Jhonny Peralta signed a four-year, $53 million deal with the Cardinals this off-season. On Sunday, the former free agent shortstop revealed that he did get a two-year offer from the Mets, as well as a three-year deal from the Yankees.
However, it was what Peralta said about the current Mets shortstop that sparked attention yesterday:
“The Mets said they had a little problem with Tejada and they were looking for a shortstop,” Peralta said. “The situation for the Yankees was a little bit different because they wanted me to play third base and shortstop. They were looking more for third base.”
“I would have liked to play in New York, because I have a lot of family there. But I wanted to play for the Cardinals a long time ago, so it’s good that I decided to come here.”
Why would you knock your player to another before making sure you had a deal for a new shortstop done?
The Mets never had a chance at Peralta, and they must have known that their offer would be rejected much like the one-year deal they made to Stephen Drew.
Sometimes I wonder if they make these offers just so they could say they were in on these players when in fact they really weren’t. (Nah, the Mets would never do something like that, right?) That’s not to say I wanted Peralta for four years, that’s ludicrous. But when you’re the NL Champs, you could afford to take shots like that. Maybe some day, we’ll know the feeling.
