Ruben Amaro Jr. has been the GM of the Phillies for all of what, 2 months?  Already he is doing his part to ensure Mets fans hate him.  Check out his reaction to the signing of K-Rod.

 ”I don’t think it affects us much,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “They’ve had Billy Wagner, and we still beat them the last 2 years in our division.” 

What he said is 100% true, but was mentioning Wagner and reminding everyone they have won the division the last 2 years really neccessary?  Mark it down, the first salvo in the ‘09 chapter of this rivalry was fired by Amaro.  Don’t expect a shot back from Omar Minaya Phillies fans, he is to classy for that.  Plus his focus is where it should be, on bettering the Mets for next season.  Pat Gillick did a good job building the current Phillies roster, if I was Amaro I would concentrate on what I have to do to keep the Phils playing at a championship level as opposed to making snide comments about my team’s rival.  Just sayin’.

The Mets only get one cover out of the three which is a little disheartening considering they made their biggest offseason signing yesterday.  This was the case even before this news came… Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that Sabathia will in fact sign with the Yankees.  Should be an interesting sports talk radio day considering Francesa spent a good part of yesterday trashing Sabathia for keeping the Yankees in limbo.  Say somethin’ funny Mike!

Kudos to Matt Cerrone from metsblog.com for the exclusive K-Rod card.

As I speculated yesterday I felt it was just a matter of time before the Mets agreed to a deal with closer Francisco Rodriguez.  Today they signed the righty to a three-year $37 million contract with a 4th year vested option should he meet health related incentives, which would bring the deal to $51 million total.

While I have been on record numerous times on this site saying my first option at closer would be to sign JJ Putz at the price the Mets signed K-Rod at how could I not be on board?  This was a good get by Omar, but he still has a lot of holes to fill yet this offseason.

With that said, again, great job on this Omar and welcome to Flushing, K-Rod.  By the way what number are you going to wear?  Another pretty good pitcher on the Mets already wears your #57.

Update 12/9 6:15pm EST: It’s Official: K-Rod is a Met

I have spent probably two hours today reading stories just on the subject of K-Rod and the Mets. After sifting through the facts It does not take a genius to figure out that the Mets will more than likely land the record breaking closer.  The only issue that remains is what price they will acquire him at.  This is what we know:

1. The Mets have offered K-Rod a 2-year deal with a third year option at $12 million per.
2. Omar is doing a masterful job of providing the Mets with plenty of leverage in their negotiations.  By meeting with Brian Fuentes and Trevor Hoffman it puts pressure on K-Rod and his agent to get the deal done because if the Mets sign Hoffman let’s say, who is going to give K-Rod his money? Continue Reading »