Adam Rubin of the Daily News, reports that according to an inside source, John Smoltz could choose not pitching over pitching for the Mets.
An insider tells the Daily News he believes the 42-year-old Smoltz could follow the route Pedro Martinez went last season — wait and sign mid-season. That could give Smoltz a better opportunity to be at full strength late in the regular season and for any potential postseason activity.
On WFAN’s Boomer and Carton morning show, they are running hard with this latest news, adding that John Smoltz would rather play golf than have anything to do with a schlock organization like the Mets.
It’s quite shocking if it’s true, to be turned down by a soon to be 43-year old who seemingly has no other offers on the table.
It’s time to acknowledge the reality that the Mets have painted themselves as one of the most inept and dysfunctional organization in sports, the recent rash of rejections along with those players’ accompanying comments regarding the Mets is a bit disconcerting to say the least.
Joel Pineiro, who told everyone that his first choice was to become a Met, rejects them after waiting over two months for an offer. He signs a two-year deal for an $8 million dollar annual salary less than 24 hours after the Mets meekly presented their offer. To little, too late.
Jason Marquis called several Mets players and had his agent make several calls to Omar Minaya to fulfill his childhood dream of one day pitching for the New York Mets. By the time the Mets turned their attention to him, he had already agreed to a contract with the Nationals for two-years and $17 million dollars.
The Mets chased nobody harder this off season than free agent catcher Bengie Molina. He rejected the Mets one year offer with a player option, to take less annual salary and a one-year deal with the Giants for a mere $4.5 million dollars. He’d later say that it was going to take a lot more than what the Mets offered, (substantially more than what he signed for), for him to play for that team. A lot more.
One the same day that the Mets turned their attention to Jon Garland, after failing in their efforts to sign Ben Sheets, Garland’s agent told the Mets don’t bother. Hours later Garland signed a one-year deal for $5.3 million dollars with the Padres.
It seems the Mets built themselves a pitchers park that nobody wants to pitch or catch in.
One other note…
Yesterday, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein boasted that he is thrilled that he was able to get two top picks in the upcoming June draft from the Mets in the Billy Wagner deal. The Mets in the meantime, have signed Fernando Tatis which ensures that 27 year old Chris Carter will spend his fifth season in a row mired in AAA. Carter was the player the Mets received in the Billy Wagner trade. Incidentally, if reports are true, Tatis will be paid more than the 1.5 million the Twins just paid Jim Thome, who hit 23 homeruns while driving in 77 runs in only 363 at-bats, and posting a .366 on-base percentage last season.
Pitchers and catcher report in 20 days.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
That’s it! I quit! The team I have routed for my entire life has abandoned their fans with their incompetence. I can’t take it any longer. Does Tatis have photos of Met executives in compromising situations. This team as it is right now will be lucky to win 80-85 games. We will continue to lose to the elite in the NL as well as to the upstarts. Other GM’s make Minaya look like an idiot. We are New York not some second rate city or team.
85 games?
That’s a compliment!
So you’d prefer signing Jim Thome over Fernando Tatis? That makes a lot of sense for an NL team.
I’d rather give Chris Carter a shot at platooning at first. At least we would get something back from Boston. I fear that we will be paying Tatis more than his worth.
Not at all, Thome is a lefthanded hitter anyway, we have no need. I’m just pointing out the Mets propensity for overpaying their bench players.
It’s a real possibility that the Mets won’t guarantee Smoltz a spot in the rotation. They probably want him to start in the bullpen, and only enter the rotation as a secondary option. I know he wants to start, so that may not be good enough for him. It might not have anything to do with the Mets being the Mets.
Come on Joe and Michael for that matter. Don’t be such drama queens. Take a good look at Smoltz, Marquis and Pinero. Smoltz was just plain bad last year while Marquis and Pinero had career seasons. How many guys cashed in with other teams after a career year and stunk after that? Pavano, Matthews Jr, Bradley, Silva and those are just in recent memory. Molina I can’t blame for not moving his family across the country yet I question how much he really wanted to play in NY PERIOD! Remember this is the guy who turned down 3 yrs/24 million back in 2006.
