So the Mets have lost the insanity sweepstakes of 2006. Without landing Barry Zito, the team must make some kind of move, or moves, to provide more depth in their shaky starting rotation. What is their recourse and plan of action as 2007 is about to be rung in?

Here are 10 possibilities:

1. Give Aaron Heilman another shot at the starting rotation, and cross your fingers that Duaner Sanchez will come all the way back. Ambiorix Burgos, Juan Padilla, Jason Standridge, and Jon Adkins can fight it out for the 7th-inning bridge Heilman leaves behind.

2. Package Heilman, Lastings Milledge, and either Mike Pelfrey or Philip Humber in a deal for a front-end starter such as Danny Haren or Dontrelle Willis. (Do not put this package together for a back-end guy like Javy Vazquez.)

3. Package Heilman, Milledge, and a lesser prospect for a back-end AL guy who might benefit from a switch to the NL, such as Joe Blanton or Jake Westbrook.

4. Give Mark Mulder a 2-year, guaranteed deal, and hope he can come back from surgery to be near what he used to be. Use filler guys like Alay Soler and Dave Williams in the rotation until Mulder is ready (around June).

5. Sign Joel Pineiro and pray he can recapture the magic of 2002-2003, when he was not yet 25 years old and seen as a future Cy Young winner.

6. Sign Tony Armas, Jr. and hope he can start 30 games again.

7. Sign Mark Redman to a one-year deal. He just might pull a Jamie Moyer and turn into a remarkably effective lefthander.

8. Trade a bag of balls to Los Angeles for Odalis Perez, and give him a shot to win the #5 job. Could he be worse than Jose Lima, Jeremi Gonzalez, or Victor Zambrano?

9. Lock Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, and Jason Vargas in a room together for the entire week before pitchers and catchers report. Give them nothing but bread, water, and a TV set that shows clips of Jeremy Bonderman’s and Justin Verlander’s 2006 season. Perhaps one or two of the three will absorb the subliminal message and have a lights-out spring training.

10. Assemble Ron Darling, Tom Seaver, David Cone, and Jerry Koosman in the Port St. Lucie bullpen. Show them a copy of the contracts given to Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, and Barry Zito. Explain that they only have to pitch 5-6 innings per start these days. Have Jerry Grote ready behind the plate while these four men knock each other over to get to the mound. Last man standing gets a crack at the rotation.

It’s official: the San Francisco Giants owner and GM are on crack. They’ve signed Barry Zito to a 7-year, $144M contract.

Apparently the Giants didn’t notice that they were the only team going over 4-5 years / $75M … so in essence, they bid against themselves.

And apparently they didn’t learn from the many, many, similarly stupid long-term contracts doled out to pitchers that have blown up in owners’ faces since the advent of free-agency — starting with the 10-year deal given to Wayne Garland and most recently the 4-year deal Carl Pavano signed with the Yankees (gee, four years sounds short to anyone outside the Yankee organization).

And apparently they didn’t look at Barry Zito’s stats since 2002, or they may have noticed that Zito has been on a downward spiral since winning the AL Cy Young Award. Most likely, agent Scott Boras left the 2003-2006 stats out of the presentation booklet.

Way to go, Giants! The only team dumb enough to give a convict $21M for another year of public relations damage control (again, when no one else was bidding), proves that the Barry Bonds signing was no fluke — they really ARE that stupid!

As a Mets fan, I may sound bitter at our team not getting its primary free-agent target. However, I’m not so upset about missing out on Zito as I am about the utter lack of responsibility and sheer stupidity on the part of the Giants. It’s understood that MLB is swimming in money right now, and Zito wouldn’t be getting the dough if the cash wasn’t there. What bothers me to no end is the Giants’ lack of negotiation tact, which has so tilted the market that it makes the Chicago Cubs’ behavior resemble sanity, and their willingness to overvalue mediocrity.

Believe me, I understand that the owners have heaps of millions to spend — I just don’t see that kind of money going to a player of Barry Zito’s caliber. If Sandy Koufax is on the market, fine. Roger Clemens, sure. But does anyone really believe Barry Zito is equal to Roger Clemens?

Furthermore, MLB teams had Scott Boras on the ropes, and the Giants not only gave him a standing 8-count, they pulled him back into the ring and gave him a Coke. After losing two battles with the Boston Red Sox, and being unable to initiate a bidding war between the Mets and Rangers, the superagent was suddenly looking penetrable and vulnerable. In one swift stroke, Boras has been empowered once again to obliterate logic from free-agent signings. The King has returned to the building, folks.

