Mets & Yankees off- season report

Dec-29-2008

The New York Mets GM Omar Minaya knew one thing back on Dec 8th when it was time for teams to sign free agents & upgrade themselves, it was time to make some moves to help Mets fans forget of the back to back collapses the team were coming off from.
It was also clear that the Mets needed to invest mostly in the bullpen an area where both collapses take most of the blame. The Mets main target this off season was making sure they get a closer. With that in mind and with a heavy crop of closers to choose from, Omar knew not to panic when time came to make that decision on who he was bringing in to replace Billy Wagner.

Well now the Mets have their 9th inning man in Francisco Rodriguez when Omar signed the top closer the market had to offer to a 3 year deal that will pay him $37 million dollars. With the poor economy on his side and also understanding that teams like the Yankees and the Redsox were not looking for closers, Omar also understood that he didn't need to overspend for a guy like K-ROD because these big market teams were already set in the closer's department. When you ad that the Mets also had a guy in K-ROD who was pretty much into the idea of putting on a Mets uniform, and you have the reason why Omar and the Mets were able to get the deal done at a premium.

From the beginning of the negotiations, it looked like the only teams the Mets had to compete with in order to get K-ROD were teams like the Angels, Dodgers or Cardinals. One would had thought that the Angels, K-ROD's former team, might want to keep the young 26 year old closer who was just coming off a record breaking season in which he had broken the all-time saves record. But instead the Angels decided to move on and not resign K-ROD as their ace closer. It would also make you wonder why a team like the Angels who are contenders wouldn't want to retain the closer, but they didn't and only time will tell if this was a wise decision by the Angels. Some say that the lost in his velocity has been a major concern throughout the league, and the Angels. Last season K-ROD's velocity was down from 97mph with regularity, to 93mph, but K-ROD has said that come next season he will bring the heat to show the Mets not to worry.

During the time when Minaya went out to reach out to K-ROD and his agent to try and sell them to the idea of coming to play in NY & Los Mets, that towards the end of their meeting, K-ROD had told Minaya that he really wanted to be a Met, and that right then and there Minaya knew that K-ROD was going to be a Met.

Now Rodriguez's will now come to the Mets with the pressure on him to try and help the Mets get rid of their chokers label which they now carry thought-out the league.
The one thing the Mets fans can expect from a guy like K-ROD is that he will bring that fiery in your face style and excitement to his game that the Mets fans already see from Jose Reyes. He is one of those guys that teams just don't like for his show boating ways. For sure he will get on many NL teams like the Phillies when he is giving the hitters his signature fist pumping finish, this making the Mets an even more hated team in the league.

K-ROD will hopefully give the Mets that confidence and toughness that the team lacks. So with Omar doing his job in replacing Billy Wagner, he then on the very next day acquires Seattle's closer J.J Putz in a 3 way trade to be the set-up man for K-ROD. In 2 days Omar has seemingly taken care of the Mets bullpen issues by getting 2 relievers of this caliber. At the same time Omar was able to get rid of 2 players off the team when he shipped Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweiss out of town in the trade. Now if Minaya can find a way to get rid of Luis Castillo then all should be good in Met land.

Putz comes to the Mets after a season in which he spent most of the year on the DL. But before his injury Putz was one of the top AL closers who for 2 straight years posted Era's under to 2, and commanded a fastball at about 98 mph. If he is able to come back to that form, the Mets then will have 2 closers to try and close out the games in the 8th and 9th innings. Last year after the 1st collapse, Omar knew he had to do something big and got the best starter that was out there when he acquired the best lefty in the game in Johan Santana. This year Omar needed to make another big move to try and help Mets fans forget, and he gets the best closer available.

There was a time last year that some fans questioned the decision by the Wilpon's when they extended Minaya's contract in September in the middle of their eventual 2nd collapse. But if your the Wilpon's, you can not complain about the job that Omar Minaya has done in his tenure here with the Mets. Minaya who is now entering his 5th year as GM, has increase the Mets attendances from 2 million fans in 2005, to 4 million in 08. Every year Minaya has added quality players to try and upgrade the team, from his 1st big move when he signed Pedro and Carlos Beltran, to his 2nd season when he added Billy Wagner and Carlos Delgado, to last season additions of Santana, and this year with K-ROD. If your a Mets fan you can't really complain about the job he has done when trying to bring good players in.
There are still more moves to be made and one can only feel confidence that Minaya will try and make moves that a Mets fan can approve. Hopefully he will be able to ad a nice outfielder, or a nice 2nd basemen like Orlando Hudson. Omar is being patience for sure, but I feel that there is some more big moves to be made.


