It has come to this, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks have outbid the Mets.
The now pitching-deficient and long-time outfield void Mets had their sights on left-hander Francisco Liriano and outfielder Cody Ross, but lost them to the Pirates and Diamondbacks, respectively, who offered multi-year deals they wouldn’t have dreamt of giving.
The Pirates, who were a feel-good story for much of the season before fading late because of their pitching, gave Liriano a two-year, $14-million deal.
Ross, who hit 22 homers with 81 RBI last year for Boston, was given a three-year, $26-million contract.
The Mets are interested in retaining outfielder Scott Hairston, but are reluctant to go longer than two years or more than $2 million, so there’s no chance they could have signed Ross.
As far as Liriano, they could have easily signed him with the money they saved by not bringing back R.A. Dickey and the generous offerings by David Wright and Jason Bay.
But, neither happened, and signing Hairston probably won’t happen, either.