Oh, and so much for Barry Zito’s touching article in SF Gate last week, and his desire to hook up with “… an owner who sees eye-to-eye with me in my goal to lead a team to multiple World Series championships”. Take a look, Barry — the Giants are built for 2007, with Mr. Bonds as the centerpiece. That is, if Bonds isn’t thrown in jail by the FBI first. Supposedly, the Giants were “going in a new direction” — presumably away from Bonds — and rebuilding with youth. Well, that idea lasted about five minutes, as the Giants brought back 35-year-olds Ray Durham and Steve Kline, and added “youngsters” such as Bengie Molina, Ryan Klesko, Rich Aurilia, and Dave Roberts. Oh, they do have Matt Cain, and Pedro Feliz won’t turn 32 until the second week of the season, so I suppose they’re built for “multiple championships”.

Good luck and good riddance, Mr. Zito. You probably wouldn’t have been able to handle New York anyway.

With the Texas Rangers’ recent notification that Barry Zito has until this weekend to accept their contract offer, two things could happen as a result: 1. the real bidding will begin immediately; or 2. Zito and agent Scott Boras will wait as long as necessary for a “mystery team” to emerge.

The latter option is more likely, unless a blockbuster deal occurs quickly. The current bidders against the Mets are the Giants and the Mariners, and neither team is equipped to handle Boras’ demands — at least, not at this time. The Giants first need to finalize the Barry Bonds deal — which supposedly includes deferred funds — and the Mariners need to trade at least one or both of their least tradeable players.

In the meantime, trades and free-agent signings are consuming the few available arms left in a shallow market.

While the Mets are smart to sit back and wait for the Zito thing to run its course, they’d be foolish to stand by idly. Starting pitching is still a weakness on the club, and the Mets do need to add a few more arms to the mix — regardless of whether they sign Barry Zito. However, the clock is ticking, and as we get closer to the mid-February reporting date for pitchers and catchers, more good arms will be scooped up. While Zito bides his time, the Mets need to make a few acquisitions.

Looking at the free-agents still on the market, there are still a few pitchers worthy of at least a spring training invite, if not a one-year contract. With the Rangers dropping out of the Zito sweepstakes, they’ll likely set their sights on Mark Mulder — who would be much cheaper but the Mets have not shown much interest. Which is strange, because he fits the bill as a potential front-end starter, if healthy. Another lefthander, Mark Redman, had a winning record for a lousy Kansas City Royals team, has been curiously ignored by the market. Surely he’s worth at least an ST invite. Tomo Ohka is also out there, and might be worth considering. If the Mets prefer someone more youthful, the 25-year-old Jerome Williams is the youngest free agent pitcher still available, and while his career has gone downhill since winning 10 games in 2004, he’s still young and talented.

Then there’s the non-tendered Joel Pineiro, one of those enigmas with “great stuff” who hasn’t fulfilled expectations. You can consider him the righthanded Oliver Perez. Sure, the last thing Rick Peterson needs is another project, but like Perez, Pineiro could potentially develop into a middle- or top-of-the-rotation starter. In fact, he was a front-end starter as recently as 2003, so he’s capable — maybe ten minutes with the Jacket can help him recapture the magic.

Similar to Pineiro is Tony Armas Jr., a righthander who was the Mike Pelfrey of the Montreal Expos organization back in 2000, and in fact was their Opening Day starter in 2003. Myriad arm problems have stunted his development, but he has shown flashes of brilliance when healthy. He might be worth a one-year deal, with the understanding that he could end up in AAA for the year. He’s a longshot, but is still young and is certainly a more worthwhile investment than, say, Jose Lima.

If Omar Minaya doesn’t sign one of the above-mentioned pitchers — and I’d be surprised if he didn’t offer an ST invite to at least Armas — then you have to figure that one of the following:

1. Omar’s putting all his eggs in one basket – for Zito
2. Omar has a deal in the works that we don’t know about
3. The Mets are ready to give Aaron Heilman another shot at the rotation
4. Jose Lima is coming back

My feeling is that Omar is too smart to put all his eggs into a basket that might not be delivered until Easter. And I’m hoping to god that LimaTime! is over for good. That leaves #2 and #3 as viable options — though a trade seems unlikely for a few reasons.

