K-Rod-ed

On the whole, I’m OK with the Mets trading K-Rod. I’d like them to make an effort at their reasonable goals for the season – third place, over .500, not wholly out of the Wild Card race before September – but they only lose a little in removing K-Rod and can replace him with Bobby Parnell, who has essentially been rehashing the Heath Bell career path (great fastball, good K/BB ratio, awful BABIP) and like Bell should eventually find his groove as a closer if given enough rope. It’s interesting that the Mets included some cash in the deal, but that’s just another way of saying the Brewers didn’t take on his entire contract.
On the contract-mischief front, Jay Jaffe has some fun at the expense of Scott Boras’ hissy fit over K-Rod being dealt to a team that will use him as a setup man.
The tougher question is whether to deal Carlos Beltran, who is having a good year and whose departure really would tank the season. For now, it looks like the Mets are wisely looking to dangle Beltran on the market but only for a premium prospect price.

3 thoughts on “K-Rod-ed”

  1. That’s exactly my take on Beltran, it will take a premium offer to move him before the deadline. Media clowns continue to miss the season. The knee jerk-ism “back up the truck/yard sale” stories are lazy. A mild downgrade at closer to avoid triggering the option was smart and predictable. These clowns had the team dead and buried coming out of PSL. And that was with Wright and Davis starting.

  2. Dealing Beltran is not a major issue. They should likely deal him even if they can’t get a very good prospect. Either way, he won’t be back next year.
    The real issue is Reyes. Do you deal him? If you do, you could probably get some good players, but then there is absolutely no way you are able to resign him for the future. Or do you hold on to him, and hope to resign him, and if you don’t you get draft picks? THAT, my friend, is the tougher question.

  3. I don’t think there’s much question it was a good move. The reality is that the greatest closer ever in his prime isn’t worth anything close to $17 Million per year… maybe $10M. They pitch 70-80 innings per year, and often don’t pitch in the most important situations, and are instead saved for relatively meaningless situations when a team is up by 3 runs to start the ninth inning – a situation that anybody you bring up from AAA can convert 95% of the time.
    I wouldn’t want to see Beltran go, however, unless we can get a real future-major league talent back. The Mets can still make a wild card run without K-Rod as long as Parnell can mentally handle being a closer. But they it’s hard to see the team mentally playing the same way if the team dump’s Beltran. Everybody knew that K-Rod had to go because of that option, but trading Beltran would be a metaphorical white flag.

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