Today I read several things about the impending free agency of Jose Reyes. One of them said that an insider with the organization told the writer that the Mets have no intention of keeping Reyes, that their offer will be cursory. Later that same article claimed that, also on the basis of some kind of insider rumor "knowledge," that the Detroit Tigers plan on making a serious run at Reyes. Another article, predicting the destinations of 50 top free agents, predicted that Jose would find his way to Milwaukee, and also mentioned the Nationals, Braves, Phillies, Giants, Pirates, Reds, Twins, Rays, and Cardinals as teams needing shortstop help (aside from, obviously, the Mets in whom Reyes' departure would leave a gaping hole). What with Milwaukee's having declined an option on Yuniesky Betancourt, despite his awesome post-season run, I can't really argue that the Brewers might be serious players, but a) Reyes won't sign with a team that has Michael Bourn, as he would have to compete for the leadoff spot; b) the Phillies will not sign Jose Reyes; c) I have repeatedly heard that the Giants might be interested in Rollins (who might be interested in them) but definitely feel Reyes is out of their price range; d) the Pirates, Reds, Twins, and Rays are all just way too small-money teams to sign Reyes (as the article acknowledges); e) the Cardinals and Rafael Furcal have expressed mutual interest, though obviously not on the terms of the $12 million option the Cardinals declined yesterday; e) the Nationals also ought to lack the funds to go after Reyes, and they already have a passing-fair shortstop (though not one without his problems).
Finally, I read an article saying that Dave Dombrowski, the General Manager of the Detroit Tigers, stated in so many words at a press conference today that the team would not go after Reyes. Moral of the story? Prediction is hard, especially about the future. One guy says he has insider source that the Tigers are in, and then we get objective "outsider" confirmation that they aren't in. So far what we know is that the Mets haven't signed Reyes yet. Every single report I've heard, and there are lots of them, suggest that no one expects the Mets to sign Reyes during their exclusive negotiation period. It also seems like the "market" for Reyes will be surprisingly weak, with most of the teams anyone has suggested as potential landing spots sounding cautious if not skeptical if not uninterested. That's what we know. These facts are consistent with the idea that the Mets really have no intention of keeping Reyes, and will only make a perfunctory offer. They're also consistent with the idea that the Mets just don't want to outbid themselves, have every intention of going hard after Reyes, but don't want to make the kind of Piazza-esque offer that is so clearly better than anything else Reyes could get on the open market that it removes the desire to test said market unless they have to. If Reyes hits free agency on Thursday and discovers that there just aren't any teams interested in signing him to a seven- or even six-year deal, so that it's the Mets' five-ish-year offer versus other five-ish-year offers, then we'll start to see whether there is genuine interest between the Mets and Reyes in connecting at a reasonable price. Not before then, not on the basis of anonymous tips from so-called insiders, and not from such anonymous tips reported by people who have previously declared early and often that they don't think it would be wise for the Mets to bring Reyes back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment