Another season that came down to the last day for the New York Mets, that ended in disappointment and another year of playoff tickets for me to throw away. Here are some of Tony's Thoughts on how the Mets will approach the offseason.
2008 said goodbye to Shea Stadium, 2009 will say hello to Citi Field, probably the only reason I will keep my season tickets after the way the last 2 seasons ended.
GM Omar Minaya-He was heading into the last year of his deal and has already been rewarded with an extension? huh? Shouldn't Omar have to prove he can do more than spend the Wilpon's money? Make the Playoffs? He over paid Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez (when everybody knew he had a torn labrum) He traded for Johan Santana but only because the Red Sox and Yankees wouldn't give up prospects and give Johan the money he wanted. He signed Luis Castillo to a 4 year deal after having knee surgery that would take away his greatest asset his speed? He traded away Brian Bannister for hit and run driver A. Burgos. He refused to trade Milledge and Heilman for Dan Haren or Joe Blanton a few seasons ago? The only successful move I can think of during the Minaya era is the Ryan Church trade. He threw Willie Randolph under the bus for a team he built, I think the Mets should have made him wait until after this season to EARN an extension.
Manager Jerry Manuel-Manuel had his interim tag removed and was given a low cost deal that makes him expendable should the Mets struggle again. The Mets did play better once Manuel took over but, its hard for a team to relax and play good baseball when they know the manager (Randolph) could be fired if they lose. Manuel is guilty of the same bullpen abuse Randolph was, he uses almost all his guys every night, for one batter. Does he not realize that even though each pitcher may only throw a few pitches, it takes a toll on their arms to warm up every night? The Bullpen was not very good this season but their workload was definitely a factor.
1b C. Delgado-The Mets have already told Delgado they will pick up his 09 option which could be a bargain at 12 million if he plays more like he did from June-Sept and not like he did in April and May. Delgado will be a cheaper alternative than the 200 million plus it will take to sign Mark Texiera.
2b As mentioned above Luis Castillo is signed for another 3 seasons and hopefully will never have to play another game for the Mets. 08 saw the Mets so desperate that they used 38 year old D. Easley, all field, no hit A. Reyes and career AAA guy R. Martinez, who was their guy down the stretch. Well the good news is that the Mets have asked slick hitting LF Dan Murphy to learn 2b in the Arizona Fall League, Murphy was a 3b in the minors but was obviously blocked by one Mr. Wright. If Murphy can not make the switch, a name being thrown around is Orlando Hudson.
LF-Not even urinating on his hands could keep Moises Alou healthy in 08. LF saw the likes of Murphy, Endy"the catch" Chavez, Trot Nixon, Fernando Tatis and another 3b turned OF Nick Evans. A priority for the offseason is finding a power hitting LF most likely a right handed batter. One possible cheaper alternative would be Raul Ibanez, who is 37 (just the age Omar likes them) he keeps putting up solid numbers with little fanfare in Seattle. Ibanez would likely ask for a 3 year deal in the 10-14 million per season range, he could play LF this year then switch to 1b for 2010, and 11, after Delgado leaves, this option would allow the Mets to target LF Matt Holliday who will be a FA after 2009. Some other alternatives would be Manny Ramirez, Omar has a major man crush on the eccentric Manny, but new agent Scott Boras will want atleast a 4 year 100 million deal, and whats to say Manny's phantom knee injury doesn't rear its ugly head again. He quit on his team, and would not be a good example for the already easily distracted Jose Reyes. And can you imagine Manny in his pajama size uniform running around LF in Citi Field without the protection of the Green Monster? Another target would be On Base/HR Machine/Strikeout King Adam Dunn, He too can play LF this season and move to 1b but he is another lefty bat. Another aging star Minaya will like is Bobby Abreu, also a lefty. One other option is Met killer Pat Burrell who the Phillies may try to replace with Manny Ramirez.
Rotation-The Starters should be solid, Santana, Pelfrey and Maine provided his shoulder surgery went as well as expected. Pedro will be gone and proved he is no longer capable of giving more than 4 innings in the NL which means he is just about done. The Mets need to resign big game pitcher Oliver Perez, even if they give him 4 years, 60 million, he is a better value than an AJ Burnett, Derek Lowe, Ben Sheets or Andy Pettite, and if Carlos Silva got a 12 million a year deal , come on, Perez has some rough outings but he pitched gems in big games; Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, the last game of 08 was going well until he got into trouble with walks in the 5th, and he was pitching on 3 days rest. The Mets do need to find a 5th starter and the name on everyone's mind is CC Sabathia, but can the Mets really tie up 2 pitchers that will make 22+ million dollars per year? Would you even want CC after watching the Brewers let him throw something like 8 CGs down the stretch many over 130 pitches? He is not in good shape to begin with and is a good candidate for an elbow/shoulder explosion within the next 2 seasons. I would prefer the Mets to sign a veteran to pitch out of the 5 hole and hope that Jon Niese can be ready by midseason or make a trade at that time.
Bullpen-As I mentioned above, they were severely overworked but with the exception of Wagner there was no consistency in this group. Heilman should be traded, all these other teams value him as a potential starter and the Mets should get something while they can. Schoenweiss is awful, the Tigers were willing to trade the Mets LF Marcus Thames last season for him, betcha they were glad they kept Thames. When Wagner went down, so did the Mets season, Peter Gammons had a stat that showed if the Mets would have ended games after 8 innings, they Mets would have won the division by 8.5 games! Wagner is out for all of next season. This creates a desperate situation for the Mets at the backend of the bullpen, and plays right into the greedy hands of one K-Rod. The Angels seem likely to focus on resigning Big Tex and moving on at closer. The other teams with enough money to pursue K-Rod (Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs) already have closers. The Dodgers could be another suitor, but they have a much cheaper alternative in J. Broxton. Regardless the Mets need major rebuilding in the bullpen.
It will be interesting to see how the Mets attack the offseason, they will want to reverse their fortunes as they move into Citi Field and as always they will be competing for the back pages with the cross town Yankees who are poised to spend a lot of money after missing the playoffs for the first time in Derek Jeter's career.
