Mets Bullpen – Worst to First??
December 13, 2008 by Mike · Leave a Comment
On Wednesday the Mets added K-Rod with a team friendly 3 year $37 million contract and yesterday they acquired one to the other top closers in baseball JJ Putz. The AL West closers have been raided by the Mets who have had epic collapses the past two seasons and the bullpen was largely to blame. The Mets still owe Billy Wagner $12 million next season and it appears that his career will be over due to more elbow surgery.
Ken Rosenthal from Foxsports.com breaks down the 3 team – 12 player deal.
The Mariners receive reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez, first baseman Mike Carp, and minor leaguers Maikel Cleto, Jason Vargas and Ezequiel Carrera from the Mets. They also get Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians.
The Indians get reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle.
From the Mets’ perspective, the deal is Heilman and Smith for Putz. Chavez and Reed are simply an exchange of backup outfielders, Smith and Green are an exchange of right-handed groundball specialists.