Mets Decline Option On J.J. Putz

Good start..now hopefully they sign Calero and a couple of other guys to strengthen the BP

haha

"Well, the didn't putz around, did they? (cue drum fill)."

imagine the sound of the lonely cricket.

But... but... I thought he was supposed to be a big part of the "now dominant" Mets bullpen. I thought throwing a shitload of money and tons of prospects away to acquire relievers was a winning strategy?

First it was Beltran and Delgado, then it was Santana, and this year it was K-Rod and Putz. I can't wait to see what player(s) Mets fans are celebrating about the Mets overpaying for this offseason. My guess is Matt Holliday.

Been hearing talk that the Mets may be interested in Joel Zumaya. Think the Tigers are willing to trade him for the right price? When healthy he can be a big arm outta this Mets bullpen who throws gas. Being in a big stadium like Citi Field could benefit him as well. The right moves need to be made for the Mets to be competitive next season. With their counterparts getting all the glory, the Mets certainly have their backs up against the wall. If they make the right type of moves (Hudson, X-man Zumaya, Lackey) they should be in good shape!

I think this would be a great pickup for the Phillies if they could sign this guy. If he comes back to form he would be great insurance if Lidge's struggles continue and if not im sure he can at least be an average reliever for them.

I hope they go after Nady again to man 1st base. Then he and Murphy can split time at 1st which would give them both plenty of ABs while keeping them both healthy

"If the San Diego Padres do 2 of the following things next year, I will be a happy camper.
1. Sign J.J. Putz
2. Sign Rich Hill
3. Sign Daniel Cabrera
4. Trade Adrian Gonzalez"

If your a Padres fan why would you want Daniel Cabrera? There is no way he will be able to help out a ball club next year, this guy is going to need to spend some time working on his mechanics and his control in the minors.

Mets Positions of Need

* C *
* 1B *
* 2B *
* OF *
* Rotation *
* Pen *

My top 5 Candidates (via In-House, Trade, FA)

Catcher: Napoli, Barajas, Santos, Varitkek, Soto

First Base: Nady, Delgado, Atkins, Murphy, Johnson

Second Base: Hudson, Lopez, Castillo,

Outfield: Bay, Hart, Cameron, Pagan Ankiel,(great Corner OF arms if Ankiel gets signed w/ Frenchy in RF )

Rotation: Lackey, Lackey, Lackey, Lackey, Lackey

Bullpen: Valverde, Calero, Cordero, Feliciano, Parnell

With the exception of Putz, who was hurt and doing great up until he started feeling pain, how have any of them really underachieved?

I think Putz will be going to Atlanta considering Atlanta has already signed one BP arm in Proctor. Not too mention I feel Putz will be a nice cheap option for them. It will be interesting to see where Putz goes, I'm sure he can find a team sooner rather then later.

Putz is very interesting. Real curious to see how the market turns out for him.

i can understand turning down the option but if i was a team looking for bullpen help i would jump all over putz. i basically watched every mets game in the beginning of the year and there were a few games where putz actually was feeling good and he was absolutly filthy. injuries ruined his season but if he is healthy hes one of the best. basically a rich harden in the bullpen

and on the mets players thing beltran has been worth more than every penny. the delgado trade was a steal and k-rod was the best closer in the league in the 1st half of the season other than broxton. after castillo dropped the pop up in yankee stadium is where he struggled. and obviously if you have the money and your bullpen blows over 20 save opportunities the season before you are gona upgrade your bullpen. dont bash the mets now bc it didnt work out as expected. everyone in the begining of the season said it was the best 1-2 punch in baseball

Sorry, but not even Petco can fix Daniel Cabrera. I got to watch him live in Reno when he was with the Triple-A affiliate of Arizona, and it wasn't pretty. I was worried for my kids' safety in the stands.

i have a pretty reasonable solution to what the mets should do this offseason:

Sign Bay or Holliday (preferably holliday)

Sign Brandon Lyon or Kiko Calero

Trade Fernando Martinez, Brad Holt, Jeryus Familia and another prospect for a very good #2(Give me some possiblities who they can trade for with those prospects)

sign miguel olivo

Yet another nice option for the Phils to get that safety net for brad lidge, but question is would these guys be ok not being allowed to close or set-up for the phils. I think so becuz they want to win. but i also think that maybe if they get a nice reliever he should be a lefty (mike gonzalez, billy wagner) so if lidge doesnt scuffle or madson is still elctric setting up, they will have a good guy to get tough lefties out in case romero has trouble getting back.

