Wow … it’s “Black Friday” yet signings seemingly coming out of the blue.

First there was Torii Hunter signing with the Angels in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. That was a complete surprise to just about everyone. Hours before Hunter’s contract fell out of the sky, Scott Linebrink signed a 4-year deal with the White Sox. The fact Linebrink signed with the ChiSox wasn’t nearly as shocking as the Hunter deal, but the four years was not predicted.

Now, we hear that closer Francisco Cordero has signed a 4-year, $46M contract with the Cincinnati Reds. Where the heck did that come from? Yes we all knew the Reds have needed a closer — seemingly since John Franco was shipped to Queens — but they also have more glaring holes around the diamond (and on the mound).

All three deals look to me to be way over market value. Torii Hunter received an Ichiro-type of contract, which doesn’t seem to compute — although, Ichiro never went on the open market. Still, $18M for Hunter is Beltran money, Jeter money … is Hunter worth that much?

Similarly, four years and almost twenty million for a setup man coming off a down season — and moving from the NL to the AL — seems irresponsible.

And although we all knew that Cordero was the best reliever on the market (after Mo, whose signing with the Yanks was a foregone conclusion), the fact he’s getting close to Billy Wagner money is insanity. If the Cisco Kid was still in his twenties, then OK. But Cordero is going to be 33 years old a month into the 2008 season, and only three of his nine MLB seasons could be considered dominant. But this is what happens when supply cannot meet demand — borderline talent gets top-tier dollars.

Even though we shouldn’t care about the Wilpons’ money, I’m kind of glad the Mets didn’t outbid the White Sox and the Reds for these relievers — it would have been too much money for too many years for two guys who in my mind are on the way down. They may have been helpful in ’08, but could have quickly turned into a pair of albatrosses — look at how quickly Guillermo Mota and Scott Schoeneweis went from coveted to untradeable.

On a sadder note, the market lost another reliever — but because of death. Lefty Joe Kennedy passed away, early Friday morning, reportedly from either a heart attack or a brain aneurysm. Let’s not comment on this until the facts come out, other than to say rest in peace. A startling, terrible shame to see a 28-year-old athlete die so suddenly, and seemingly without any warning.

If I don’t post anything on Thanksgiving, do you promise to stay away from the computer and spend the day with your family feasting?

Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can hold up my end of the bargain …

Seriously though, since we are to give thanks on Thanksgiving, I’m going to do just that:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for visiting MetsToday and providing your comments throughout the year. Without you (yes, YOU) this whole blog thing is pretty boring, so I thank you greatly for making my fandom more complete.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Please have a fun, safe, enjoyable holiday!

BTW, if you are over the age of 21 and need to buy a bottle of wine for the holiday, you can check out my wine blog for ideas and last-minute suggestions.

The Texas Rangers have designated Victor Diaz for assignment.

Yeah, yeah, I know — he’s old baggage and there likely isn’t any room for him with the Mets. But for some reason he always had a special place in my heart; I think I really wanted him to be the next Kevin Mitchell. Diaz made me look ridiculously foolish when I suggested that he’d beat out Xavier Nady for the rightfield job back in March 2006. (That was a bad spring for me … I lambasted Willie for sticking with Jose Valentin, for giving a roster spot to Endy Chavez, for putting Aaron Heilman in the ‘pen, for letting Brian Bannister take a starting rotation spot … the list goes on and on …)

Interesting that the Rangers would give up so easily on Diaz, who is still only 25 years old and blasted 9 homeruns in just 104 big-league ABs last year. While in the PCL in ’07, he hit another 14 dingers and batted .321 in 271 at-bats. There’s little question the kid can flat-out hit, though he does do a lot of swinging and missing.

If it does turn out that Lastings Milledge or Carlos Gomez gets sent away in a deal for pitching, I wouldn’t mind seeing Diaz picked up on a minor league deal and offered an ST invite. But, it would seem that the Mets are more like “been there, done that, it’s all over” with him.

Omar Minaya has pulled off the impossible: he found a taker for Guillermo Mota.

Oh, but it gets better — Minaya managed to obtain a live human being with some baseball skill in return.

The Mets traded Guillermo Mota to the Brewers for catcher Johnny Estrada in a deal that may or may not help both teams.

On the surface, it looks like the Mets have their 2008 catcher and the Brewers have an extra arm in case they lose both Francisco Cordero and Scott Linebrink via free agency. Not so fast, however,

It was generally expected that the Brewers would non-tender Estrada in a few weeks, so his exit is not mind-blowing by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the Brew Crew is on the brink of signing free-agent catcher Jason Kendall, so the writing was on the wall. So before you go thinking, “what are they crazy for taking Mota?” the fact is, it was either get Mota or nothing at all in return. Yeah, I know, the latter seems more effective. But, Mota does provide last-gasp insurance for their bullpen depth.

Additionally, I wouldn’t get so attached to Estrada just yet. My guess is that he, also, is an “if all else fails” option — and a pretty decent one at that. I would not be surprised in the least to find out that Omar is still working the phones for someone such as Ramon Hernandez, and if he can pull of a deal, to then see the Mets non-tender Estrada when the time comes. Having a veteran catcher in place makes trade negotiation much easier with other teams — the Mets’ desperation has been removed.

Assuming there is no other deal, Estrada makes a lot of sense from several points of view, and in my mind is a better option than Yorvit Torrealba. First, the negatives: Estrada is not a very good defensive catcher — he was last in the league in throwing out runners (13% … ironically, Torrealba was second-to-last). He is also damaged goods, having just had knee surgery. Further, for a guy who is supposed to be an offensive catcher, he hit only .278 last year with a horrible .296 OBP (patient, he’s not). Add to that the fact he may or may not have punched his manager in the nose during this past season, and that he’s been traded three times in three years … well, something must be wrong with him, right?

But now the positives: Estrada is a one-year commitment, a stopgap if you will. He’ll likely cost around the same $3.5M he earned last year — pretty cheap. And before dropping off last year, he was a fairly consistent .300 hitter with some pop, hitting about ten homers a season. His ability to switch-hit is nice, and guess what — he’s generally better from the left side, hitting .283 from that side in his career, as opposed to .269 as a righty. That means he’d be an ideal platoon partner for Ramon Castro.

So now the Mets have a decent catcher … or catching tandem … if all else fails. But my money is on Omar to keep calling and to bring in someone even better before the winter is over.