First, I don’t see the Mets making a trade for anything but a front-end starter — it wouldn’t make sense to trade away talent to bring in another back-end guy. However, there aren’t many (if any) front-end starters on the block. Further, any that appear to be available — Danny Haren, Rich Harden, Jake Peavy, for example — would almost certainly require that Mike Pelfrey and/or Philip Humber be included in any deal, in addition to Heilman and probably Lastings Milledge. My feeling is that Pelfrey and Humber will stay put — unless Billy Beane reduces his demand to include one or the other (and not both) in return for Haren. Hopefully, we won’t see the farm being dealt away for Harden (who has health issues) or Joe Blanton (a mediocre starter whose stock soared thanks to a 16-win, Trachsel-like season).

Minaya has mentioned before that he’s comfortable with his pitching staff the way it is currently constructed, and he does have flexibility. There are a lot of “ifs” in the plan however, as much depends on the progress of John Maine and Oliver Perez — two starters who often have a hard time getting past the fifth inning. With Brian Bannister removed from the equation, you have to think that someone else will be thrown into the starting rotation mix for no other reason than to provide depth. After seeing 13 pitchers start a game in 2006, and having two guys over 40 anchoring the top of the rotation, it’s safe to assume the Mets will stockpile as many arms as they can to get through 2007 — with or without Barry Zito.

According to the Star-Telegram, owner Tom Hicks emailed Scott Boras with the news that Barry Zito has until this weekend to accept the Rangers’ contract offer.

Hicks is quoted to have written:
“We’ve made a very strong offer. If we don’t have agreement with his agent by this weekend, we will pursue other alternatives.”

Kudos to Mr. Hicks, who was getting played by Boras since November. The Rangers did indeed make a very fair and strong offer, and deserve to get some kind of answer. Why should Texas wait around for someone else to make a better offer? Either Zito wants to play for the Rangers, or he doesn’t.

So it appears that the Mets will be bidding against themselves come Monday, as the Rangers were the only participating team that had the resources to put up a fight.

While the Mariners continue to insist on being part of the game, they still only have $5M to play with under their strict budget. They’ll be lucky to sign Steve Trachsel with that kind of money, never mind Barry Zito. Recent reports that they’re looking to move Adrian Beltre and/or Richie Sexson to free up dough are encouraging to Seattle fans, but unrealistic. It sounds like a great idea, except for one catch: nobody wants Beltre, and the punchless Mariners can’t afford to trade away a run producer like Sexson (remember, this is a team that just acquired Jose Vidro to be their DH).

The other pretenders in the Zito Sweepstakes are the San Francisco Giants, who are tapped out after giving future con Barry Bonds a $21M deal. Supposedly, Bonds is willing to defer most of the money, but do the Giants really want to have so much future debt to obtain Zito?

Boras is waiting for the $100M offer that he claims his client is worth. So far, there is no mystery team waiting in the wings, despite whispers from the Bronx and Anaheim.

As Vin Scully says, “pull up a chair … we’re going to be here a while … “

Brian Cashman couldn’t speed dial his West Coast comrades fast enough, upon hearing Randy Johnson muse melancholy on the attributes and importance of being near family. Randy had just lost his brother, it was the holidays, and how else would a man feel under the circumstances?

Cashman, however, is going full throttle to move the Big Unit with the no trade clause, as Johnson has been more of a Big Albatross than the big-game ace that was supposed to lead them to multiple World Championships.

It was kind of like having a big old refrigerator stored in the back corner of your basement — in the way, of little use other than maybe keeping a few six-packs cold. To get rid of it, you have to coax it out of the corner, move a lot of stuff, and open a path to the stairs. The stairs … gosh even if you can get the thing to the foot of the stairs, how are you going to get the old clunker UP the steps? And even if you do manage to get it up there, who is going to come by and take it away?

That, in many ways, was Randy Johnson for the last year and a half. A large, immovable, underperforming appliance that was just taking up space. Very useful at one time, but not anymore.

But two things happened on the way to the scrap heap: the market for mediocre pitching went through the roof, and Randy Johnson decided he wanted to be near his family. His $16M salary might seem exorbitant until you realize it’s only for one year. In this market of four- and five-year commitments, that’s a bargain.

