According to Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post in a post to his Twitter account, the Mets have told reliever J.J. Putz that they will decline his option and instead buy him out for $1 million dollars.
Not really a big surprise considering the Mets would have had to pay him over $9 million dollars to set up Frankie Rodriguez.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Putz won’t be back, only that if he is it will be for a salary closer to $2 million instead of $9 million. Putz will have to prove himself as a setup man before any MLB team gives him an opportunity to close again.
In other Mets news, according to MetsBlog the Mets have added minor league third baseman Shawn Bowman to the 40 man roster. It’s a procedural move intended to keep him from being selected in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft in December. The free swinging Bowman batted .294 for AA-Binghamton, but struck out 104 times in 347 at-bats. He is not a top ten prospect for the Mets.
The Mets still have a few open spots which they will seek to fill in the coming days. One of those spots was recently created when they released 40 year old reliever, Ken Takahashi, last month.
