Mets To Make Play For Posada?
From the Daily News -
In the past two weeks, the Yankees have severed ties with Joe Torre and Don Mattingly, two of the team’s most popular figures of the past 20 years. Is Jorge Posada next?
Industry sources are becoming increasingly baffled at the sluggish pace the Yankees have taken with the five-time All-Star catcher. Even though Posada has filed for free agency, the Bombers are in an exclusive 15-day negotiating rights period with the catcher but apparently have not presented an offer since the end of the season.
It appears inevitable that Posada will not sign a deal with the Yankees before Nov. 13, the date that other teams can get involved in the bidding, so the Bombers run the risk of another club blowing the catcher away with a huge offer.
Mets sources say GM Omar Minaya has identified Posada at the top of the team’s list of free agent targets. Like he did with Pedro Martinez before the 2005 season, Minaya might be willing to go above and beyond to secure the rights of a possible Hall of Famer.
If the Mets offer Posada four years – or possibly five – it would leave the Yankees in a difficult spot, as they would be committing more years than they wish to a catcher who will turn 37 next summer.
I’ve been concerned about this for a while now.
In terms of being a durable catcher, after age 30, Posada already stands with Carlton Fisk and Bob Boone as the three best guys in baseball history – again, in terms of durability.
As Fisk and Boone have proven, it’s possible for a 40-to-42-year old catcher to play 120 games behind the plate in a season. So, maybe it’s not insane to offer Posada a four-year deal?
The question is: How much do you want to spend on a guy who’s really a .270 hitter, with just about 20 homerun power, but with a good batting eye? Because, even if Jorge can catch when he’s near forty, will his bat regress down to the .250 BA, 15 HR, .340 OBA type levels?
It’s going to be an interesting call for the Yankees and the Mets, on Posada. Girardi was a catch and throw guy. Does that mean he would be fine if the Yankees lost Jorge and went with a defensive-minded catcher next season? It’s possible.
It’s just going to be very strange to see Posada in a uniform other than the Yankees – if that’s what happens in the end. And, it will be ugly to see him end up with the Mets, for sure.
It’s like the Pettitte situation in 2003 all over again. Except back then, we were defending ALCS champs and had no reason to want to break up the core of a great pitching staff. This time, an argument could be made that the team can let Posada walk, given how much it will cost to keep him relative to his age. That being said, I think the team would be crazy to let him go since the team needs his stick in 2008 more than anything else.
Cashman’s a very curious guy. I’ve never been able to figure out his negotiating tactics…
Pay him. He’s earned it, could be a borderline HoFer, and is there anyone else almost as good as him out there. With the loss of A-Rod production, I don’t want an offensive decline at another position.
Besides, his last year or two could be spent part-time DHing and mentoring the new young catcher.
I thought I read reports that the Yanks were going to go strong after Mo and Jorge. This is odd.
Well, Pete Abe over at Lohud explains that Jorge asked to meet next week.
“Or when asked to meet with the team and talk it over, Jorge Posada told his people to meet with the Yankees next week.”
If the Mets or anyone offers him more than 2 years, let him walk.
The guy is 37, and maybe the Yankees aren’t rushing to sign him because of a certain report coming out around Xmas?
Andy Petite was let go because the Yanks were worried about his elbow, why doesn’t anyone remember that? And they were RIGHT.
~~~maybe the Yankees aren’t rushing to sign him because of a certain report coming out around Xmas? ~~~
Hmmm…
Andy Petite was let go because the Yanks were worried about his elbow, why doesn’t anyone remember that? And they were RIGHT.
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3 seasons in Houston, an average of 28 starts per year, 173 1/3 IP, and an ERA of 3.38. Even if you adjust it upwards for the AL, I fail to see how the Yankees were right about letting Andy Pettitte go from 2004-2006.
And, FWIW, IIRC, Pettitte hurt his elbow in Houston while he was batting – not throwing.
There had been reports that Pettitte had some structural weakness in his elbow — if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter how he hurt it.
MJ — Those Pettitte stats are a tad misleading. First, Pettitte only pitched 83 innings in 2004 as an Astro. Pettitte had, by far, the best season in his career in 2005. In 2006, Pettitte had an ERA+ that was only slightly better than league average. It’s a close call whether the Astros got back $31 million of value from Pettitte and the Yankee offer was for more money.
Knowing what we know now about his performance and his injury, I would have re-signed him in 2003, but it would not be a slam dunk case.
Jonm, even with those factors, I don’t see how it made sense for the Yanks to let him walk. At an average annual salary of $10.5M/season, Houston got a #3 starter (Oswalt and Clemens being 1-2) who gave them one stellar year and one slightly-above-average year. One year was lost due to injury. In that time, the team went to the NLCS twice and the World Series once. The Yanks replaced Pettitte with your choice of Kevin Brown or Javier Vazquez.
Since we’re using hindsight, I just don’t see how we can say that not keeping Pettitte was sensible. Even at the time it was dubious, given that Brown was coming to the AL, was considerably older, and had a far more checkered injury history.
You HAVE to bring Jorgie back in the wake of A-Rod’s opt out. The power has to come from *somewhere*.
MJ,
I do agree with you, but I’m just less hesitant to condemn the job they did that off-season. They’ve made lots of stupider decisions. Signing Sheffield instead of Vlad that same off-season was one of them.
Vazquez, at the time, looked more promising than Pettitte. Brown definitely seemed like he would be better than Weaver at the end of the rotation. The problem really was the the way they replaced Wells and Clemens. The Yankees took a lot of risk expecting Leiber and Contreras to do the job.
I think that they realized this too late and that’s why they made the last minute, higher offer to Pettitte. They should have realized this sooner.
I didn’t condemn the totality of that off-season, I merely stated my opinion that not bringing Pettitte back was a mistake at the time and one that was proven doubly wrong with the benefit of hindsight.
the move i really, REALLY hate (even at the time) was getting Sheff instead of Vlad. it still pisses me off. supposedly that was a Stein move – Cash wanted Vlad but Stein always loved Sheff and finally had a chance to get him.
losing Pettitte back in 2003 wasnt ALL bad. we did get Phil Hughes in return (i know, i know, we have yet to see how he’ll eventually turn out, but i’m confident).