Ben Sheets I don’t know what to make of. If the A’s are out of the race at the deadline he and the rest of his contract will be traded for prospects so the A’s will come out with something. I preferred Jon Garland but it’s evident that he wants to stay on the West Coast when he signs for less money then last season and with the rebuilding Padres.
Oh by the way Tatis should be paid more then Thome. Tatis can catch the ball at four different positions.
Seriously there are so many question marks on this team concerning health including Johan Santana that it doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of money for a bunch of guys who may not be any better then what you have already.
I agree with you Pedro, had we signed any of these guys 3 months later we would be bitching and moaning about how they are not performing. I dont think any of these free agents are any better then what we have right now. I like that no one is picking the Mets to finish higher then 3rd. Low expectations are good for this team, when ever they are picked to win they crumble. Getting our starters back healthy is the key to the Mets winning, not a bunch of scrub free agents. The only guy I am upset we didnt get was Sheets, because IF healthy hes a stud. I believe the A’s got him and told him they would trade him to a contender mid season.
A guy I would like to take a shot on is Wang, if he could return to his pre injury form he could be a great addition. Just adding the best available free agents is not always the answer.
I agree too. Tatis is hardly the worst player to have on you team. He can play 1B 2B 3B LF and even played SS last year. With the age and injury status of our position players he makes sense. Also less and less are premium guys coming out as free agents. Next year looks like a bonanza but some will be dealt and signed before the end of the season. We’ll be shut out unless we give up our few decent players in the minors. Glad to see Epstein crowing about pick pocketing our two picks for Wagner. How penny wise and dollar stupid saving 3 mil by trading Wagner was and that decision had to have come from Jeff. Just simply beyond idiotic. What a Moron.
I agree with vegasChris. Chien-Ming Wang would be a nice flier to take. Even if he comes back in June or July, so what? Mets still have a ton of question marks. If Wang pitches well, extend him. He likes NYC and he’ll like the NL vs the AL I’m sure. Now, big IF, if the Mets then add one of the FA starters on next seasons menu like Webb, Beckett, Vazquez, Cliff Lee…coupled with Santana, Pelfry, Wang, Perez or Maine this could be interesting.
I agree with t agee too. Mets management is too loyal sometimes. I know Wagner wanted to go to a contender so Jeff and Omar wanted to accommodating him but in he meantime they shot themselves in the foot, AGAIN, and Boston ends up with, effectively, 2 first rd picks in the draft and the Mets end up with a career minor leaguer who can really hit but never gets a chance to crack a lineup.
lol. Thank god. Mets manangement is stupid.
There are many reasons for players not wanting to come to New York and play for the Mets. First and foremost is the amount of media scrutiny that exists. And now with the Internet we have bloggers and other non professional writers spewing their venomous tirades against everyone or thing that breathes. With millions of dollars AVAILABLE ALMOST EVERYWHERE why come to NY and be put through the pressures of all this bullshit!
THe real journalists like Tom Verducci and Peter Gammons are not out there ranting and raving with annoying voices like Adam Rubin or some of these other clowns. It is fine to criticize our team or the management but do it constructively without all the ranting!
Correct me if I’m wrong Joe, but what Joe said so well is if all these middle to lower tier free agents have basically thumbed their noses at the Mets what will happen next year when a “top shelf” free agent comes along? Will he (and his agent) also laugh and dismiss Jeffy, Freddy and Omar (or Omar’s replacement) if they come calling.
The few guys who will make it free agency next year will probably exhaust their other options before coming here. The season is long why play for a team that’s more likely out of contention and puts your long term health behind other things and then critizes you for taking matters into your own hands. No one is coming here as their first choice with a bufoon like Jeff as the COO.
The Mets were crazy to even dedicate the time to talk to Smoltz. Other than as pitching coach, there is no role for him on this team. They have only deepened the laughingstock label.
