Wait...this isn't what I ordered.

If you could trade for a 30 year-old relief pitcher who posted a sub-3.00 ERA each of the last 4 years, would you make that deal?  If you could acquire a pitcher who had a WHIP less than 1.30 and a K/9 ratio over 10 in 3 of the last 4 years, would you bring him onto your team?  How about a veteran with a career ERA of 3.84 and a career WHIP of 1.25?

If you said yes to any of these deals, then you would have acquired Ramon Ramirez, Frank Francisco, and Jon Rauch, respectively.

Bringing those 3 pitchers aboard is exactly what GM Sandy Alderson did over the offseason.  So far, the returns have been a disappointment.  So much so, that Alderson is once again in the market for a relief pitcher to reinforce the late innings, and possibly even close until Francisco gets back.

MetsToday reader “Andy” sent me this email:

Joe,

I’d love to see your take on the millions of dollars K-Rod lost so that Scott Boras could have his cut on his next contract. Looks like $5.5M less for K-Rod and $800,000 more for Boras, right?

Funny, Francisco Rodriguez became

As most expected, Jose Reyes left Flushing. He signed a 6-year, $106M deal with the Miami Miracle Marlins.

Guess what? Fred Wilpon was right: Reyes didn’t get “Carl Crawford money”. Good for Fred; I bet he’s laughing his way all the way to the bank soup line.

According to various reports, the Mets

When Jason Isringhausen walked off of a softball field and into spring training in Port St. Lucie, expectations were low. After all, the 38-year-old hadn’t thrown a big-league pitch in almost two years — and even then, it was only 8 innings before blowing out his elbow and undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery. Izzy himself wasn’t necessarily convinced he could pitch in MLB again — he had resigned himself to playing recreational softball after a brief comeback attempt in AAA during 2010. But nonetheless, he gave it the old college try. And who were the Mets to deny any pitcher entrance to their spring training complex, much less one with Isringhausen’s resume and previous history with the organization?

It was a longshot, and if Izzy could just make it back on a big-league mound it would make for a fabulous feel-good story. As it turned out, Izzy gave the Mets and we fans much more than that.

In case you missed it, the Mets completed their trade with the Brewers — the one that sent Francisco Rodriguez to Milwuakee. In for K-Rod, the Mets received two pitchers who did not fit into the plans of the Brewers, nor the teams they were with immediately prior. But that doesn’t mean they can’t fit into the Mets plans.

Before we discuss the two hurlers the Mets received, it may be fun to look at some of the names thrown around in the comments section of the July post announcing K-Rod’s departure, and in the story and comments of Dan Capwell’s PTBNL article. Seems we all were way off, because the two players the Mets received were

Brewers 11 Mets 9

It was one of the most exhilarating and exciting comebacks of the year for the 2011 Mets.

And then it wasn’t.

In many ways, it was the defining moment of the season — for both the team and for Mets fans.

Prior to being traded, Francisco Rodriguez made it known to Terry Collins that he wanted to eliminate the $17.5 vesting option in his contract. Rodriguez, according to the NY Times, felt it was interfering with how the Mets were using him as a closer. In a non save situation a few weeks prior to the trade, K-Rod began warming up, expecting to be brought into the game, and was upset with the implication that the Mets had not used him to avoid activation the vesting option.

A deal between the Mets and Rodriguez could not be worked out, but Alderson was able to convey to other teams that Rodriguez would be willing to forgo the option, making it much easier for the Mets to trade him.

The Mets completed a deal within 48 hours. In the next few days, Rodriguez agreed to restructure his contract, taking out the vesting clause and making the option a mutual one. Rodriguez was also paid an additional $500,000.

Part of Rodriguez’s motivation for getting rid of the option was that, at 29, he can probably get more total money with a longer contract after this season.

K-Rod also switched agents in the middle of trade talks to Scott Boras.

Since the trade, K-Rod has not finished any games for the Brewers but has been the eighth inning set up man for John Axford.

NOTE: This is a post by new MetsToday contributor Dan Capwell. Please direct your comments to him. -Joe

The last time the Mets traded an overpriced closer to a contending team for 2 PTBNL, they ended up getting Chris Carter and Eddie Lora from Boston for Billy Wagner. That deal failed on several levels, which is another blog post in itself. Suffice to say however that the K-Rod to Milwaukee deal stirred those memories and evoked thoughts of “here we go again” among many of the Met faithful.

Then Sandy Alderson ended an interview the WFAN’s Joe and Evan with a cryptic comment that one of the two PTBNLs had already been successful at the major league level but was currently back in Milwaukee’s farm system. So, who might this player be? Well, a quick glance at the roster of the Nashville Sounds (The Brewer’s AAA team) provides several names that might fit the description: