What the Mets Should Do
by Ross Friedman
Steve Phillips was applauded
for the way he handled the A-Rod situation. He
embarrased Alex Rodriguez in public by saying the
Mets would not make it a 24 + 1 atmosphere by
giving into all of these special requests
demanded by agent Scott Boras.
A-Rod was so embarrased by this
that you can be assured that there will be no
billboard clause or any other such crazy clause
in his contract. The contract will be solely
about money, and he may not even take the highest
offer he gets.
Now Steve Phillips should get
off his high-horse and sign Alex Rodriguez. Now
if Phillips could get a lot of pitching instead
of Rodriguez so be it. However, since he spent so
much time pondering how to get ARod, he ignored
Mike Hampton and John Franco long enough that it
seems he’ll lose both of them. Mike Mussina
would be a nice fit, but he seems headed to the
Bronx.
Three weeks ago Rodriguez
wanted to play in Shea and the Mets wanted
nothing more than to see that. Steve Phillips
needs to get on the horn, call Scott Boras and
tell him it’s time to meet. He should tell
him to bring Alex with him to avoid any other
confusion. If Phillips doesn’t do this,
A-Rod may very well be playing in Atlanta next
season while the Mets are playing golf in
October.
If Phillips does a good job
from this point he can get Rodriguez signed
without having to give him any perks (if you
don’t consider $22 million per season for
playing baseball a perk).
After that, the Mets should try
to find a way to salvage their pitching staff amd
get one somewhat decent outfielder. Signing Rick
Reed or Denny Neagle is a must. They should also
re-up with Turk Wendell and righty Bobby Jones.
Jay Buhner may be a decent fit for the outfield
as he can be signed at a decent price and is a
well-above average rightfielder.
The rest they should do by
trade, as the free agent money they have to spend
would be sparce after the signing of A-Rod. The
Mets probably have enough on the farm to pull of
a trade for Dustin Hermanson of the Expos. After
that, they should see if they can ship Rey
Ordonez off to the Mariners and bring back Jose
Paniagua to bolster their very strong bullpen.
Finally, the Mets should trade
Timo Perez for whatever they can get. Find a GM
who was not watching the World Series and
didn’t notice how exposed Timo was, and see
if they can get anything in return before he
becomes a .180 hitter.
This pitching staff
wouldn’t be quite as good as last
year’s, but it may already be too late for
Steve Phillips to do anything about that. It may
not be too late to find a way to bring A-Rod to
Shea.
Plan B:
Sign Manny Ramirez.
2001 Suggested 25-man roster:
Lineup:
LF-Benny Agbayani
2B-Edgardo Alfanzo
SS-Alex Rodriguez
C- Mike Piazza
3B-Robin Ventura
1B-Todd Ziele
RF-Jay Buhner
CF-Jay Payton
Bench:
C - Todd Pratt
IN - Kurt Abbott
Util. - Lenny Harris
OF - Darryl Hamilton
OF - Bubba Trammell
PH - Matt Franco
Starters:
Al Leiter
Rick Reed
Dustin Hermanson
Bobby M. Jones
Glendon Rusch
Bullpen:
Armando Benitez
Turk Wendell
Jose Paniagua
Dennis Cook
Rick White
Bobby J. Jones
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