2
2011
Jose Reyes Sweepstakes Down To Mets and Marlins?
An article by Hojo's Mojo
Several sources are now reporting that the market for Jose Reyes is not as big as most initially expected and in fact the only two teams in the hunt may be just the Marlins and the Mets.
Jon Heyman reported that the Braves, Giants and Phillies are all out while the Tigers and Brewers are questionable at best. Danny Knobler of CBS Sports actually goes a step further and says the Tigers and Brewers are out barring any sudden changes in plans.
The Mets have yet to make an offer to Reyes, but Sandy Alderson plans to meet with him at the Winter Meetings in Dallas and yesterday during a conference call with reporters he reiterated his priority to re-sign the all star shortstop. ”I certainly would hope we’ll have conversations certainly by the time we get to Dallas, or at Dallas,” Alderson said.
Meanwhile the Marlins have already offered Reyes a six-year deal worth somewhere between $70-90 million dollars, but according to Heyman the Marlins are willing to increase their offer and give Reyes a take it or leave it deadline. One baseball executive told CBS that “everyone seems to think Reyes is the right fit for the Marlins.”
Heyman heard from a source that the Mets are willing to offer Reyes a five-year, $80MM contract which if true would give Reyes a higher average annual salary than the Marlins deal.
I’m starting to get the feeling that Alderson may have played his cards perfectly and unless Reyes gets another team to bid on him, there’s a good chance he won’t see that $100 million dollar contract that seemed like a lock a month ago.
This is starting to get interesting.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
30 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
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Rumors galore….. Where were all those guys telling us Heath Bell was going to Florida or Papelbon to Philly? Next week’s meetings will tell the story a lot better. PS: You told us what Heyman said. What are the “SEVERAL” sources? One does not make several.
If I may answer for Rob, in addition to Jon Heyman, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN and Danny Knobler of CBS Sports both described the Reyes field as being narrowed yesterday. All Rob did was validate one of those reports, but there were actually three which adds veracity and teeth to the entire report.
Heyman has been DEAD wrong on pretty much every prediction this offseason so far.. man, any ways, if this is true, market wise this is like mike tyson vs buster douglas.. the largest market in baseball versus the marlins… hmmmmmm….
Not just this season, but many off seasons………………I agree with you, (this is where you fall over and faint) but as a big Reyes fan, don’t you hope he finally gets one right?
Heyman is a closet yankee fan, he wants reyes to be out of NY.. he then gets to gloat about having the best SS in NY just as francesca does..
I’d still take an up and coming Tejada over an over the hill Jeter.
By the way, if/when the marlins sign reyes, sandy alderson gets his much desire second draft pick..
not that surprising IMO that there are not a ton of teams in on him. To some extent, he is a “specialty” item (luxury item?).
what I mean is that when you consider role/position/injury history, combined with the proposed contract (length and $), not surprising most teams aren’t going to see him as a fit.
Not that plenty of teams wouldn’t like having him, they just aren’t going to 5+ years and close to 20mill/per for him.
If he was bieng discussed at Ollie money (3/36), then you would have a lot more teams kicking the tires.
and just WAGGING here, but would not surprise me if the other guy that gets less than speculated is prince. Again, a fine talent, but putting all the factors together and the market is not going to be what was originally speculated.
I agree. Carl Crawford at one time was going to be Reyes’ best friend and now he may be his worst enemy. Teams are going to be shy of signing a guy like Reyes to a big contract when he is very Crawford like then add in a long history of injuries and failures in September.
While I agree with this, you know the probability is high they’ll be at least one GM out there still willing to make that not-so-smart-contract.
Loria is spending like a drunken sailor – or so the perception seems to be with all the high priced FAs he’s been courting.
Philly is still spending to bring in the best – just can’t figure out if it’s b/c they realize their window of opportunity may be closing or they really are planning for the future – although I’d have to lean towards the former since they’ve traded away a lot of their young talent to stay on top now. And that’s gotta catch up to them sooner or later.
Overall though, the teams that seem to have the money to give an over the top type contract to Reyes so far seem to be leaning towards spending that money on pitching – or spreading it out among a couple of holes they’ve got, not just one.
Think it boils down to each team having a plan going in and that plan changing as deals are made and lost. So wouldn’t surprise me if a dark horse winds up signing Reyes.
Never forget the Mystery Team, a la Clifford Lee the 3rd.
I love Jose Reyes as a ballplayer. But he’s out of his league trying to ‘play’ the owners. Instead it looks like Jose got played. Not surprising considering the lifetimes of experience the ‘money people’ who run the business of baseball have.
IF this is true, remember I said IF it is true… that Reyes’ only suitors are the Mets and Marlins then a lot of people here have some apologizing to do.
Whether you like it or not, if a homegrown player is allowed to hit an open market and ONLY 1 team makes him an offer then his value is NOT that high. Remember, other teams in MLB aren’t signing a guy with their heart, they are doing it with their mind…. if Reyes only has 1 offer then complaining about Alderson’s take on this situation is complaining about a wise business decision.
