Minute Moves Amplify Club's Dim Future
Merry Christmas, Met fans! You have absolutely nothing to be merry about this holiday season.
Your team has actually gotten worse in the offseason, which is an almost impossible notion considering they just experienced three of the most frustrating seasons in the club's not-so-illustrious history.
The ownership and the front office are sitting around waiting for the market on the remaining free agents to come to them. Tick-tock...
In the interim, they are signing every dead arm and deadbeat available. The other day, they actually signed a guy named Dickey (insert joke here). You would think they would have learned their lesson with Putz last season.
Imagine the chants from the Pepsi Porch when this guy gets rocked on a rainy night in April by the powerful Washington Nationals.
In addition to signing Dickey, the Mets have been very active in the bottom-feeders' free-agent market. They solved their backup catcher issue by bringing in Chris Coste and Henry Blanco. Now all they need is a starting catcher and they're all set.
Then they resigned Elmer Dessens. I guess no one else wanted him. I wonder why.
After that, they beat the rest of MLB to Japanese import Ryota Igarashi, who once went by the Malumud-esque moniker "Rocket Boy". Don't get excited, he had Tommy John surgery two years ago and is actually missing a ligament in his elbow.
These moves, combined with their inactivity in the major free-agent market and the inexplicably inept and bare minor league system, have fans feeling naked and cold during this snowy holiday season.
The Mets still have an iron in the fire for both Jason Bay and Matt Holiday. I was confident they would get at least one of these fellows. Now, I'm not so sure.
Bay is said to have soured on the Mets. Citi Field is a turn-off because of its reputation as a pitcher's park. He also has been made aware that the Mets have no viable homegrown talent in the pipeline and are closer in potential to the Nationals than they are the Phillies, Braves, and Marlins.
It is also being bandied about the Yankees have interest in Bay. They just traded Melky Cabrera, lost Hideki Matsui to free agency, and are not bringing back Johnny Damon. Translation: left field at Yankee Stadium is open.
Holliday is not a big-city guy, and he also is not high on the Mets. He may opt to stay in St. Louis. Many believe Boston is desperately trying to land him to counter the Yankees' recent moves, and will overpay if Bay ends up in the Bronx.
That leaves the Mets standing at the dock, again.
So, what will the Mets do? The answer: nothing. The reason: they have no leverage. They cannot even make a trade for a decent veteran because the rest of baseball is leery about their minor league prospects.
The Johan Santana trade from several years ago is to blame. The Mets sent three minor league pitchers and outfielder Carlos Gomez to the Twins for Santana. To date, none of those four players have panned out for Minnesota.
My suggestion is that since they are gong down in payroll, they should bring back more fan-oriented events such as Banner Day and Old-Timer's Day, and lower the prices on everything by 20 percent...
My prediction is that tumbleweeds will be once again be rolling through Citi Field by August.
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