And now shifting over to the New York Yankees, who have proved one thing so far, and that is money, and lots of it. Beginning with the signing of C.C. Sabathia to a 7 year deal of $161 million dollars, and then following that up a week later by then giving A.J. Burnett a 5 year deal of $80 million, and then 3 weeks later still have $180 plus to give Mark Texiera to be their new 1st basemen, one thing for sure is money is the theme with the Yankees.

As you can see money is not a problem for the Yankees, and they take care of theirs problems with money even with a bad economy, it doesn't matter. Just like Omar Minaya and the Mets, Brain Cashman and the Yankees were also on the hot seat after failing to get into the playoffs for the 1st time in 11 years. Cashman needed to make a splash as it is always accustomed in Yankee land, but this was more then just a splash when it comes to the amount that was spent on these 3 players.

Last year when Cashman decided to go with the youth and had decline a deal that had Melky Cabrera, Ian Kennedy, and Phil Hughes going out to the Twins for Johan Santana, he then took alot of heat after all 3 players failed to live up to the expectations put on them. It failed so bad that all 3 players are not even in the Yankee's immediate future plans when you look at it closely. This only made Cashman resort back to the only way the Yankees know how to operate, by spending big money on the top free-agents the market has to offer and over paying them to make sure they get them.


The word out on the streets is that Cashman is now in full control in bringing in the players he wants. But if you ask me, Cashman has been making his moves since last year when he decided to go in that youth movement direction. That was all Cashman but since it did not work, he is now on the hot seat and must now show and prove that he is a capable GM. So it is why this off-season moves have been, in a way, desperately made and out of control.

In getting Sabathia, the Yankees acted desperate in their pursue of the big lefty when they 1st made an offer to C.C. for $140 million and told him that the offer was not going to be there if he took too long. Then C.C. makes some comments saying that he wants to be a Dodger or play for a NL team, preferably in the west coast. As time past, the Yankees then started to worry that they may lose C.C. to another team and then began to stalk Sabathia by sending in guys like Reggie Jackson and others to keep track on him. By then the Yankees had now up their price to $161 Million, as then C.C. agrees to the deal in pinstripes.

Then you look at the 5 year deal that will pay A.J. Burnett $80 million plus, that was another deal made out of panic and was not well thought of if you ask me, this was a deal to a guy that before last year career year of 18 wins, had never had more then 12 victories and was always a DL visitor. The Yankees deal to Burnett should not had been for more then 3 years, but they gave him 5. The signing of Burnett only brings back memories of Carl Pavano when you compare the 2. The only difference is that Burnett has better stuff then Pavano, but only time will tell if this is Pavano 2.

The Mark Texieira deal was a good move by Cashman because they are getting a solid player who should fit the team and their 1B defense will also be upgraded at the same time, but to give him an 8 year deal is where the deal goes bad. I had predicted in my last post a few months ago that the Yankees will get C.C. and Texiera, and here they are. Look this is a good deal for the Yankees because Texiara is a solid player who will remind the Yankees fans of Tino Martinez, but in the long run the Yankees will pay the price. I don't ever remember the Yankees ever getting in 3 big contracts all in one year, but these are the times. When you spend $421 million dollars on 3 guys alone, it makes it real hard to root for you. But they are the Yankees and they have all the money in the world to spend on these players.

So where is Manny going?
From the looks of thing it's either the Angels or the Dodgers.

Look, the Yankees have already signed 3 big players to upgrade their team to the Mets 1 big signing of K-ROD, which is not that big if you start to compare his $37 million dollar deal. Minaya has always wanted Manny but the Wilpon's don't really like the idea of bringing in the problems that come along with having a guy like Manny on the team. But the Mets have seen how the Yankees have completely taken over NY this off season with the 3 big contract and must feel like they may want to make the final splash in the big city. So if you can get Manny for a 2 year deal then why not do it? Minaya is probably laying low, and waiting, so don't be surprise if when all is said and done Manny is a Met.

With the off-season report, This is Freddie Vargas.
See you on the rebound!!!