"You think Beltran and Johan UNDERachieved? what planet are you living on, bro? KRod they got for half price, as stated earlier. And Delgado gave them pop at first base for a while, something Mets fans found out how valuable that was this past season."

When you have the highest payroll in the league for years on end, and consistently fail to come in first, or even get a WC spot, you must inevitably come to the conclusion that someone is underperforming. Santana won 13 last year. Beltran has averaged .281 with 25 HRs. KRod is paid $12M+ per, not exactly half-priced, unless good, but not great, closers are now getting $24M+. Delgado has averaged 26 per for the Mets, with bad defense.

They're not bad players, but hardly worth the combined ~$65M they get paid. At some point you need to kick back to examine who's coming up short.

Joey, and from 2006-2008 the mets won the most games in the NL.

If the Mariners were to sign Putz on a one year deal at say...4M + incentives, they will basically have directly gotten:
Franklin Guitierrez
Mike Carp
Jason Vargas
Endy Chavez
Garrett Olson
Makeil Cleto

and indirectly gotten:
Ian Snell
Jack Wilson
(Via Ronnie Cedeno deal, who came via Aaron Heilman deal)

for Luis Valbueno.

That would be ridiculous. I suppose that's one way to offset Bavasi's awful Eric Bedard for Adam Jones + Farm Deal.

For Luis

Great.. JJ Putz.. we didnt really lose any1 anyhow..

Mets wish list!

- Acquire a Top-tier pitcher thru either Fa( lackey) or thru trade( Zambrano.. only if the cubs take Beltran and Castillo).

- Sign Jason Marquis to fill the rotation.

- Signs Orlando Hudson if we can trade Castillo

- Trade for Adrian Gonzalez
* bye bye F. Mart, R. Delgado, Niese & Parnell.

- Acquire Bullpen Help; Hopefully Rafael Soriano & maybe Marte from NYY

Santana won 13 last year. Beltran has averaged .281 with 25 HRs. KRod is paid $12M+ per, not exactly half-priced, unless good, but not great, closers are now getting $24M+. Delgado has averaged 26 per for the Mets, with bad defense. - Joey

Santana is still considered one of the three best pitchers in the league (with Timmeh and Doc). He shut down early because of injury, hence the 13 wins.

Beltran is a five tool player. Plus, .281 with 25HRs are good. But don't forget his speed, and most importantly, his glove! I'd say worth every penny.

I take the half price thing back. What I meant is that Mets got him at a discount. He's still one of the best closers in the game. Had the team stayed healthy, and gave him save opportunities, his performance would have resembled the previous years with the Angels. It's a bunch of hypotheticals, I know, so we'll see how he pans out for the rest of his contract.

Delgado, again, totally a steal. Yes, defensive liability at times, but his big bat more than makes up for it in a lineup lacking in pop.

I think you have to give the Mets a mulligan for last season. In general, the fans of the team still has high faith in Johan, Beltran, and K-Rod.

''- Acquire a Top-tier pitcher thru either Fa( lackey) or thru trade( Zambrano.. only if the cubs take Beltran and Castillo).''

Carlos Zambrano for Carlos Beltran, AND we're dumping our starting second baseman as well? Man, no wonder Mets fans get called every name in the book on this website. Who in their right mind would do that?!?!?!?

