As expected, the Mets will non-tender right-hander Mike Pelfrey, a person with the team told Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter links). The Mets still want to sign Pelfrey as a free agent, Puma reports.
Pelfrey, 28, earned $5.68MM this past season though he underwent Tommy John surgery after just three starts. For the Mets to retain him through the arbitration process they'd have to offer him a salary in the $5-6MM range — a considerable amount for a pitcher recovering from a serious injury.
The future of non-tender candidate Andres Torres remains “up in the air,” according to Puma. Torres, 34, posted a .230/.327/.337 batting line in 434 plate appearances this past season. He earned $2.7MM in 2012 and could also be cut loose this offseason.
Pelfrey is a no-brainer and the only way I would want Torres back is if the Mets were able to platoon him with a left handed bat. Torres is an absolutely hideous batter from the left side but surprisingly solid from the right. Hes also a pretty good defensive center fielder. Something to consider seeing the Mats have barely any internal options in the OF
Torres definitely showed prowess as CF in the second half and therein is his value.
He also picked it up with the bat latter in the season but Mets need legit leadoff hitter and all around CF far better than Torres. The question is what sort of bench the Mets intend to carry and whether having Torres in such a role is smart use of one of five bench spots.
I hope Mets and Pelf come to agreement. Despite his inconsistency as Met, he has good stuff and showed real dominance in spring training and in regular season 2012 before his injury, the change attributed to switching back to a windup that he didn’t use as pro.
Losing him now after these years spent trying to develop him from first round pick, through the minors and years in the majors, would be mistake for Mets after finally finding viable solution for his previous inconsistency. The problem is Pelf’s agent is Boras so we’ll have to see how this plays out.
A 7.62 ERA this past spring is “real dominance”? Maybe numbers can be misleading….
A 2.29 ERA in 3 April starts is a good start. Dominant? Maybe not. But better than expected. He can sign for $1.5 million, make it next year’s Chris Young contract, I’m OK with that.
Not sure why people are giving down votes to you but for $1 million you can’t go wrong resigning the guy especially if he could be an option out of the bullpen possibly…
Sure, but it wasn’t worth tendering him a contract, since he will miss all or almost all of next season.
Torres should be dropped. For someone who was supposed to provide speed, his stolen base count was smaller than in the past, though with more appearances. While he has good range, he had the incredibly costly predilection of playing far too shallow. Watching him run after balls hit over his head was a regular and costly occurence. And his concentration level was horrible — I’m sure exacerbated by his ADHD. Torres was a great disappointment. The Mets, with their limited budget, need to look elsewhere.
Taking a $5-$6M flier on Pelfrey is likewise a luxury they cannot afford. Non-tender him and try to sign him below that level. I doubt he’d re-sign.
I thought teams could offer their arbitration eligible players a 20% cut from the previous year.
That’s true, but the team would be risking an arbitrator awarding the player the higher amount he submits.
That’s my point. The article is wrong. The Mets could offer Pelfrey less than “$5-6MM.”
I think the article is saying “they’d have to offer him a salary in the $5-6MM range” because, in the opinion of the author, a lower offer would lose at arbitration to an even higher player submission. I think it would be helpful if that were spelled out, since the Mets could offer as little as $4.544 million.
but it’s unlikely, arbitration is based on past performance and since this is his 3rd time through arbitration and the performance it easily puts them over $4.5M
And, that’s why the article should have spelled it out by instead saying that the Mets would need to offer $5-6 million because an arbitrator would likely award at least that much if the Mets offered less. The language “have to offer” is a little ambiguous. Some might interpret it as meaning that they are not allowed to offer less rather than that they would be unsuccessful if they offered less.
Keeping Torres makes about as much sense as extending Jason Bay…
I could see Pelfrey as potentially coming back, but on a deal heavily laden with incentives.
I wouldn’t be opposed to it because you can never have too much pitching on the team plus he wouldn’t be a bad bullpen option possibly.
If Andres Torres is not Non-Tendered, Sandy Alderson has got to be fired! I would prefer they bring back Castillo and Sheffield to play CF then Torres.
Makes sense on Pelfrey. Staring pitchers it usually takes 18 months, so he ‘might’ be ready next september.
Don’t know where you heard it takes 18 months to comeback from Tommy John Surgery? He would be ready by Mid-May
The Mets will release Pelfrey and Torres will clear waivers to become a free agent.
The Mets will cut Pelfrey and Torres.
Oh please! Get rid of Torrez.! That trade brings back memories of Joe Foy and Jim Fregosi. How about getting the great Ichiro to bat lead-off and patrol the OF. Then sign the other Suzuki to catch, trade Duda for some relief, and otherwise, go with the young guys. That would be a good place to start and place the finishing touches on next season’s roster.
I tip my hat to ye.. Thought was the only person on this board who ever mentioned Joe Foy… I post about him as an up and coming 3b for Boston however and think you are as an end of career, clutching at straws to hang around player here.. But still nice to see good old Joe remembered 🙂