The Mets completed their deal with free agent reliever Chad Cordero, who will likely pitch in Triple A Buffalo. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement and Andy Martino of the New York Daily News noted that the deal had become official (via Twitter).
Cordero had labrum surgery two years ago and battled his way back to the Majors with the Mariners in June. Optioned back to Triple A on July 15th, Cordero elected free agency. It appears that Cordero will be arbitration-eligible after the season, as he'll still be short of six years service time.
Rosenthal points out that Mets GM Omar Minaya originally drafted Cordero 20th overall as Expos GM in 2003. Cordero went on to save 128 games for the Expos/Nationals before his injury.
Cordero, 28, struggled in his short big league stint but posted a 4.12 ERA, 10.1 K/9, and 1.8 BB/9 in 19.6 Triple A innings this year. The Mets scouted Kevin Gregg and Scott Downs over the weekend, but Cordero is a more affordable option.
Labrum surgery usually equals finished. Ask Wade Miller.
Its hard to comeback from that kinda surgery and put up decent numbers like he used too.
Does Buffalo need a closer? That’s the only proper justification for this deal.
Clearly, Omar and the boys are panicking already. Just pack it in and play the young guys instead of bringing in guys who are clearly finished to try and salvage a season that can’t be salvaged.
The Mets are, once again, stunting the development of their young players (see: Thole) to try to stay in a race against two teams that are much better than they are.
wrong, the other two teams are not better. You missed the point here. The race is salvageable, however not by Omar Minaya. He has done NOTHING to help this team around the deadline the last 3 years. He got lucky with Oliver Perez and then counteracted his good trade with a ridiculously terrible contract to him. This team needs a Dan Haren or Roy Oswalt, or a bat that will ACTUALLY make a difference. They should get Snyder and Haren from Arizona, now thats a deal, not Chad Crapdero.. They also need a NEW GM.
He had his moments in Seattle and he definitely made some progress towards his old form. You never know, maybe the Mets can coax something good out of him. We wish him well.
What moments were those, exactly? I saw about every outing this guy had in Seattle and he pretty bad in all of them. No command, flat fastball, never nearing 90 mph, below average secondary stuff. Too bad. I was excited to see the guy make a comeback but it was pretty evident from the get go he’s not a good pitcher anymore.
This Nats fan wishes him well too. Chief was probably the favorite member of the Nats in 2005 and Bowden did not handle his departure after possibly Frank Robinson induced burnout particularly well.
Great, another pitcher who had injuries, Are the Mets getting kick backs from the medical profession?
Omar and Chad go way back to their days together with the Expos…
Has-been
YUUUUH. Mets aren’t making the playoffs anyway. 2013.
Looks like a low risk option here, put him in AAA until he can recover fully from his surgery and prove he can handle the bigs and maybe you get the nasty Chad Cordero who was a dominant closer instead of the deadbeat middle reliever.
He’s already had almost 3 years to “recover” from his shoulder issues. After watching him in Tacoma and Seattle he might be replacement level at best. He certainly looked awful in Seattle. Sad to say but he isn’t a shadow of what he used to be.
Velocity significantly down from what I’ve heard and he barely had enough velocity to get by to start. I think it’s a long haul for Cordero at this point, and this is as much a favor to guy who took less money upon signing way back when he was an Expos GM to provide a more comfortable AAA situation than it is about helping the Mets this year.
He wouldnt go down to AAA in Seattle what makes you think he’ll opt for AAA with the Mets? This guy is looking to lock in an MLB situation but he’s been bad for Seattle… who knows, he might turn into a Carlos Silva or any number of ex-Mariner players/pitchers. Moyer, Pinero, Thorton, list goes on…
at what point does shrude become exposed as cheap and occasionally lucky? I have a hard time putting it all on Omar knowing that Jeff Wilpon has bee taking a “larger hand in things” translation; dolling out pennies like manhole covers.
Great first sentence! I agree with you: at some point, you gotta think to yourself the Mets are just making cheap deals in hopes that one (or more) of them turn out to be stellar additions and they look like geniuses.
He says, “well my dumpster diving for position players got me Fernando Tatis with value, maybe I’ll get one for the pitching side too!” [Or maybe he’ll end up like his dumpster diving successor Bowden.]
Never understood why philly wasnt all over signing this guy..
Nationals were dumb never trading this guy when he had value back in 2006-7. They kept thinking he had the value he did in 2005 when that wasn’t the case anymore.
I’m a Nats fan, and I believe the Nats have some irrational reasons for some of their decisions in that they want t
o keep some of the popular “winning now” guys to keep things positive for the season ticket holders they hope to attract and the young and not savvy yet fan base. Guzman, Dmitri Young, Soriano, and Cordero are all guys that they probably should have sold on. But selling on these guys sends the message to fans that your the Pirates or Royals and I’m not sure I’d have wanted to trust Jim Bowden in knowing the prospects well enough to get fair value back for them.
I’m still unsure why the Mets don’t trade for a starter so they can stick Takahashi back in the pen. If they did that, it’s essentially gaining a starter AND a reliever.
Because the Mets have an aversion to making logical moves.
Because Jeff Wilpon is the baseball version of Charles Dolan.
give me eddie kunz before this guy ever makes the 25 man
Kunz is walking more guys than he strikes out in the minor leagues right now. Look these things up before you suggest them.
Great another reliever that the Mets can rehab (and he can suck with while with the team) and then another team can swoop in when he is healthy, sign him, and have him perform for that team (Putz and Wagner anyone????). Nice work guys. Don’t want to re-sign a pitcher after they finally get healthy and you put a ton of resources in for his rehab. Gotta save money so you can spend it on the likes of Ollie Perez. Good times….