I'd Love to Have Green on the Team Next Year

[Gwreck]

I don't see Green or Valentin returning, but a Moises/Beltran/Milledge outfield would seem to be just fine. Gomez can return to AAA and get called up when Moises goes on his inevitable DL stint.

I actually think the chances of LoDuca staying are higher than we might think. Have you seen a list of FA catchers? Aside from Posada (who is about as old as LoDuca), it's total crap.

[Benjamin Grimm]

attgig wrote: where does martinez go in a year or two? i thought scouts liked him more than they liked gomez.

That's something to determine when the time comes.

Maybe Gomez or Milledge (or Beltran) will be gone or less productive and the decision will be easy.

[Elster88]

RealityChuck wrote: I don't dislike Green, but I can't see any reason to keep him. He's bound to want more than Millege or Gomez or Endy. Keep Alou if you want a veteran who can hit (though he would certainly prefer to be a regular).

Wow you really missed everything that was being said, huh?

[RealityChuck]

Elster88 wrote: ="RealityChuck"]I don't dislike Green, but I can't see any reason to keep him. He's bound to want more than Millege or Gomez or Endy. Keep Alou if you want a veteran who can hit (though he would certainly prefer to be a regular). Wow you really missed everything that was being said, huh?

Why the gratuitous snarkiness? I was merely disagreeing with you -- I don't think it's worth keeping Green. No post previous to mine proved conclusively otherwise (even if such a thing were possible for an opinion).

[soupcan]

Today's NYTimes...



September 12, 2007

Glavine, Not Green, May Be Back With the Mets Next Season

By BEN SHPIGEL

Toward the back of the Mets� clubhouse yesterday, Tom Glavine faced a group of reporters and let out a familiar sigh. There are three topics that when broached with Glavine seem to elicit such a response: steroids, Barry Bonds or, in this instance, his plans for 2008. But even as Glavine was musing about the possibility of playing next season, off in another corner, Shawn Green, a two-time All-Star whose career has declined into a part-time role, was mulling his future, too.

Green said he planned to sit down with his family at the end of the season and discuss whether he wanted to continue playing. Green was displaced as the starting right fielder last month and is platooning with Jeff Conine at first base until Carlos Delgado rejoins the lineup. Then he will return to what he had been doing, receiving an occasional start or pinch-hit appearance. The Mets can buy him out for $2 million, preferring not to exercise his $10 million option, and make him a free agent. But Green, who turns 35 in November, said he would not accept a similar utility role, and it seems unlikely that a team would sign him and guarantee a starting job. �I�ve always enjoyed this, and I�m grateful for the opportunity,� Green said. �But it�s not like I live and die by it.�

Green has accepted, with resignation, this stage of his career. He no longer steals 35 bases, as he did in 1998, or bats .309, as he did in 1999, or even hits 20 homers, well short of the career-high 49 he hit in 2001. He has come full circle, becoming the modest complementary player he was for his first few seasons, but this time it is harder for him.

�When you reach a certain level, a bar gets set, and there are expectations and all that,� said Green, who grounded out as a pinch-hitter in last night�s 13-5 loss to Atlanta, is batting .276 with 8 home runs and 42 runs batted in. �Every year, I come in expecting to get back to where I was, and it�s been very frustrating that I haven�t been able to do it.�

Green has 1,987 hits, and he said that getting 13 more to reach 2,000 would be nice, but it would not be as important or momentous as 300 victories was to Glavine. Since spring training, Glavine indicated that, assuming he won his 300th game this season, he would wait until after the season before deciding if he would play in 2008. He has remained uncommitted throughout, although he was quoted in The New York Post yesterday as saying that he was at least entertaining the idea of coming back. Glavine is 13-6 with a 3.95 earned run average.

�There are times right now, even with me pitching good and feeling good, I�d rather be home some days,� Glavine said. �I know that I can�t honestly answer that question from a physical standpoint and an emotional standpoint until I get home and assess how important baseball is to me versus how much I want to be home.�

Glavine has a player option for next season that is worth at least $11 million and could increase to $13 million, assuming he reaches the 200-inning plateau (he is at 182 1/3). General Manager Omar Minaya said yesterday that the Mets were, �of course,� interested if Glavine wanted to come back. The Mets would seem inclined to decline the option and try to negotiate a new contract at a lower price.

The Mets gave Glavine as much time as he wanted after last season to make his decision about playing in 2007, but circumstances were different then. Glavine was choosing between the Mets and the Braves. This time he will determine only one thing, and that is whether he wants to play at all. If he does, it would almost certainly be with the Mets.

�The determining factor becomes how much does my enjoyment of the game outweigh the sacrifices that they�re making because, with each year that I play here, they�re older, they�re into more things,� Glavine said of his children. �They miss more things when they come up here, whether it�s baseball games or hockey games or things like that. The way I was brought up and the way I try to parent, I have a hard time accepting that they�re making sacrifices for me as opposed to the other way.�

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

If I didn;t know better, and I don't, sure looks to me like Glavine is angling for a "Clemens" deal where he can show up only as often as he wants. Pedro will be sure to follow.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

If it happens, I'd at least like to see Glavine with the Mets full time during the summer months when his kids aren't in school.