In a very short to the point article, Mike Puma puts the stop sign on any rumors. Check this reason out why the Mets wont persue Oswalt:
“The team is reluctant to eat the $1.8 million remaining on Gary Matthews Jr., contract, making it unlikely that GM Omar Minaya would inquire about Oswalt – especially with Citi Field attendance down 6,852 fans from last season.”
-They dont want to eat $1.8 million remaining on Gary Matthews Jr, even in the face of decreasing attendance. I dont know about you guys, but this speaks volumes. If this is anywhere near accurate, then we can put the kibosh on the Mets trading ollie(which most likely would require them to eat some contract) or them releasing ollie. So goes the argument that the Mets will dump Gary Matthews Jr for a more PRODUCTIVE player and thus the main difference between us and the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels or Dodgers…they know and ACT like the big market team they are and do WHAT IS NECESSARY to put the best product on the field. Do you know what else separates us from them?…success.
28 comments
Mr North Jersey
5/15/2010-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
Who was the last player the Mets got rid off and ate their contract?
stickguy
5/15/2010-11:20am at 11:20 am (UTC -4)
henderson, bonilla, Franco, Marlon off the top of my head. Appier, depending on how you look at flipping him for Vaughn!
what people seem to forget is that the MEts really have not had a problem with giving out these horrible, team choking contracts. The guys they end up eating are all mostly 1 year, small money guys. Every team has those.
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-11:21am at 11:21 am (UTC -4)
Depends on how big a contract you’re talking about. They cut Duaner Sanchez but they only owed him $276,639.
They paid $1.6 mil of Schoeneweis’ $3.6 mil contract when they traded him.
They paid Putz $1 mil to go away this year.
Mr North Jersey
5/15/2010-11:23am at 11:23 am (UTC -4)
Thanks Grave so the Mets do have the ability to eat a contract if they ate 1M of Putz’s contract.
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-11:25am at 11:25 am (UTC -4)
I suppose it’s semantics but in Putz’ case it was an option year with a buyout. The Mets choice was to keep him and pay him a lot ($8.5 mil I think) or pay the buyout which was $1 mil.
stickguy
5/15/2010-11:25am at 11:25 am (UTC -4)
that was not picking up an option, and paying the buy out instead. different situation.
Mr North Jersey
5/15/2010-11:28am at 11:28 am (UTC -4)
Its semantics like Grave said. The principal is the same the Mets paid him 1M to not pitch for them.
The Mets can also pay the remaining bal on GMJ’s contract for him to not play for them.
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-11:24am at 11:24 am (UTC -4)
They owe Catalanotto $650,000
stickguy
5/15/2010-11:26am at 11:26 am (UTC -4)
which makes keeping him instead of someone like carter even more amazing.
rustyjr
5/15/2010-11:14am at 11:14 am (UTC -4)
Rickey Henderson
stickguy
5/15/2010-11:17am at 11:17 am (UTC -4)
who the hell is Mike Puma, and where is his definitive proof that the Mets aren’t willing to eat the salary? Right, he doesn’t have any. SO, this is jus tspeculation.
Media guys really need to try and stick somewhat close to the facts (I know, pipe dream). They tend to get into trouble when they work backwards (Look at an action, and try to determine (aka “guess”) what the reason was).
IMO (hey, works for Puma), They are reluctant to cut ollie because they liked him enough to make a big investment in him, so probably still like him enough to want to try everything to make it work. plus, there are no good obvious alternatives right now to plug in. Releasing a player, especially one with a big contract, is always a last resort.
Look at the other teams with disasterous contracts. It took years for the ANgels to finally punt. The Cubs and Blue Jays are still hanging on. So yeah, the Mets are going to try and give him more than 8-9 starts if they can
and GM? That salary is not enough to matter to a team. Plus, as much as we make fun of them, the Met FO does know the concept of sunk cost, and that they are paying these guys now matter what. Unless, of course, they can build enough value to get some team to take the player off their hands (certainly more attractive then an outright release).
and with GM, there is the minor issue of them not having another guy they think can play CF on the team. That has way more IMO to do with him being around then his contract. Does anyone actually think that he will still be on the team if Beltran finally comes back?
dirtysanchez
5/15/2010-11:33am at 11:33 am (UTC -4)
with pagan(injury risk being the reason we have gmj in the first place) and beltran(coming back from his injury(s)), I wouldnt be surprised if he is still around. There may be trade value but they are not improving it by keeping him on the bench, but benching him makes sense because he sucks. I would be trying to get some value for ollie but well, thats out the window. Only way ollie gets appealing is if mets eat some contract.