From the Yankees’ point of view, this is a window of opportunity to dump one of their most underachieving acquisitions of the past ten years (only in the Bronx can a 17-8 pitcher be a disappointment). Johnson would have been traded within ten minutes of his “trade request”, but Brian Cashman actually needs time to field a bevy of competitive offers. For example, the Diamondbacks are supposedly offering their starting third baseman Chad Tracy, who had a down year in 2006 but is only 26 and an All-Star in the making. Rumor has it that the Padres will offer Scott Linebrink, who would be a boon to the Yankees’ rebuilding bullpen. And now the Dodgers have entered the fray, perhaps dangling some of their can’t-miss prospects.

So how does the shopping of Randy Johnson affect the Mets?

The New York newspapermen are speculating that the move of Johnson’s contract means the Yankees will make a push for Barry Zito. Personally, I think these pundits drank too much egg nog. Zito never was on the Yanks’ radar, and doesn’t fit into their overall plans. Cashman has publicly stated that he’s looking to trim the Yankee payroll, not add to it, and there is no way he’s going to pony up a 5- or 6-year commitment to a regressing pitcher after the Carl Pavano debacle. Remember, the Yankee scouts were high on Pavano — and none are high on Zito. If the Red Sox had not spent all their money on Daisuke Matsuzaka, and instead entered the Zito sweepstakes, then the Yanks might enter the bidding just for spite. But the way things look, clearing Big Unit’s salary will be done for three reasons: one, to remove the albatross; two, to maybe fortify the bullpen or farm system; and three, clear some dough in case Roger Clemens comes out of retirement in mid-June.

So, although trading Johnson won’t affect the Mets’ pursuit of Barry Zito, it could make an impact on any trades the Mets might make. For example, as was stated above, the Padres may deal Linebrink — which would make them suddenly receptive to deals involving Aaron Heilman (who they view as a possible starter) and/or Oliver Perez (who they see as a reliever). In other words, the Jake Peavy talks could reopen.

Should the Dodgers be sincere in their pursuit of the Big Unit (actually, they probably just want to keep him away from the Padres), they would have a logjam in the starting rotation, which has already added Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf to holdovers Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley, and Brad Penny. Penny has been the one shopped around after a despicable second half, and could be offered to the Mets if Johnson joins LA. Though, I’m not too fond of Penny’s attitude and hope he comes nowhere near Shea, except as an opponent.

Less likely is a deal with the Diamondbacks, should they bring Randy back to Arizona. Their ace Brandon Webb is going nowhere (except to the Yankees, if they throw in A-Rod in the Johnson deal), but Omar Minaya could probably pry away Livan Hernandez. It wouldn’t be an earth-shattering move, but Livan has always been a horse of an innings-eater, and like his half-brother Orlando, manages to rise to the occasion in big games.

What’s most likely to happen? D’Backs are desperate to bring Randy back, and the Big Unit would prefer to return to his home in Arizona. If indeed the Diamondbacks are offering Chad Tracy, the Yankees would be crazy not to accept the deal, as Tracy would fit right in as their starting first baseman and make Jason Giambi the full-time DH. If the Tracy reports are not true, then a Padres package that includes Linebrink would seem to most suit the Yanks’ needs.

However it turns it, we’ll see a clean and speedy end to the Randy Johnson Situation, which may in turn spark another move or two. It should be an interesting story to watch unfold.

The Chicago White Sox pulled a page out of the New York baseball spin book, drumming up unreal interest for an unknown quantity, then turning it into something else. Usually, though, the Mets will flip an Alex Escobar and Billy Traber for Roberto Alomar, or the Yankees will deal Jason Anderson for Armando Benitez.

No, instead of trading hype for established star, the White Sox traded Brandon McCarthy for more suspects … er, prospects. The seemingly untouchable McCarthy — the guy whose spot in the rotation was paved to and earmarked as a result of the departure of Freddy Garcia — has now bee dealt to the Texas Rangers for 2003 first-rounder John Danks, reliever Nick Masset, and Jacob Rasner. Essentially, the ChiSox obtained a lefthanded McCarthy in Danks, a guy who should be ready to contribute in 2008 — after Mark Buehrle and/or Jon Garland leave the team via free agency or trade.

This trade directly affects the Mets on two planes. First, it may well represent a white flag on the part of Texas in its pursuit of Barry Zito. Oh sure, getting a young, cheap, well-regarded pitcher should make the Rangers stronger, and would not affect their pursuit of Zito financially, and it might show Zito that Texas is serious about contending. However, it may also signal that the Rangers are not going to budge on their offer to Zito, which has been reported to be in the same 5-year/$75M range as the Mets’. Understanding that an equal offer means Zito goes to New York, Rangers GM Jon Daniel needed to find a more creative way to bolster his pitching staff.

