K-Rod Is Our Albatross And Nobody Else’s

15 Comments + Add Comment

• Raylo July 9, 2011 at 11:52 am

  Thanks for everything Omar!
• Da Madd Genius July 9, 2011 at 12:06 pm

  Yeah blame Omar, cuz having no closer really worked out for ANY championship team in the past 50 years
• XtreemIcon July 9, 2011 at 12:10 pm

  Joe, the fact that it seems so simple and so team-friendly suggests to me that K-Rod would laugh Sandy off the phone. He’s going to play next season at 30 years old. He’s plenty young enough to play through his $17 million season and STILL sign a 3/$30 afterwards.
• jdon July 9, 2011 at 1:13 pm

  Suppose we pay 4 or 5 mil for someone to take him? Then they just pay his normal salary and we save 12 mil? Of course, you woud have to give us something good for a year and a half of a pretty good closer.
• Metsie July 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm

  Everyone should be so fortunate to have a 23 Save Albatross around their neck no?

  Any trade would entail K-Rod extending, Which says to me if K-Rod’s trade isn’t set a week before the deadline, no deal will be made because they will need at least a week to negotiate with K-Rods Agent on an extention before they pull the trigger.

  And who knows we may find the deal they come to is so good it makes sense to keep K-Rod!
• Wiseguy_Ash July 9, 2011 at 3:48 pm

  I think it’s getting very dangerous in terms of trade value with the vesting option almost guaranteed at this point. The trade would have to be for a team looking for a setup man to avoid it. Hopefully we will get something in return!
  • Bayonne Mets Fan July 9, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    or nothing if we keep winning and contend for the wild card. They’ll work something out. Are you gonna sit in your chair at home and go “Yeah no vesting option!”

    or

    are you gonna sit at home and just root for this team to win. Frankly i don’t care, it’s not my money and I’m sure the FO already has a contingency plan if this team continues to stay in the wild card hunt. And now with Chipper down for a month our chances just got better. We also received some good news on Ike today too. So let each day unfold, root for your team to win, and stop worrying about other people’s money.
• Wiseguy_Ash July 9, 2011 at 5:11 pm

  Do you think I personally care about the money? I care about our payroll next year and the ability to put out a winner consistently. Paying 17.5 million to a closer for a team that is struggling financially is just plain ridiculous and will not happen. You have to think long term, the Mets will not resign K-Rod regardless of whether we make the wild card or not. We might as well get something for him at this point. I am all for a playoff push and this year has been beyond expectations considering the injuries, but we can’t get reckless with the future is all I’m saying..
  • Bayonne Mets Fan July 9, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    I understand what you’re saying and I’m not saying this without regard for the future either, my point is that the front office has to have a plan for this already in place. i don’t know what it could be but nothing is more important than winning. That’s what its all about and there’s no guarantee that the future will be better either. Maybe somebody gets hurt in the future too or maybe a prospect or 2 don’t pan out so this “future” everybody talks about and everybody wants to blow this run up for is not sure thing too.

    Joe brings up a good point that maybe K-Rod and the Mets can work out some type of deal OR K-Rod simply says no I want the money and will sign a new contract later. We don’t know that.

    All I’m saying is we have a chance to do something, I don’t think the Braves are that scary at all and we have to take this day by day. I don’t what they’re going to do but winning takes precedence and but if we found out over the next few days that K-Rod going to be a vital part of this run and we continue to creep up then the Mets are going to have to pay him.

    If you want to talk about money than what is the total difference in money being made by keeping him if we stay in the race and seeing the fans fill up Citi Field as opposed to moving him if we fall out and Cit Field becoming a ghost town. OR….you move him while you’re in the race and take a chance on Parnell replacing him as closer…personally i think it’s too early to decide on the last option.

    My only concern is winning now and just because I think that way does not mean i’m mortgaging the future.
    • Bayonne Mets Fan July 9, 2011 at 7:12 pm

      i guess what I’m trying to say is you can’t sacrifice a chance at winning just because you may wind up owing somebody an additional 17 million bucks. That’s it in a nutshell.
• sarge July 9, 2011 at 5:29 pm

  My thought exactly on extending K Rod so as to not let vesting option next year become a problem.
• Vinny B July 9, 2011 at 7:33 pm

  The whole K-rod situation is way overblown. This isn’t Oliver Perez when the Mets are paying somebody a lot of money and getting no production. The Mets are paying him a lot of money sure, but we are getting production. K-rod is pitching good!

  I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world to have a good closer around another year, even if it is for a lot of money.

  And I don’t buy the argument that if K-rod stays gets 17 million next year, that we wouldn’t be able to sign anybody next offseason. Here’s why, we have Perez, Castillo, Beltran, and reyes’ contracts coming off the books. If my math is right, that’s 48 million dollars we would have. So the Mets can esaily afford K-rod next year. Even if we resign Reyes for 20 million a year, he would only be getting about 9 million more than he’s getting this year – So if you count Reyes as if he already signed with us for 20 million, we would still have 39 million that we could spend for next offseason – That’s a lot of money.

  not only that, we are ALREADY paying K-rod 12 million this year. So everybody is making such a big deal about paying a good player ONLY five million more than he’s already making. I’m sorry, I just don’t see why the Mets HAVE to trade K-rod.
  • Vinny B July 9, 2011 at 7:51 pm

    I made a mistake there, if the Mets were to sign Reyes for 20 million, they would have 28 million left, which is still a lot of money anyway.
    • Original Met Fan July 9, 2011 at 8:39 pm

      Your $48 million coming off books is wrong, it’s a lot more, but you also did your math wrong somewhere.

      Coming off the books:

      Beltran $18.5
      Reyes $11.0
      K-Rod $11.5
      Perez $12.0
      Castillo $6.25
      Igarashi $1.75
      Mathews Jr. $1.0

      That is a total of $62 million in payroll the Mets will shed.

      So even if you gave K-Rod $17.5MM and Reyes $20MM, the Mets will still have $24.5 million dollars free to spend.
• theonlymaskman July 10, 2011 at 10:02 am

  My hat is off to Terry Collins for managing his team to win and without giving thought to the implications of contractual obligations. If the Mets don’t want to pay the $17 mil bonus, they never should have offered it in the first place. Yes, it was Omar who gave that contract, but wasn’t it the Wilponzi’s who approved it? So Fred, if you don’t want to pay the $17M, why did you let Omar make such an offer in the first place? Oh I see, you were planning on having a manager in place who wouldn’t actually use the player. Well, I’m glad that Collins is screwing you to the wall on this. Let’s see how Alderson works his way out of the corner he is backed into on this! What nefarious scheme can he devise while now having to deal with the Boras monster as well? This will be very interesting regarding how it gets resolved. Most likely the Mets will have to eat a big bill in one fashion or another. Old Freddie lives day to day and never does think through the future implications of what he does today. Just ask Bobby Bonilla how he’s doing on Mets money!