The rotation is Santana/Pelfrey/Maine/Perez/Nieve. Learn to like it because that’s what we have. The alternatives have all been taken elsewhere while the Mets have tried to buy on the cheap with “wait and see”. That was a failed strategy and now we have what we have. While other teamms have improved, we are stagnant.
Yeah not that im advocating signing smolt but this is another case of fans of the mets turning on their team and trying to bash them as usual. Everytime I come to this website, the writters have nothing good to say about the mets..maybe that jessep guy. Its pathetic. You should all be fans of the yankees. No support for your team and all you do is mock it and then dare to call yourself a fan. You take a media story and put it in here as FACTS!!!
I hear before that jason bay would rather play for beirut than the mets and look who he signed with. That report has no credibility and the mets have NOT even made an offer to smoltz how can the tittle of this thread be REJECTED?????
Maybe you should be writting for Perez Hilton or TMZ
Maybe you should get your head out of the sand (or your A$$) and realize what’s happening. Middle tier and low tier players are rejecting us. This means that top free agents probably won’t go near us next season even if we offer them money (which we won’t).
What part of that is disconcerting? ALL OF IT. IF you are a true fan, you’d be pissed right now. Yankee fans get IRATE when their team loses, and their ownership actually does something about it. Simply sitting in your high chair and rooting for the Mets wont change what’s going on. As a fan, we have a right to complain for a team we’re spending money on! WAKE UP!
The Mets are garnering negative attention themselves. These writers and bloggers are simply feeding them what they’ve been feeding us for the last three years. Don’t you dare blame the bloggers. Blame the Mess.
Life long Mets fan here, but even I can see through their facade.
Who rejected the mets? You take media bs as proof of facts. Yesterdat there was a report about how the mets NEVER made and offr to sheet or garland. Bengie spurned them. That’s it!! The mets never made an offer to Joel Pinero!!!! He’s puertorican and there was an interview with the puertorican newspaper where he said the angels were the only offer he had on the table. He said the mets talked to him but never made concrete offer!!! If the mets had thrown offers to all this people then you would have a valid argument. They didn’t!!! You all sound like gosspi columnists
You call not making offers to two pitchers that we needed to shore up our rotation NOTHING?!
You should be assistant GM with that talk. The bottom line is the Mets targeted these guys and did NOT pull them in. Results.
Whether or not newswriters and bloggers report about them is irrelevant. The Mets offseason has been atrocious and that’s a proven fact. If you think otherwise, you need to have your head examined.
Well, of all deals not working out for the badly managed Mets, I’m not about to lose sleep over this one. Smoltz a decade or so ago, sure. Now?!
The guy to get was Lackey, then when he evaporated–Marquis, then when he became a Gnat (?!), Pinero. After that all went badly, nothing else disappoints me too much.
Stay tuned to WMETS. Where the hits keep comin’
The Mets are really running out of options here. Wang might be their best bet.
I dont think Wang will be major league ready until May/June.
Minor league contract would be cool for me.
I’m looking for hope. Can’t find any. The Billy Wagner thing was beyond dumb.
You know this has turned to venom for me. I actually HATE Jeff Wilpon.
Hey Nosh, I hadn’t noticed, lol.
THE COO HAS GOT TO GO. The long term health of this organization has constantly been sacrificed for short term band aids. Jeff Wilpon is not a baseball man. Anyone of us can look at stats, payroll, ect and try to fill different holes in the Major League Roster but when it comes to planning for being competative for next year, the following year and the year after that what has he done? He doesn’t like the draft because he’s not qualified to determine what prospects may pan out. After finally addressing AAA after last year’s abomination it was turned into a team of well known career minor leaguers plus some pitchers and Davis, Fern and perhaps Thole. Even knowing our “catchers” at AAA were Counsil and Cassanova we still traded Castro and dumped Schneider. We included Two decent prospects AND Endy for a relief pitcher with an elbow problem. I’ll guarantee you the Mariners GM knows more about our farm system then Jeff and Omar do. This year we’ll find out a lot more about some of our A+ and AA players that will really be the factor in our ability to compete going forward or collapse for 5 -7 years. Jeff has run this team into the ground and with what few QUALITY free agents will actually be hitting the free agent market, we will have to develop our own players, because they sure ain’t coming here.
