being Johan Santana). Unless we can package John Maine in a trade prior to Spring Training, I am not going to be optimistic that the Mets will compete this year. Funny how a few weeks and a Beltran knee surgery will do that to a fan.
Other than Jason Marquis…I am glad the Mets did not sign these other pitchers listed. Too many question marks in so far as health issues. We have our own pitchers in that situation. The way I see it, we have to be confident that Santana will be fine. If John Maine is healthy he has a tremendous upside. It appears that the “enigma” Ollie is not only healthy but has come to camp in good shape. Now all we need is Pelfrey to step up mentally and we have a starting rotation that could be very good!
We’ve added a good hitter in Jason Bay but of course we need our core guys healthy and rebounding from last years DISASTER!
PATIENCE WILL BE A VIRTUE!
The coupons strike again. It seems that the ownership does not want to spend any money on the team. They are not going after any major free agents. Bay was only to shut up the fans before they jumped ship. They seem to let every major free agent go because of money. They are not even trying anymore. I have been a fan since 1978 and a sunday ticket holder for 3 years and I saw how they fixed the team last year. Now with the cheep moves they are doing this year I see what is comming. I will not be there this year. I feel they do not care about the fans anymore. Just money. So keep you ebbets field tribute and your team patched together with second rate castoffs, I will not be going.
Excellent piece, Ed. i also agree that a big reason many of the F/A pitchers went elsewhere is because we neglected to pursue them: Marquis we know about; and we’re hearing similar talk about Sheets and Garland…that the Mets never propped an offer to any of them. Which, in many cases, is worse than losing them to a competitor. We were never in the game.
While I do agree that players are not jumping to come here (see Benjie Molina) except for Sheets who probably got to much, are any of those pitchers really worth it. I’d rather see them use young arms and sign someone big next year. I mean John Garland?? Give me a break
I agree Vinnie, although, I think about of all the pitchers they could have had, Garland was the best choice, simply because he will give you 200+ innings every year. He might not win 20 games anymore, but you know that everytime he pitches, your bullpen will get a rest. But the rest of the pitchers I would have passed on.
The point, though, is that we need help NOW and these pitchers were willing to sign for short-term deals. The Mets only know how to give out bloated contractual commitments that end up crippling the team so they can’t get an “insurance policy” pitcher like a Garland, Piniero or Marquis for a year. It’s mind-boggling.
So the offseason is rapidly getting by us. What options remain to improve the rotation? Smoltz, Washburn, Wang, and Bedard are left. If we made no move for the others, why would we want one of those? It looks like next year’s rotation will crumble as the year progresses. It’s not going to be pretty with the way this is working out.
So what! We didn’t sign a bunch of over-hyped, mediocre scrubs.
None of those guys are worth crying about.
It’s been dam if we do (signining Bay) and dam if we don’t (not signing all of the others). The people just wnat to bash the Met for the Hell of it.
I’m at the point were I’m telling the Met bashers in the media….up yours!!!! We’re not exactly the Royals or Pirates.
Leave our team alone and let us mets fans deal with what we have to do if the mets are not where they should be with our guys all healthy.
Hey Ed, nice post. Meet the Mets? As Jerry would say, “That’s a good question. A very good question. There’s no doubt. Ho ho ha ha ho ho.”
Guys, they were not worth it. High Risk players with too many questions marks,we have enough of those already. Now i would take a chance on Wang for about 4-5 mill even if he doesn’t pan out because if he’s healthy he could really be a diamond in our ruffage.