I understand the reluctance to release a player making the salaries of ollie and gmj but frankly they have not even shown the propensity to eat a contract for a trade.
I agree the reason gmj is still here is because they have no faith in any of their in house CF options. Bad time for fmart to be sucking and injured…especially after his start in ST.
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-11:32am at 11:32 am (UTC -4)
Coutinho on 1050 right now.
Says “reading the tea leaves” he believes at least Ollie’s next start will be skipped and that Takahashi will make it, possibly Dickey if they can work that with the roster.
metsfan4decades
5/15/2010-11:37am at 11:37 am (UTC -4)
‘Reading the tea leaves’ = speculation. But that speculation seems as likely as any right now. I’m thinking they’ll be looking to buy some time while getting Ollie out of the rotation now – as opposed to making a long term decision today.
oleosmirf
5/15/2010-11:32am at 11:32 am (UTC -4)
The Wilpons will not pay Perez to pitch someplace else. That is not how they work and they will prevent that 100%
ever since September of 2008, i have been saying how Ollie contributes more harm than any other pitcher in baseball. between his inability to throw a strike and his inability to go more than 6 IP, I just dont see what the point of ever using him is.
Since he signed that deal, the mets are 7-14 in games started by Perez and that doesnt even take into account his negative affect on the bullpen.
dirtysanchez
5/15/2010-11:36am at 11:36 am (UTC -4)
Im just sick and tired of them operating like a small market or mid market team when they are not. They can afford to stomach a MISTAKE and find a way to move on…dont know why they are so against it…There is NO reason ollie should be on this team. The only thing keeping him is the mets unwillingness to do the RIGHT thing…
oleosmirf
5/15/2010-4:59pm at 4:59 pm (UTC -4)
Fred Wilpon is old school…he wants to see a return on his investment. He is not going eat the contract.
Now of course, Wilpon should have just listened to me when I said Ollie was going to wind up pitching himself out of baseball before the contract expired…
njstuckintx
5/15/2010-2:11pm at 2:11 pm (UTC -4)
They should pay him to go pitch for the Phils. Would kill 2 birds with 1 stone!
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-12:11pm at 12:11 pm (UTC -4)
As far as the Mets eating Ollie’s contract, while it’s unlikely I think there is a scenario in which they would do it but unfortunately that scenario doesn’t exist.
That scenario is someone in the minors making an extremely impressive statement that the spot on the MLB roster should be theirs.
When the Mets cut Mike Jacobs, they had Ike Davis pounding down the door at AAA, impossible to overlook.
If the Mets were to cut Oliver Perez, who at AAA is pounding down the door? R.A. Dickey, he of the 22-28, 5.43 MLB career? Dillon Gee? He’s doing OK but he’s hardly a can’t miss prospect. Tobi Stoner at 2-4, 5.00? Pat Misch, he of the 3-11, 4.79 MLB career? Bobby Livingston? Adam Pettyjohn?
There is no one pitching at AAA who is a viable MLB prospect who is showing they’re ready to pitch, there are just non-prospects and never-where-prospects.
One could replace Perez with Takahashi but that’s the classic “robbing Peter to pay Paul” scenario because they’d be weakening the bullpen.
As sexy as the idea of just kissing Perez and his roughly $20 mil remaining goodbye, there is no one coming up through the system insisting that the Mets make room for them. So we might want to revisit what Jenrry Mejia is doing in the MLB bullpen…
dirtysanchez
5/15/2010-1:35pm at 1:35 pm (UTC -4)
thats exactly what we should revist. Iggy is a week away. When he gets here, send mejia down and stretch him out. Bring him up in june or july and in the mean time have taka in the rotation. Trade ollie for something and by the time they do that, mejia will be starting and having better results for what your paying ollie. Again this will never happen of course but just a thought
metsfan4decades
5/15/2010-2:38pm at 2:38 pm (UTC -4)
I’m asking because I truly don’t know…..
If you sent Mejia down now to stretch him out as an eye towards starting, is 4-6 weeks even long enough for that? Reason I’m asking is this is a kid who I believe went from single A ball to a promotion to the next level and that wasn’t even for a full year, right?
So is it even conceivable Mejia could take a slot in the rotation by the ASB with command of enough pitches to be a starter at the ML level?
oleosmirf
5/15/2010-5:12pm at 5:12 pm (UTC -4)
I dont believe Mejia will have the same success in the MLB as a SP, at least this season.
