Free-agent RHP Bronson Arroyo could be targeted by Sandy Alderson this winter, according to what industry sources told Mike Puma of the New York Post.
Arroyo, who will be 37 in February, is 14-11 with a 3.60 ERA in 31 starts for the Reds this season, or just a tad worse than what Dillon Gee has produced for the Mets.
“It’s just picking and choosing, what’s the best place for me, trying to win another championship,” Arroyo told The Post before the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Reds Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park. “Where you live, logistically in the world, where your spring training is, it’s all these different factors and I definitely think the Mets are a team that I would look at.”
“There’s going to be a few ballclubs that I probably would be interested in that maybe have enough guys, where they would be like, ‘You know what, we have enough veterans here, we have enough young arms and a nice mix,’ “ Arroyo said. “And there’s going to be some ballclubs maybe like the Mets that have that nice mix of young arms, but need somebody to kind of anchor a rotation with 200 innings, so it’s going to be a very interesting offseason for me.”
The veteran righthander is on pace to pitch 200 innings for the eighth time in nine seasons and is reportedly looking for a three year deal that could net him anywhere from $12-15 million on average.
I gotta be honest here… Targeting Arroyo and paying him through age 39 sounds a bit preposterous to me. And to give him a deal that would make him the second highest paid player on the Mets is beyond comprehensible. Arroyo gives up a ton of home runs, 99 in the last three seasons, tops in the majors.
The Reds will likely make him a qualifying offer which Arroyo will certainly decline as he looks to cash in on a multi-year deal. So signing him would likely mean losing your first or second round draft pick, depending on where the Mets finish the season.
We already have a very similar pitcher to Arroyo only better in Dillon Gee, who throws harder and has outperformed Arroyo in nearly every pitching category this season.
Lately, Gee has been looked at as a potential trade candidate on some other sites, although I still view him as a keeper after his incredible 2013 season. Of course, if trading him nets you a player like Carlos Gonzalez or Troy Tulowitzki that’s a different story.
But can you imagine trading a 27-year old Gee who is set to earn about $700K in 2014 and is still improving, and then giving over $12 million a year to Bronson Arroyo who is ten years older and in decline?
In what universe does that even make any sense?