Actually, most the people on this site are know-it-alls who play monday morning quaterbacks. The worst GM in baseball has more skill at his trade than all of us put together. Even the talking heads on sports news are full of it, if they were skilled enough to be a GM they would be. Omar Minaya is a smart guy who took some gambles; nothing ventured nothing gained. you win some and lose some. I think our team on paper looked like one of the best in MLB going into this season, but we got hit hard with injuries, and players not playing up to their abilities; In all cases (except Perez) you can't account for that. So suggest trades, speculate all you want, but when you insist that players or managers "suck" or don't know what they're doing and that you have all the answers you're only displaying your own ignorance.

Did i just read Beltran and Castillo for Carlos Zambrano?

I'm more of a Minaya supporter then most people you will find. Fact is, the team he put together sucked. Rant off topic all you want about how smart Minaya is relative to a regular man, or how great Alex Cora is at baseball compared to the average joe. That doesn't get you anywhere, because they aren't competing with you and I. The Mets, outside of about 6 or 7 players, were a team full of basically sub-replacement level players. Did I suggest that I had all the answers? No. All I said is that blaming Beltran, Delgado, and Santana for the Mets problems is pure idiocy. If you agree, then go ahead, join "Joey B" in his misguided rants about why it is Beltran's fault the Mets surrounded their 5 stars with players that are all below average major league baseball players. If you disagree, like I do, with the idea that it is Beltran's fault the Mets have sucked, then I am not sure what you were even getting at in the first place.

Nobody is playing monday morning quarterback either. Yes, the amount of injuries would have destroyed almost any teams chances, but the fact is, we had Ryan Church in RF to start the year, coming off a concussion, hoping his 150 AB's in 2008 would be the real him. They had Murphy starting in LF (and I loved Murphy, but they went in with no back up plan at all). Luis Castillo at 2B coming off a horrible year. JJ Putz, who I also like, coming off arm surgery, Brian Schneider, who is not an offensive player. They had Alex freakin Cora as the middle infielder backup when they knew he would get lots of playing time for Castillo, and as it turned out, Reyes. There were a ton of wildcards, it ends up the Mets had pretty much all of them go against them. However, as I read somewhere the other day, filling 15 out of you 25 roster spots with serious question marks and hoping for the best probably isn't the greatest strategy.

Would the Mets season have been different if they didn't all get hurt? Probably. Could they have competed for the NL East? I think they could have. But did they also do a terrible job building around their core, wasting those precious years when you got huge production out of Reyes and Wright for almost no money? Damn right they did, and now that Wright and Reyes are starting to get paid like the big guys, they will have to be even smarter about finding good secondary players, because they don't have the luxury of 2 of their top 3 players making a combined couple million anymore.

I love how every Mets post turns into stupid "ZOMG TRAYD BELTRAN" talk.

I don't get why everyone loves Alex Cora. His so-called clubhouse influence didn't translate into anything this year, so what's the point?

Xplosive, Mets fans are probably the most loyal, especially those who are on this site off a freshly ended season in which our neighbors just won the world series. If we weren't loyal fans, we'd just forget about baseball and pay more attention to basketball and football, but here we are. Also, look at how well Citi Field still sold this season dispite the high ticket prices and the season being over in July. Why don't you try knowing what you're talking about before you talk? Just because we complain about stuff doesn't make us disloyal.

I agree with xplosive...I'm a diehard Met fan and its not hard to see how loyal/disloyal fans can be to their team. Instead of supporting the players we have, a ton of Met fans (that i've been around) are so pessimistic and front running it gets to be ridiculous.

Yeah I see what you're saying Like I definitely don't appreciate the fans who STILL want to dump Castillo for nothing because he dropped ONE pop-up. I think he's either a sell high candidate or a keeper due to his 2009 performance and heart/competitiveness.

I'm totally with you on Ryan Church too. I still root for him as a player. If he wasn't jerked around and taken out of the lineup while batting over .500, he might've built some confidence and been a solid every day player.

Remember though that it's not only Met fans that hang their players out to dry. Remember Yankee fans last offseason? Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi were emasculated on this site.

Choudah-
Not even close.

