Lots of news around MLB today and some signings that could potential impact the 2010 New York Mets.
1- Free agent starting pitchers Ben Sheets and Jon Garland are now signed with Sheets joining the Oakland A’s(1 yr/10 million) and Garland tossing for the San Diego Padres(1 yr/4.7 mill). Both were believed to be options for the Mets but many reports have NY not making offers to either. The club is believed to be very interested in future Hall of Famer John Smoltz.
2- Ace lefty Johan Santana threw a 25 pitch bullpen session and felt great. Recovering from offseason elbow surgery, He plans to use 5 spring starts to build up to 90 pitches to open the 2010 campaign. The southpaw hopes to pitch in a game during the week 2 of spring training,
3- Chad Tracy and Jim Thome, potential options at 1B, signed with the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins. Mets might still bring back veteran 1B Carlos Delgado to split time with Daniel Murphy.
Bloggers Opinion: Jon Garland needs to fire his agent and hire Sheets’! Sheets, who has a tremendous arm, has battled injury since 2005 and missed all of the 2009. He started a high of 31 games in that period during 2008 while a low of 17 in 2006. Garland has been a picture of consistency, starting the following amount of games since 2002: 33,32,33,32,32,32,32 and 33. His innings pitched totals were between 191.2 and 221 in that span. He is durable and dependable, two words that have rarely been associated with Sheets’! Padres got a great deal here while the A’s took a major risk. The Mets clearly are looking to go with what they have out of the rotation and might add a veteran arm.(Smoltz?) I would look at Pedro Martinez as well. The rotation would like this if the season started today: Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Jon Niese or Fernando Nieve.
As far as 1B goes, I would sign Ryan Garko to platoon with Murphy at 1B. He is a pro bat and with the health issues surrounding CF Carlos Beltran, this team needs to be stronger offensively. They need 20 homers and around 90 rbi out of that spot.