The second way this affects the Mets, is in that GM Kenny Williams most likely is done dealing starting pitching, having already sent away the aforementioned Garcia for another young question mark, Gavin Floyd. Unless the White Sox are really high on the possibility of Danks and Floyd being ready to make significant contributions in 2007, they’ll probably stand pat from here on in to spring training. Though they might still consider trading Buerhle, Garland, and Vazquez, it would have to be for a Major League bat, in addition to a prospect along the lines of Mike Pelfrey. The Mets are not likely to trade Pelfrey and probably don’t have the bat the ChiSox are looking for.

So, on the one hand, the possibility of Barry Zito becoming a Met has just become more likely, with the Rangers all but announcing that they’ve gone to another avenue and made their highest bid. On the other hand, if Zito signs elsewhere, the Mets may have lost a trading partner for starting pitching — or at least, their main potential partner’s price has just gone up.

I don’t see the Mets trading away prospects for Garland or Vazquez, but I can see them dealing for Buehrle, who is a legitimate innings-eater and a potential #1 or #2. Other than the White Sox, there aren’t too many teams with starting pitching surplus — though many times the biggest deals are the most surprising. For all we know, Omar Minaya is a phone call away from extracting Johan Santana from the Twins. Or maybe the Marlins are hot to rid themselves of their newfound convict. It wouldn’t be the first time a huge deal came seemingly out of nowhere.

One way or another, Omar Minaya will find another starter. This deal between the White Sox and Rangers may have made the target a little closer.

He couldn’t just go away quietly … no, it appears that Sammy Sosa is making a comeback.

A year after declining a $500,000, non-guaranteed contract from the Washington Nationals, Sosa claims that he will now accept such an offer in order to get back into the big leagues.

Maybe it’s seeing all the crazy money being thrown at career journeymen such as Gary Matthews, Jr. and Mark DeRosa, one-dimensional outfielders such as Juan Pierre, and glass Joes such as JD Drew. Maybe he’s looking to clear his steroid- and corked-bat-tarnished image. Maybe he’s bored. Or maybe he really misses the game.

Whatever the case, he’s attempting a comeback, and it will be interesting to see if anyone bites.

It’s not that he isn’t physically worth taking a chance on … after all, he’s the only guy to ever hit 60 homers in three different seasons. Even an aging Sammy Sosa is probably worth about 20-25 dingers as a DH somewhere.

The issue, of course, surrounds the steroids question. Did he or didn’t he? Does baseball want this can of worms reopened?

It’s apparent that Rafael Palmeiro will remain in hiding, and doubtful anyone would be willing to give him a job after making a joke of himself and probably committing perjury. Mark McGwire has remained silent since his retirement, through the infamous hearings, and continues to avoid the spotlight. Jose Canseco was blackballed a long time ago, and many believe Barry Bonds would have earned the same fate had the Giants not re-signed him a few weeks ago.

Now what about Sammy? If indeed he can get himself back into shape, have a good winter in the Dominican league, will someone take a chance? Not on his performance, but on his image?

Why this is of interest to Mets fans is obvious — Sammy holds a special place in Omar Minaya’s heart. Omar, after all, was the scout who discovered the skinny Sammy so many years ago on a Dominican sandlot. Also, Minaya holds no age discrimination, and he is always happy to give a flyer to an aging veteran — see Jose Lima, Bret Boone, and Jose Valentin, for example. In fact, there was a lot of talk of Sammy coming to Shea back in the offseason preceding 2005 — not so long ago. The Mets might be able use a power-hitting right-handed bat off the bench, backing up the lefty-hitting Shawn Green in right.

Frightening thought, isn’t it ?

Please Omar, keep your heart out of this decision. The Mets don’t need to add any headaches.

For the first time this offseason, Barry Zito has spoken at length regarding his present and future.