Posted by: TheAntiRecruiter | November 06, 2009 at 03:51 PM

I really didnt think so..just throwin it out there...

Joey B, that's the point. Someone underachieved. BUT IT WASN'T THE BIG NAMES. There are more than 5 players on the Mets. It's the supporting cast that is frequently lacking in depth and talent. Santana has done his job, but starters 2-5 haven't. K-Rod did his job, but the rest of the 'pen didn't. Beltran and Delgado were great, but the pitching staff failed the Mets. You must have not paid one iota of attention to the Mets the past few years, take a look at their roster and payroll, and come to some BS conclusion.

"If the San Diego Padres do 2 of the following things next year, I will be a happy camper.
1. Sign J.J. Putz
2. Sign Rich Hill
3. Sign Daniel Cabrera
4. Trade Adrian Gonzalez

Posted by: sandiegoredsox | November 05, 2009 at 02:20 PM"

What did the Padres ever do to you?

Ok, for all the Met fans who want to get rid of Beltran, who do you want to play CF? Angel Pagan? Milton Bradley? Roger Cendeno? Lance Johnson??Shane Victorino and his grission???? Beltran is the BEST CF IN BASEBALL. Period. You can't trade him for Carlos freaking Zambrano!!!!! Stoooop this nonsense. I can't take it anymore. Why are we blaming Beltran and Johan Santana who was absolutely dominant until he got hurt when Tim Redding was our 5th starter, Alex Cora our utility man, and Fernando "6-4-3" Tatis our LF at one point?????? It drives me out of my mind.

You want to place blame, then place on the people who assembled the roster. I'm not necessarily a Minaya hater, he does some moves that completely puzzle me sometimes, but undoubtedly he deserves some blame for surrounding the core with a bunch of junk. Stop hating on Beltran, trading him would be absolutely beyond moronic. I wonder if some Mets fans even watch the games, let alone pay attention to the numbers. I'm not huge into Sabermetrics, but come on if you watched 3 innings of Mets baseball last year you could tell how great Beltran is.

"nrmax88. all hindsight. My point, (not at all off topic) where do you (any of us) get off "blaming" anybody? the only question mark is your baseball expertise. The management are privy to all kinds of information about the players we merely speculate on, and after the fact aspouse our infinant wisdom about what should have been done. this site is about trade rumors, I often read your comments rather than comment myself because most the time it's constructive and interesting. maybe it's the Yankee Phillie series or something but the level of discourse on this site has plumited for Mets fans. I think our team has the worst fans in baseball when it comes to loyalty."

It isn't hindsight. Not even a little bit. This was all common knowledge when the season started. I don't understand how you can question my loyalty to the Mets, without even knowing me, because I try to objectively look at the team and what is wrong with it. Do you not want us to discuss baseball here, because we are not GM's? News flash, the point of this blog is for us to discuss baseball.

Where do any of us get off blaming anybody? What kind of insanely moronic question is that? We are fans, of course we will look at what went wrong when for the third straight year they fail to make the playoffs despite WS aspirations and the highest payroll in the league.

I also agree with the fact that our fans are totally stupid, and have no loyalty. You want to know what illustrates that the most? When these disloyal idiots start to blame Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and David Wright for the Mets awfulness instead of the other (this is for you xplosive)...... absolutely amazing baseball players like Cora, Franceour, Santos, Jeremy Reed, (you know, guys who suck. I can't say they suck because xplosive will rant for 10 minutes about how they are all better baseball players then we will ever be, which, again, means nothing, because they are horrible when you compare them to the men they compete against) that is what shows disloyalty. Just sticking with your team, hoping for the best, and acting like everything is peachie doesn't mean you are loyal. I have watched every Met game for pretty much 5 years now(thank you tivo). Been a fan since I was old enough to understand the game, I really couldn't care less what you think about my loyalty.

Fact is, the Mets front office has screwed them, by not taking advantage of having Wright and Reyes controlled for nothing all this time. It is like having two supertstars who don't even count against the payroll, they were making peanuts.

