Closer Dough, Since Benitez

[Edgy MD]

2004
Looper: $2,000,000

2005
Looper: $800,000

2006
Wagner: $10,500,000

2007
Wagner: $10,500,000

2008:
Wagner: $10,500,000
Ayala: ~$700,000

2009
Wagner: $10,500,000
Rodriguez: $9,166,666
Putz: $6,000,000

2010
Rodriguez $12,166,666

2011
Rodriguez: $5,000,000
Isringhausen: ???

2012
Francisco: $5,500,000

2013:
Francisco: $6,500,000
Parnell: $1,700,000

That's a lot of change spent to little effect, and no small amount of it in Minaya's "Put it all on double zero!" year of 2009.

[Ceetar]

Frankie and Wagner, more Wagner than K-Rod, were useful players. overpaid sure, but plenty of effect anyway. Of course Wagner sucked against St. Louis but that can happen to anyone in extremely small samples. Got us to the playoffs and was part of the reason they were competitive in 2007 and his injury killed them in 2008. Although looking at it now, Willie really should've leaned on Wags twice as hard down the stretch in 2007.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Wagner was an incredible waste of money, and Omar showed how little he learned by giving an even stoopider contract to Roodriguez. Even when the Mets had money they were idiots with it.

[metirish]

No doubt about it, Omar was a real putz when it came to the closer role......

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Wagner was an incredible waste of money, and Omar showed how little he learned by giving an even stoopider contract to Roodriguez. Even when the Mets had money they were idiots with it.

When the Rodriguez deal was made there were a lot of Met fans who thought it was great on account of they were clamoring for a deal on the order of 5/$75 - so when it came out at "only" 3/$40 (or whatever it wound up being) it seemed like a bargain to many.


Speaking of closers, how ya like the week Jimmy Johnson's having in Baltimore?
Guy hadn't blown a game since some time early last year; now he's crashed and burned in 4 of his last 6 outings giving up 12 runs in just 5 innings work over that time including blowing a 3-run lead yesterday.

Prior to Sunday there hadn't been a 3-run/1-inning save blown all year; then yesterday there were two. Johnson was one, then in Fenway Chris Perez had a 3-run lead to protect for the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" then not only fell apart but got hurt in the process.
With two runs already in and two more runners on base, he grabbed his arm in the middle of pitching to Jacoby Ellsbury. Unable to continue, the Tribe brought in ex-NYM Joe Smith to finish the AB ... and Ellsbury lined his first pitch into LCF for a 2-RBI game winner. So technically Smith gets the 'BS' even though the ugly work was done mostly by Perez who, by the looks of things, could be out for a while.

[batmagadanleadoff]

metirish wrote: No doubt about it, Omar was a real putz when it came to the closer role......

Probably. But you can go both ways on this issue. A wealthy team can afford the luxurious price tag a proven closer will command as a free agent. Those acquisitions look bad in hindsight not only because those relievers didn't perform as expected, but because it turned out that the Mets, unbeknownst to us, were financial posers, living beyond their means.

[metirish]

Perhaps , I think Omar's nadir when it came to this role was bringing in Putz for the 8th inning job, it was going to be a dream scenario....unfortunately for various reasons it never panned out.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: metirish wrote: No doubt about it, Omar was a real putz when it came to the closer role...... Probably. But you can go both ways on this issue. A wealthy team can afford the luxurious price tag a proven closer will command as a free agent. Those acquisitions look bad in hindsight not only because those relievers didn't perform as expected, but because it turned out that the Mets, unbeknownst to us, were financial posers, living beyond their means.

That's true to an extent. But the Mets problem after 08 wasn't only that they made a show of relievers, it was doing so without being bothered to get an outfield together, or look seriously at a manager. And that at some level had to do with a decision as to where to deploy their resources.

[Frayed Knot]

That was a case of wishful thinking, as in wishing the Putz wasn't actually hurt.
But that he had been hurt was the reason he was available which made him a more long-term solution hired to solve a short-term need.
Putz was a good reliever prior to the Mets getting him and, for the most part, has been a good one since although he's hurt again at the moment leaving Heath Bell to take up the slack for Arizona.

[ashie62]

All closers are overpaid....

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, if I have money to spend, spending it on the top free agent closer always seems stupid. There's just nobody "proven"" enough. It's just too volatile a role to ever think you have locked up.

Look at the run Jimmy Johnson is on. (Maybe he should go back to NASCAR.) If that happens to Parnell, the Mets are screwed. They have to sit down and think, "What changes might we have to try to win more games?"

But if that happens to the Mets four years ago, they have to wrestle with that question, but balance it against "How do we protect our investment?" A sucky dilemma to be sure. Those 2009 dollars added up to an A-Rod salary. A Pujols salary!