Update 4:00 PM

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports says the Mets have indeed signed free-agent Rod Barajas to a one-year, $1 million contract.

Barajas can earn another $1 million in ‘easily-attainable incentives,’ according to Rosenthal.

This morning I wrote that I believed Barajas would accept the Mets latest offer. I also wrote that it would signal the end of Omir Santos as a Met. He be released unless he agrees to a minor league assignment.

Welcome to the Orange and Blue Rod Barajas!

Original Post 9:00 am

According to Yahoo Sport’s Tim Brown via Twitter, the Mets have offered Rod Barajas a “guaranteed major league” contract.

Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal reported that only the Texas Rangers and the Mets remained in the hunt for Barajas. He reported that Barajas was weighing a $1MM minor league deal from the Mets and a $1.5MM minor league deal from the Rangers.

On Thursday, Jon Heyman of SI.com added that Barajas was likely to accept the one year offer from the Mets.

It now appears that the Mets have increased their original offer from earlier in the week, and are now offering a guaranteed major league contract as opposed to a minor-league deal.

If this report is true, I have no doubt that Rod Barajas will accept the Mets latest offer, as the Rangers have already said that their offer was final.

I think Barajas has been leaning toward the Mets all along because he knows that he would immediately become the frontrunner for starting catching position whereas in Texas he was certain to be mostly a backup.

Signing Barajas would probably mean the end of the line for Omir Santos, as I believe the Mets would be locked in with a Barajas/Blanco tandem. I don’t see them carrying three catchers at this point. Especially with the recently signed Mike Jacobs who has already been asked to be the emergency catcher.

Barajas hit just .226 last season, but with 19 HR and 71 RBI, in 125 games for the Blue Jays, while hitting .267 against left-handed pitching. He was second in the AL in throwing out would-be base stealers, and is highly regarded as a signal caller and working with the rotation.

I hold firm to the belief that Barajas would significantly upgrade the Mets at catcher and right now we can use all the upgrades we can get.

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