The Mets Make Offers

[bmfc1]

I apologize if this doesn't deserve it's own thread...

According to numerous tweets, including a confirmation from the team, the Mets have made offers to Jason Bay and Bengie Molina.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Great. Molina!!!

[G-Fafif]

All baseball pros and cons aside, the Mets are prepared to willingly employ a blood relative of Yadier Molina.

Shudder

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

All baseball pros and cons aside, the Mets are prepared to willingly employ a blood relative of Yadier Molina.

Shudder

[ashie62]

"Old Bay" I snorted Old bay once in a bar 20 years ago.

Hope Jason Bay does more for the Mets if signed than Old Bay did for me

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mets Make Offers to Bay, Molina
By BEN SHPIGEL

INDIANAPOLIS � The Mets have begun to tip their hand that they are prioritizing an improvement on offense this offseason, making their first major free agency offers to catcher Bengie Molina and outfielder Jason Bay, sources familiar with the offers said Thursday.

The pursuit of Molina comes as no surprise, considering the Mets� dire need for a catcher. When the Giants declined to offer Molina arbitration after this season, he became an obvious target for the Mets. He adds decent power to the Mets lineup in addition to his defense.

The offer to Bay is noteworthy on two fronts. It means they are not leading the charge to sign Matt Holliday, a Scott Boras client. And it indicates the Mets are willing to spend first to shore up their offense, instead of making a play for a top-flight pitcher like John Lackey.

Bay was a boon to the Red Sox since they traded for him in the middle of the 2008 season and he has topped the 30-homer mark in four of the past five seasons. He hit .267 with 36 home runs this season.

[Frayed Knot]

I apologize if this doesn't deserve it's own thread...[/quote:3o19krrp]

Never apologize for starting a new thread. If you think it deserves one, it does.



Not sure what to read into Bay but not Holliday; it's not like they've shown a reluctance to deal with Boras in the past.
Maybe it's just the Boras trend of stringing things out so long that throwing out a line to Bay early might nail one position down as opposed to playing footsie over the next few months waiting for a fairly similar player.

[metirish]

Heyman

The Mets have offered free agent outfielder Jason Bay about $65 million over four years.

Bay you'll remember spat on Boston's four year $60 million offer. - Me

[Guest Edgy DC]

It'd be ballsy if they put in offers for both and told them and said that the offer stands until you accept or the other guy does.

[ashie62]

Heyman

The Mets have offered free agent outfielder Jason Bay about $65 million over four years.

Bay you'll remember spat on Boston's four year $60 million offer. - Me[/quote:6ssy47at]

4 for 65? Where are the Angels?

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's a starting offer. It shows Bay, and the world, (and Scott Boras) that the Mets are interested. The process is just beginning. I imagine the Mets intend to subsequently revise that offer upwards as things develop.

[Frayed Knot]

Where are the Angels?[/quote:1fkup6sh]

Dancing on the head of a pin.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Gordon Edes, blogging on ESPN.com, writes:

The Mets had been focused on pitching, but with the Los Angeles Angels indicating they had "more pressing needs" than pursuing a left fielder, GM Omar Minaya has moved aggressively toward adding Bay.

[Farmer Ted]

Intangibles such as luxury suite, autograph and memorabilia tent, private jet, private hotel suite on the road, an endless supply of bubble gum, and the always popular "I only have to show up on days that I pitch/play" will need to be ironed out later after an agreement in principle is worked out. Of course.

[ashie62]

Intangibles such as luxury suite, autograph and memorabilia tent, private jet, private hotel suite on the road, an endless supply of bubble gum, and the always popular "I only have to show up on days that I pitch/play" will need to be ironed out later after an agreement in principle is worked out. Of course.[/quote:2tbp0okl]

More reasons to dislike Professional Sports

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Intangibles such as luxury suite, autograph and memorabilia tent, private jet, private hotel suite on the road, an endless supply of bubble gum, and the always popular "I only have to show up on days that I pitch/play" will need to be ironed out later after an agreement in principle is worked out. Of course.[/quote:w0jpvzeu]

More reasons to dislike Professional Sports[/quote:w0jpvzeu]

Yeah, damn those workers that use their much-desired talents to leverage a more equitable share of profit.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I would've played for nuttin'! Nuttin', I tells ya!

[metsmarathon]

me too. but as long as they're payin...

[willpie]

Wait, Bay? What happened to pursuing Holliday first?

[metirish]

Mets " people" think that Bay the pull hitter will work just fine at CF and that Holliday the gap hitter would not...plus they think his way better with the glove.

[HahnSolo]

Mets " people" think that Bay the pull hitter will work just fine at CF and that Holliday the gap hitter would not...plus they think his way better with the glove.[/quote:bne96268]

I just read that in the Snooze. Good grief.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't believe that. About the glove.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Another possibility is that, given Boras' history, the Holliday signing may not happen for quite a while, and maybe the Mets want to lock up Bay and then focus on their pitching. If they wait for Holliday, Bay, and Lackey, and Piniero, and others may have signed elsewhere.

[metirish]

I don't believe that. About the glove.[/quote:1vvlmdvn]


I may have made that up but I think I read it somewhere in some rag.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Snooze didn't say anything about their feeling on his glove.

I think they like Bay prolly because they figure they'll encounter less traffic to get him. I'm not all so enamored of Holliday that you'd consider Bay to be distant 2nd. I wonder where this would leave Fartinez though. As the centerpiece of some trade?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I'm thinking more and more that Martinez's future is probably elsewhere.

I get the sense that the Mets don't want to trade Ike Davis, and maybe not Thole either. But perhaps Mejia and Martinez might be part of a trade package and some point.

(It may be more accurate to swap Mejia and Thole's names in the above; I guess it's just as likely that way.)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The glove bit is courtesy of Steve Popper of The Record, quoting the ubiquitous "Mets official":

But after a long diatribe by Scott Boras Wednesday on why Holliday was so much better than Bay, the Mets believe otherwise: - They think his swing fits Citi Field. - Despite the numbers, they like him defensively over Holliday. - Again, despite what Boras said, they insist he is a better athlete than Holliday.

Also, despite seeing copies of both players' passports, Mets front office staff believe that Holliday is much more Canadian than Bay.*

*I may have made this part up.

[metirish]

Media asking if the Mets are only making offers to appease us fans.....WTF?

http://www.newsday.com/columnists/jim-baumbach/is-image-everything-with-mets-decision-makers-1.1649134

That's just the latest I have read....

here's another

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/talks_with_jason_could_be_just_for_l3SqSUjLrpCqxuCYIieSRK

[MFS62]

Consider the source(s).

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, that made for some endumbening reading, huh?

TF is that such populist claptrap as that sells papers. And they punch with two hands, also. On one hand is the tone deaf Mets clinging to the purse, putting a shitpile product out there and not caring a whit for the daily cries of Willie Workingstiff and Millie Minivan. On the other is the bait-and-switch Mets, making merely symbolic offers to good players, settling for second-raters and thus patronizing Willie and Millie with insincere responses to their cries.

Held in reserve is the piece de resistance, the stupid-ass Mets who were so kowtowishly solcitious of their fans that they let their shortsightedness guide the multi-millon dollar decisions that will haunt them for years.

Three paper-selling angles to recycle, without ever having to report actual news.