Lets Go Mets in 2011!!! Forget about 2010!
No on Smoltz,he is too old.
I think that Carter will make an impression in spring training plus he will push Tatis, who had the propensity for DPs last year, whom I will take over Delgado. He, Delgado has no where left to go and play or show his ballet moves at 1b. Mets need to move on.
I just have to really wonder how all those nay sayers will react when Sheets goes down, Marquis flops with DC, and all those washed up pitchers whom many Met fans think are saviors flop. There were never any decent pitchers out there other than maybe Garland and Piniero at 1 year contracts that could of helped this year so please stop with the woulda, shoulda signings. Lets just move on and see what spring training brings and hopefully Mets performance will shut up all the those negatrons out there.
I agree with the dysfunctional front office but this is our front office, we can’t change it, we can complain but it won’t change any so all the recriminations against them will not change their holy attitude.
I just hope that tonight on SNY on Hot Stove, Kevin B. asks them why if they are building around speed, defense and pitching then what happened.
Just like it was reported that Bay would rather play in Bayroot then for the Mets. Its just Mets haters making up BS.
I agree with you Mets Faithful. The media wants the big signing and fans allow media inc radio during these cold months to formulate their thoughts and arguments and don’t fact check just like all these rumors and buzz.
Can’t wati for pitchers and catchers to report.
I just have to really wonder how all those nay sayers will react when Sheets goes down, Marquis flops with DC, and all those washed up pitchers whom many Met fans think are saviors flop. There were never any decent pitchers out there other than maybe Garland and Piniero at 1 year contracts that could of helped this year so please stop with the woulda, shoulda signings. Lets just move on and see what spring training brings and hopefully Mets performance will shut up all the those negatrons out there.
Heartily disagree, man. Why would Marquis ‘flop’ suddenly, turning 32 in August; why would Garland ‘flop’ suddenly turning 31 in September, when Marquis tagged 80 wins over past 6 years/13+ wins/yr on average, and Garland totaled 107 wins over past 8 years/13+ wins year on average + both logged beaucoup innings each year? Flop? Why, man?
Yeah, Sheets IS a risk and yeah the 10mm gtd is a high price for that risk, but his upside is a #1/#2 hurler. Pineiro i agree on, but please do not wash out the terrible planning of our ownership/front office this off season.
Our rotation is full of Q-marks. Prudent, pro-active, planning would’ve dictated adding quality/depth/stability to that rotation. No one is ‘better than our guys IF healthy’ (Omar’s favorite ‘apology’), except maybe Lackey? Fine, but few would argue that Marquis and/or Garland would not have added tangible depth and stability to the rotation, given the questions about a Maine/Pelfrey/Perez/Niese ALL rebounding to have effective seasons in 2010. C’mon. The front office blew it so far…and time is fast running out. Wang is the best left out there, even, yeah, including the ‘risks’. On the trade front, potentially, there’s Arroyo, Meche, Bannister. Fine, but we have to ‘give up’ to get those guys.
Omar/ownership has blown it so far. Don’t pretend that’s not the case.
Bob L, Your quote from Omar “no one is better than our guys IF healthy” is especially telling. He already has the excuses lined up. Oh, they turned out not be healthy? How were we to know? It’s headed towards a season of lame excuses. A real GM does not go into the season with a rotation completely built on health questions. Accepting the risk of Santana returning from surgery is one thing. But banking on Maine, Perez, Nieve and Niese all restored to prime condition is ridiculous. You can bank that is not going to happen. The only question is how many will disappoint and how badly? Signing Fogg is only adding insult to injury. We also have a recovering Escobar to look forward to. Escobar may work out, but it is one more hospital case on our roster. Omar has set us up for a repeat of last year but not signing a bonafide pitcher.