3:00 PM
John Madden of the Daily News spoke to Mets GM Sandy Alderson about the Nelson Cruz signing and he had this to say regarding the similar contract to Chris Young:
“Different type of players. Cruz brings power but not defense. Doesn’t have our approach. This is not a gee-whiz, if-only-we’d-waited moment for us.”
It doesn’t seem like there was a follow-up question. Had it been me I would have asked, “Can you explain why you checked in with him twice in December and again just this past week if you did not like his approach?”
I guess we’ll never know…
12:00 PM
Free agent slugger Nelson Cruz has signed a one-year, $8 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles, according Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The deal includes $750K in incentives.
Hard to believe… That is less than one million more than what the Mets will be paying Chris Young.
It’s a surprising turn of events for a player who turned down a $14.1 million dollar qualifying offer.
Cruz had 27 home runs with 76 RBI and a .266 batting average in barely more than two-thirds of a season last year.
Outstanding job by the Orioles and this probably goes down as one of the best free agent signings of the Winter…
Last week, Andy Martino of the Daily News wrote that there was still lingering talk that the Mets were considering a run at Cruz, but that a deal sounded unlikely.