The main thing I don't understand though is the way you are acting as if the Mets were some sure thing world series contender this year, like this was common knowledge. You keep going back to that point over and over. It wasn't. Maybe Matt Cerrone and his team of monkeys told you this, I don't know, but there were Met fans everywhere questioning the roster construction of this team well before the first pitch was ever thrown in spring training. Just because you thought they would be great doesn't mean you were right, and it doesn't mean that anybody who thinks the Mets can be put together better, or anybody who says Alex Cora sucks (HE SUCKS!!!!) isn't a loyal Met fan. It just means we can look at things objectively.

"Murphy is there and has played good Defense."

Yes because defense is the one ultimate tool a first baseman must have. I can't believe I have to say this again, as a first baseman Murphy is the worst regular in baseball. If the Mets want to improve, get a real first baseman.

The Mets had a lot of failures last year and it can't only be blamed on injuries. The pitching staff was an overall disaster after Santana, there was a massive lack of power, Wright had a disappointing year (yes, disappointing is a word to use when your slugging third baseman goes from 30+ HR power to 10). Right now the Mets do have enough to trade for the right pieces but they have to be smart about it but I don't see Minaya as being able to do that. He gets blinded by a single problem and forgets that there are several. Last offseason Minaya focused mostly on the pen because it let the Mets down in the stretch, he didn't do much about the rotation despite everyone in baseball knew they needed a starter. Simply put, Minaya's talent as a GM is basically coming from having a big checkbook, not looking for the right players.

Jose..... it bewilders me that for what seemed like a few solid months we didn't agree on anything. Now it seems like you are among a handful of other Met fans who can be counted on for something logical.

Well, actually the one positive thing going on in the last couple of years has been the development of their previously non-existent farm system. That really couldn't be further from the problem. Their scouts and development team have done a good job. What they really need is a financially savvy man who can find bargains. We need a guy who is fiscally responsible, and again, doesn't spend 2 million on Alex Cora. The Mets farm is actually improving each year, each month really, as their short season young guys start to graduate up to AA and AAA.

I agree that the Mets need to spend more money in the draft, but that has nothing to do with their scouting team, that is just more Wilpons being cheap/not wanting to disturb the "slotting system" that Bud Selig has "suggested".

Their farm system does have quite a few budding layers in there. On saturday, Ike Davis will be playing in the Arizona Fall league baseball game. And for everyone that wants Gonzo, you have to include Davis in the deal, and not for nothin so far in the minors hes been looking very good. I hope the Mets make a good choice with their top 10 pick in the draft.

nrmax, I'm not sayin fans shouldn't be critical of the team, because God know I am, but its irritating to see comments from so called fans wanting to trade the best players the Mets have and blaming the lost sseasons on them. And even though I know for a fact that a lot of the Mets player suppporting cast like Frenchy, Cora, Reed, Hernandez etc.. suck balls, when the season starts if they still on the team i just hope they can contribute in some form for the Mets to be successful. Thats all.

Good move locking up Pelfrey. Now we have our 5th starter in place. Now all we need is 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

I might be in the minimum, but the Mets do not need Holliday or Bay. The way the Stadium is, they need a player who will spread the ball around and not hit for power. Matsui for example will be a perfect fit in City Field, a guy with some speed, but do not care about homers. If a person like Holliday goes into City Field, he will probably be a .260-.270 hitter.

Might be something the Angels should look into, after all our bullpen was pretty bad this year

I hope they go after Nady again to man 1st base. Then he and Murphy can split time at 1st which would give them both plenty of ABs while keeping them both healthy

Posted by: PhukdaPhils | November 05, 2009 at 02:20 PM

i really hope this happens. i mean, murphy and nady have to combine for at least half of ryan howard's offensive production.

"the red sox need to sign putz. like a 1yr deal,5 million or less."

Don't need, but Theo likes reclamation arms. Especially if they don't resign Saito.

so xplosive, just to cut through all of your BS, where you keep avoiding everything, I will just ask you point blank....

