Offseason Complete for Mets
After being waived by the Mets, 23-year-old Fernando Martinez is now a member of the Houston Astros. And according to Adam Rubin, diminutive Danny Herrera has cleared waivers and will return to the Mets as a minor leaguer with an invitation to spring training.
Also according to Rubin, the Mets have re-signed the ageless Miguel Batista and inked free agent pitcher Fernando Cabrera as well as shortstop Sean Kazmar.
Batista is 40, Cabrera 30, and Kazmar 27. All are expected to fill out Buffalo’s roster next spring, though Batista has an outside shot of making the big club if he performs impeccably and several pitchers go down with injury.
In other news, the signing of 31-year-old Scott Hairston was made official.
Finally, Rubin reports that the Mets are “done” making additions to the organization.
So, now that the offseason personnel adjustments are complete, what do you think? Are you satisfied with changes? What grade do you give the Mets for their offseason? Answer in the comments.
They should have resigned Reyes I am sure they wanted to rip the band aid off and just let him go. But they could have signed him to a back loaded contract and traded him anytime, there would always be a taker for a top 3 ss no matter how many games he has missed.
The new regime seems committed to not paying large amounts of money for very marginal upgrades that produce nothing in the standings. Will Nickeas be worse than Ronny Paulino? Maybe. Will he be much worse? No. Will he be a whole lot cheaper? Yes. It’s good to see the Mets stop throwing away large amounts of money on slightly better, but still mediocre, players that don’t get us to the playoffs. There were no catchers available that would really make a difference, so passing makes good sense.
I keep seeing posts that “we should have signed Reyes to a reasonable contract when he was coming off a down season,” but I have NEVER seen ANY EVIDENCE that he was actually willing to take such a contract rather than test free agency. Really, people, stop complaining that the Mets didn’t so something that was not an option!
And guess what, its 2012 if you want fans to care about your team and spend larger amounts of money to support your team you better be putting large amounts of money into your team.
No question Reyes deal was risky so was Pujos, CC Sabathia’s Arods and every other contract that is multi year and over 15 million dollars a year but that is what it coast to have stars on your team.
Let me ask you this, are the mets supposed to build this young team like the Rays and then when they reach Free Agency let them go because its cheaper to pay unproven youngsters and less risky???????
You replace the crappy Ronny Paulino with a AA player Nickeas. Its hard to do but that gets an F.
You repalce Pagan with an older and crappier CFer but add an average reliever. That gets a C.
You prepare for Santana not being able to start 33 times by doing nothing and saying you might re-sign the always injured Chris Young again. that gets an F.
You use KRODS money, well maybe half of it to sign two, not one, but two, average at best relievers…. That gets a D.
Good Winter Alderson.
Am I satisfied…Sure…. The money that is normally spent on Met games will go elsewhere. Thanks for the diversification……
Francisco = B. A decent closer (needed)
Rauch = C-. Mediocre, overpaid.
Tendering Pelfrey and not improving the crappy rotation = F.
Bench signings = C-. OK with Hairston, but that’s it.
Losing Reyes to rival = D. Yes, Miami overpaid, but for a NYC team to lose their homegrown star to a division rival? Yuck!
The Mets are currently in “wait and see” mode. This is somewhat depressing but I don’t see the grand moves made the last year or two. Jason Bay? Yeah, can do w/o that sort of thing. Hey, you will win 70 – 80 games, but they got a big name! Yay! Oliver Perez? Castillo?
The best things that happened came from within or was surprises like R.A. Dickey. Both might continue.
The offseason was adequate. They got some relievers. The closer makes sense and at least one of others does as well. I would have liked another starter, but the options weren’t much better than Batista, Schwinden and maybe some other “minor league” option they will still pick up. Still, probably be nice to get another starter there. Personally, maybe I’m wrong, “inning eater” and all, I rather they get rid of Pelfrey, but well, that didn’t happen.
Some will appreciate Pagan leaving thinking we had to change there; others really won’t miss him either way. The replacement is okay and has some potential to surprise at least for the short term. Which is all he is anyway. Cedeno is just an mid-fielder back-up. They needed such a spare part and got it. Hairston also is a useful guy off the bench. You don’t put some rookie who needs time in that spot. Standard to put some vet in that off the bench/back-up OFs spot.