The article opens with mention of Zito’s hardworking offseason, and the fact that he’s already trimmed his body fat percentage “by 4.5 percent”. There are several direct quotes from Zito, specifically addressing his publicly perceived value — which he more than hints at being lower than it should be. The most telling quote:

“Everyone wants to talk about how I’m not a No. 1 starter or how I’m getting worse, just so they can save some money,” Zito said with a laugh, in response to reports out of New York the past several months. “I’d expect all that. I wouldn’t be surprised if teams are putting this out to their media to create a collective consciousness, saying why should he get this or that? Everyone wants to buy low and sell high. But all we want is market value, and that’s been set the past six-eight weeks.

“When you look at value, what’s more valuable — keeping another $20 million in the bank when you already have hundreds of millions of dollars, or getting a player of value? But let people panic, let them talk about me, say I suck. We’ll see where the chips land.”

OK Barry, let’s get something straight: $100M over 6 or 7 years is NOT the market, and NOT what you’re worth. Roy Oswalt is a better pitcher than you (or rather, he sucks less than you do), and he does not have that kind of contract. On the open market, he MIGHT. But you’re not as valuable as he is.

Zito does a very good job of sounding like the good guy, the guy whose reputation is getting bashed, when all he wants to do is get what’s coming to him. A real nice ploy, until you step back and take a look at who this person is, and what he is saying.

HIS JOB IS BASEBALL AND HE’S BEING OFFERED $75 MILLION TO PLAY IT.

Yet that’s not enough, if you listen to him.

I want just one bank clerk, account executive, plumber, computer professional, or other “regular guy” to think about the opportunity to make $15M a year to play baseball, then re-read Zito’s sob story.

There’s more in the article about how he’s working so darn hard to get into great shape, how he wants nothing more than to win a World Series championship, blah blah blah. This is all designed to make us feel like he is “the real deal”, or a “great competitor”, or “really dedicated”.

Let’s get serious, folks. If YOUR JOB is to play a professional sport, and you are being paid TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to do so, you damn well better be working your ass off in the offseason, with the goal of winning a championship. From the article you would think that Barry Zito is the hardest working man in baseball, and the only pitcher with the desire and fire to win a World Series.

Yes, he works hard. Yes, he’s competitive. Yes, he wants to win a World Series. Those qualities are the reason he is one of only 750 people in the world who play Major League Baseball. To stay among that elite group, you must work hard, you must be competitive — because there are another 20 million people trying to take your job.

Look, I think Barry Zito is a fine pitcher. At one time he was an excellent pitcher. But I also think he’s on a downslide, and a contract in the 5-year, $75M range is more than fair for a guy who has probably seen his best years, and who probably will be a 15-17-win, #2-type starter. If he were coming off his three best years, and not his three worst years, it would be a different story. If he wanted to get a $100M contract, he should have thought about his body fat percentage this time LAST year.

Maybe I’m a pessimist, or a conspiracy theorist, but I’m convinced this SF Gate article is purely contrived by the Scott Boras camp. Every sentence carefully spun to project Zito as any team’s ultimate addition, and well worth the $100M asking price. The timing of the article was impeccable. Why today? Why not last week, before Zito met with five teams? Why not next week? And at least one of the quotes — the Sandy Koufax reference — was intended to hit the Mets and their fans directly.

Also note the Boras-sounding tidbits sprinkled throughout the story, such as ” … one of baseball’s most durable pitchers — Zito has never missed a start …”. That one comes straight out of the Boras player profile folder. This is less a news article and more a negotiation ploy.

Don’t believe my theory? Consider that his eventual signing means MILLIONS of dollars to both Zito and his agent. When there is this much money at stake, do you really believe that anything that might affect negotiations would be left to chance? If so, you’ll probably be waiting for an old fat guy in a red suit to come down your chimney in a few days.

Go ahead, read the article, enjoy it, but don’t get all fired up and excited and start demanding that Omar get this deal done and pay Zito and Mr. Boras whatever they demand. Zito is still the same pitcher he was before this article: a solid, dependable #2 starter who may or may not be on the downside of his career.

And if he truly means the words he says in the article, particularly “what I’m looking for is an owner who sees eye-to-eye with me in my goal to lead a team to multiple World Series championships,” then he’d be crazy to even consider signing with a team that has never made the World Series (Rangers and Mariners), or the Giants, who are obviously built for one more year of Barry Bonds and then shifting to a rebuilding / youth movement.

Don’t believe the hype. The Mets will make a very fair offer, and it doesn’t need to be anywhere near nine digits — not when the other teams in the bidding are right around the same numbers. Make the 5/75 offer, maybe go to $80M, then “see where the chips land.”