You feel, that for me to be a loyal fan, I must blindly approve of every move the Mets make, every bad player they bring in, and I am not allowed to complain about the blatantly flawed process the Mets use to build their team?

"nrmax, I'm not sayin fans shouldn't be critical of the team, because God know I am, but its irritating to see comments from so called fans wanting to trade the best players the Mets have and blaming the lost sseasons on them. And even though I know for a fact that a lot of the Mets player suppporting cast like Frenchy, Cora, Reed, Hernandez etc.. suck balls, when the season starts if they still on the team i just hope they can contribute in some form for the Mets to be successful. Thats all."

I completely agree. The whole reason that I got into this argument was because of a bunch of idiots calling Beltran overpaid. For some reason, xplosive was offended by me sticking up for Beltran. I still don't know what his argument is. I guess he also feels Beltran should be traded, which is ironic because he is the one crying about how we have to support every single player on the Mets, and every move they make, or we aren't "loyal" fans. He also assumes that anybody complaining about the team the Mets built was happy with the team before the season started, as if the preseason 2009 Mets were a team without flaws. That is the main thing I really don't get. How come all of your arguments accuse me of after the fact criticizing, when there are a large group of Met fans very concerned about the construction of the team before a pitch was ever thrown.

And no, xplosive, money obviously does not equal victory. But it would be fair to assume that when you spend the most money in the league, and you have two superstar players on the roster making less then 10 million combined, you should be able to expect the rest of the money to be spent wisely.

I still am not entirely sure what your argument is here. My original sentiment was for the guy to stop foolishly blaming Beltran and Delgado for the Mets struggles, and to instead assign the blame to the people building the team and to the fact that the Mets had a star core of Beltran, Reyes, Wright and Santana, and surrounded these guys with, for the most part, players that don't provide any more value then a replacement level player, and also for the most part, these players were severely overpaid for their sub replacement level production. What part of this do you have a problem with?

The quote about Alex Cora sucking balls was from somebody else, not from me, since we are on the subject of reading comprehension. However, you avoided the question again.

Where does approving of the direction the team is heading and loyalty to the team cross eachother paths? I have rooted for the Jets, Mets, Knicks and Rangers, even St Johns basketball forever. I'm loyal. If I wasn't I would have stopped following them a while back, God knows they have caused enough pain.

Again, I am still not quite sure why you picked an argument with me to begin with. My point never was to boast about being the biggest fan. My point was that, while being frustrated, and understandably so, it is foolish to pin the blame of the recent failures down to the few players who really contributed to them in a positive way. The main problem lies in that they are surrounded by replacement level players. Do you not agree?

Also ironic, since you asked me to keep the topic to baseball and stop with the sexual innuendos, I find it fascinating that you accuse Met fans of "having sand in their vaginas", which I in fact don't. I was rooting for the Yankees to win the world series. I even went as far as to say I wanted the Phillies and the Yankees to play. I wanted a ring for A'Rod, and I wanted to see Pedro pitch in the world series.

I don't want a last word, or a "win", I really just want to know what the beef was that you had with my original post. Do you disagree that the Mets problem is in the way the Mets fill the roles of their secondary players, and that the problem is not Reyes, Wright, Beltran, or Santana? The only issue I ever took with anybody in this topic was for assigning blame to the best players, calling them overpaid and basing this on the fact that the team hasn't made the playoffs, which as I have been trying to point out, is through no fault of any of the "core" guys, the blame there lies in the substandard complimentary players, and the front office that brought these guys in the be part of a championship team.

You know, on the topic of JJ Putz, I don't know if the Mets can afford the PR backlash of releasing a guy after he took in this prestigious award.....

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2009/11/6/1119702/2009-mets-gansta-and-grisson-awards#storyjump

reyes
beltran
bay
a-Gonzalez
wright
franceour
barajas/thole
castillo

santana
wolf
harden
pelfrey
perez
maine
niese
(no particular order)