Fact is, they were getting rid of Reyes. They could have kept him, if they had the will and better money situation. Didn’t happen. Life stinks. Yeah. But, the die was cast a long time ago. At some point, you have to let it go.
I’m not sure what else they were supposed to do this winter. Trade Pagan for a CF prospect? Is he worth that? Find some other starter? I guess, but they weren’t going to pay Buerle type money for him. So, yeah, not a great off season. But, when was the last one of them?
This is so depressing that I can’t even imagine this upcoming season. We’ll win 70 if we’re lucky.
And if I’m wrong, I’ll gladly post and admit that I was wrong. I hope that I am. But right now, I’m on the ledge looking down from the 100th floor…ready to jump. Things have never looked so bleak.
Alderson did the right thing. He got cheap options on short contracts. If these players do well not only may the improve the product on the field, they may be spun off for some prospects at the trading deadline. If they fail, little was risked. the Mets had the best offense in their division even while playing in Citifield. They lost because they had bad pitching. Until that improves the Mets will lose. The way the Mets have chosen to improve is to allow the farm system to grow and supply a steady chain of good players, who will improve performance, which will boost attendance, which will raise revenue so that those truly good players can be retained. That’s the plan. Will it work? Eventually it will but how soon? Will this current group of prospects produce or will more drafting and scouting be needed because we do not yet have the good prospects necessary. Time will tell, but I prefer the farm system method to the buy every FA you can method. We tried to buy a pennant in the 2006- 2009 period and it didn’t work. Time to try this way.
The Mets lost 70 mm this year, attendance is shrinking at
high rates and the whole organization (team, stadium and network) has already used its share of debt.
Sure they could have played the longshot of keeping Reyes, trying to get into the playoffs and getting attendance back up, but if that backfired, then they would far worst off. Sure as fans, we wouldn’t care, because we think that a NY team has to spend its way into competitiveness, so a new owner would come in and do it. But that might not be the case. The wilpons could continue to hang, we might risk losing more rising stars and from an organization standpoint, the situation would be worst.
Therefore its reasonable for Alderson & Co to pull down costs, put on the field a team that if everything goes there way would be a pleasant surprise (isn’t that the story behind being a Met fan) and regain Payroll flexibility.
A question I do have is if they didn’t pull the plug too soon on fmart. Time will tell
1. Reyes. D-. One can debate where to draw the line on an offer, but no offer and no recruitment was terrible.
2. Bullpen. B. They may have overpaid lightly but needed to act early. Madson would have been nice but hard to predict market in January.
3. Starting pitching. F. Lame, payroll limits or not. Where to start? Alderson trying to sell this group of 5 as all deserving of a spot is laughable. If Santana did not throw a pitch in the majors this year it would not be surprising. Pelfrey is a #5 costing $6 mil. Gee may or may not be able to stick. No kids are close, so signing/trading for a decent pro would not block anyone or cost any picks.
4. Bench. D. Hairston, Cedeno ok. Other spots not acceptable.
5. Defense. D. I know they need bats, but Murphy at 2B, Duda in left, Thole catching, with Wright at 3B, and shorter fences make for a pitcher’s nightmare.
Overall D.
What is Joe J.’s grade?
Bullpen: Agreed.
Pitching: The starting pitching is mediocre but even w/o Pelfrey giving you much (and I’m with the guy who thinks he might give you more though yeah I wanted him gone), the team managed okay there. Santana probably will give you as much as Cappy there, I’d think. But, yeah, they should have picked up a fifth starter. C.
Bench: Murphy and Turner is going to be on the bench a lot, especially if Cedeno sees a good amount of playing time (as I see him doing). Guys like Satin, Baxter etc. also provide you something. I think at least a C. I don’t know where you want to put him, but I also think the Torres pick-up was a net positive.
Defense: I don’t think Wright’s defense is THAT bad. Other than Duda, who is adequate and you aren’t going to lose that many games via a corner OF, the OF defense is decent. Davis and Cedeno/Tejeda is decent too with Davis pretty good. Again, I think D is too low. B-/C
Another Joe’s opinion.