As you all know by now…
BREAKING NEWS: Mets offer Lowe 3-Year Deal
How dramatic indeed…
While I’m glad that the Mets finally extended an offer to Derek Lowe, who I really believe is the best available remaining free agent pitcher, I am bothered by the fact that they low-balled him.
Much has been made of the fact that Lowe was seeking a 5-year, $90 million dollar contract. Of course, there is no way he gets anything close to that in this disparaging economy.
When the Mets low-balled K-Rod, I thought it was a brilliant move, simply because the market was saturated with closers at a time when only a handful of teams needed one. The Mets were clearly in the drivers seat.
However, I don’t believe that is the case with Derek Lowe. There are at least a half dozen teams all vying for his services, and even his agent Scott Boras underplayed the Mets offer when he said, “We did receive the Mets offer, we also have several other offers”.
The Mets offer was reported to be for three years and $36 million dollars. I always felt that Lowe would end up signing a 3-4 year deal worth $15-$16 million dollars annually.
The offer that the Mets extended to Lowe, seemed more suitable for Oliver Perez, and not the last best pitcher left on the market.
It will be interesting to see how this ultimately plays out, but I hope the Mets didn’t eliminate themselves from the process by tendering what I believe is a laughable offer given the state of the starting pitching market.