I would allow Takahashi to start and see if he can be as effective as he is in the pen. If Takahashi is pitching well enough, just demote Ollie when Igarashi is ready.
If he can’t be a SP, then barring a miracle that Ollie magically gets his velocity back, they should call up a SP (Dickey would be my first choice unless things change) and send Mejia down to work on becoming a SP.
Hazmet
5/15/2010-2:16pm at 2:16 pm (UTC -4)
How dare you inject logic into this discussion.
I was enjoying my emotional outburst the past 24 hours. Where I was hoping was somehow eating some significant $$’s packaging him with Murphy and something else and sending him to Baltimore for Millwood. But the more I think about it I’m landing where MF4D has been correcting me on this as who would even want Ollie as part of anything now. Even if they get a couple of servicable kids and dump Millwood’s contract, Ollie’s just not worth the trouble.
metsfan4decades
5/15/2010-2:34pm at 2:34 pm (UTC -4)
Grave – always the voice of reason. A lot of what you state makes sense which is why there isn’t going to be any earth shattering announcement today concerning Ollie – much to many fans dismay. Most will be calling for Ollie’s head, then the FO for not making the decision to let that head roll. Only few are going to realize there is much more to it than that, and it’s not as easy as they want it all to be.
That being said, you can’t just keep trotting Ollie out there every 5th day to fail. It’s not fair to him nor the rest of the team. I believe they’ll start by skipping his next start as it buys them some time.
GravediggerHebner
5/15/2010-2:54pm at 2:54 pm (UTC -4)
I am not in any way against never seeing Ollie pitch again in a Met uniform. I just think it has to be done not just in ‘get rid of this guy’ mode but also in ‘what improvement are we making’ mode too. The Tigers had viable player(s) to put in Sheffield’s place, the Angels had viable player(s) to put in GMJ’s place, when those teams ate lots of money to shed those players.
I’m not convinced the Mets have viable players to put in Ollie’s place, except for Taka but then that raises the bullpen issue. I could get over that based on thinking that the bullpen would be less ‘absolutely necessary’ with Ollie removed from the rotation but it’s still a concern. Valdes is ‘Taka-lite’ and I could stomach him in Taka’s role, and then Elmer Dessens in Valdes’ role. I just want whoever goes into the rotation to be better than Dickey/Stoner/Misch but as far as who takes over in the bullpen for Taka if he starts I’m less concerned because most of his work is in situations that are created more by Ollie than any of the other 4 guys.
I think what Dirty says just above about Iggy coming back/Mejia going down and then a later trade is actually possible. And based on what a number of talking heads have said I believe there would be a market for Ollie in a trade, but the Mets would have to be open to the idea of not getting much in the way of talent back and also to paying a very large portion of Ollie’s remaining contract. I don’t have a Met example to point to and say ‘see they’ve done it’ but it can be done. Are they willing and able I can’t answer. But some crappy team would be willing to take the shot, on the Mets wallets, that Ollie might get turned around by their coaches. He’s too young and too lefthanded for all of MLB to pass.
trs86
5/15/2010-3:00pm at 3:00 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah that’s my point with the Ollie situation. They are not going to just release him because they feel like he is worth more than that to them. Does not matter if we agree and has nothing to do with being cheap.
trs86
5/15/2010-2:56pm at 2:56 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah not a bad idea. Best thing for the Mets is for Ollie to get fixed enough to trade him. They are not going to eat 24 million. Not because they are cheap, that makes absolutely no sense at all. They have already spent the money. That would be like me being to cheap to seal my gas guzzling car. It’s not worth much but how is it actually costing me money to sell it? Now where the problem comes in is that I would still need a car.
trs86
5/15/2010-2:45pm at 2:45 pm (UTC -4)
What a flat out BS article. It does not even make sense. Since when does a team have to PAY money to get rid of their OWN player? Comparing the Mets hanging on too long to a cheap vet and trading for a top of the rotation pitcher with an expensive contract is about the dumbest comparison I have ever read. How the hell doe sit COST money for the Mets to release GMJR? Yeah they would have to eat the 1.5ish left on his contract for 2 years but that money is already spent. We are also assuming that no one gives him a contract even for the min. for either this year or next. The only reason we still have GMJR is that they believe he is their best option for backup CF. Soon they will not and life will go on.
I am just about tired of these damn sports reporters making a story out of something that is as ludicrous as this and just plain does not exist. So now the Wilpons, who are exploring buying a damn hockey team do not have the money to release a player they already have? Hokey sh$t.