Piazza for Sale

The Padres have declined an $8 million option for Mike Piazza. Which makes sense; Piazza may have been worth that money this year in retrospect (although what they actually paid him was a good deal less), but a catcher his age he is always a risk of major injury or catastrophic falloff. The ESPN article indicates that both sides are interested in keeping him in San Diego, and when you discount for the fact that they are negotiating in the newspapers here it seems pretty likely another deal will get done.
The Mets, of course, have no room for Piazza, but if things don’t work out with San Diego there’s his hometown of Philly, which split its catching duties among three guys, none of them younger than 33, but there aren’t a ton of teams with money and a chance of competing that need either a starting catcher of a catcher/DH.