Well look at Joes piece on the Sandy interview…
Truth is there right from Sandy’s mouth!
He has not made an offer and is waiting to see if Reyes gets back to him with one (no guarantees) so at this point the only player for reyes is the Marlins!
We have not entered the game yet other than to say we want him back but no numbers being offered!
You’re also assuming he doesn’t have Reyes’ agents number and that it’s not in Peter Greenberg’s best interest to see if a New York team will match or slightly beat an offer from the Miami Marlins.
Also the fact that as you said “so at this point the only player for reyes is the Marlins!” isn’t a good thing for Jose Reyes. In fact if that is true, then it vindicates this entire plan from Alderson.
People here acted like there’d be a Black Friday line for Jose Reyes. Like he was such a no brainer for everybody to want and Alderson was a fool to let him hit the open market.
Yet today as it stands right now, only the Miami Marlins seem interested. So I don’t see how somebody can sit here and say Alderson wasn’t correct.
What good is having a phone number if your intention is to wait until the Player comes to you?
Thats pretty much what he said!
He is letting reyes go get the best offer he can and he is HOPING (No Guarantee!) Reyes will come to him at the end either to match or with a discount!
So apparently having the number is only good as far as his caller ID if perhaps Reyes’ agent calls him!
I’m just not convinced the Marlins are going to wind up with Reyes.
It’s been reported that his agent has 2 offers. Alderson said yesterday, the Mets haven’t made an offer yet. So who is this second team?
I’m betting on a dark horse here signing Reyes. And yes, I’m still hoping that dark horse is the Mets.
I could see that team being the Nats. They have been quite and love to make worthless splashes.
This Marlins thing looks like a smoke screen to me.
What do you mean by smokescreen? That there’s no offer?
Nah, there’s an offer. Just how serious of one? Same thing with their courting of all the big names. To me it’s all hype otherwise they would have signed more than an older closer to a 3 year deal. Could be why Madson said no thanks.
I looked into that second mystery team report myself, and I don’t believe it to be true. My cousin is a sports editor for CBS Sports and he doesn’t believe it either. I think Reyes has just one offer in hand and his agent is pretty pissed off about that is something else I heard.
Hmm…interesting.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the Marlins are the only offer up to this point. I originally assumed – incorrectly – that the Mets were the second offer. However that became a little suspect when no one could seem to confirm that was true, let alone what ballpark the offer was in.
Alderson actually chuckled as I was getting my question out to him when I mentioned that there were rumors of a Mets offer floating around.
He said this:
So our inactivity at this point, or the fact that we haven’t given him an offer, is not based on our confidence that when everything is said and done, he’s going to come back to us.
The 5/80 rumor is bogus.
He expects to actually “meet” with Reyes and his agent for the very first time either the day before Dallas or in Dallas.
The lack of interest in Jose at the price tells us something about the league wide regard for him as a player, Mets fans notwithstanding..
I agree that Heyman probably makes this stuff up every day.Anybody who says he knows where JR is playing next year is like all the “seers” on this site who keep predicting what a negative impact the new dimensions will have on the mets pitching staff next year,Clueless.We will all know aboout Reyes in a few weeks and the new dimensions when 2012 is over.Take a chill pill folks.After all, we do have a dream team front office.Lol
Does anyone else ever notice how spot on accurate Heyman is when his rumors are centered around a Boras client?
Never noticed that, but if you’re going to have a pipeline, that is a pretty good one.
I’m sure if you looked at the early work of a lot of guys you could start to see patterns emerge.
Right now I think most teams are looking at Fielder first, If Fielder should sign with someone at the winter meetings expect another team maybe two to jump into the Reyes Waters.
That is if Reyes doesn’t sign before Fielder does.
I wonder if both players and their reps are thinking that.
Unless there is a late entry into the mix of teams who would make Jose Reyes a substantial offer, it looks like the waiting game that Sandy Alderson has played may well pay off for all parties concerned. There was talk of a 100 million dollar contract but every team knows that Jose is a potential risk due to injury and I truly believe that there is a general understanding by most teams to not jump the gun with outrageous opening offers to free agents who have questions be it health or age. This “understanding” is short of collusion and it hopefully will help us retain Jose who would rather stay in NY as long as the Mets offer is close enough to that of the Marlins or any other club.
And finally, in answer to the Mets being a strong club in 2012. If Jose is resigned (and healthy), if David Wright and Jason Bay begin to hit again and Ike Davis is ready to pick up where he left off as an upcoming star, then this team will score runs and be fun to watch.
The question is whether the team can piece together some decent starting pitching. If it is decent they will be a competitive team every day. Will they make the playoffs? Not unless the pitching is good and that means some new additions in the rotation and bullpen and some major progress by the guys we have now.