NewsMets steer clear of arbitration offers
Delgado, Tatis, Putz could be back with club next year
By Marty Noble / MLB.com
12/01/09 9:40 PM EST
NEW YORK -- The Mets accomplished something Tuesday by doing nothing. The deadline for offering salary arbitration to the free agents who were with the club last season approached, and the club announced it would make no offers to its six remaining free agents -- Carlos Delgado, Fernando Tatis, Gary Sheffield, J.J. Putz, Elmer Dessens and Ramon Martinez.
The Mets' inaction had been expected. The absence of offers doesn't prohibit the club from re-signing any of the six. Delgado, Tatis and, to a lesser degree, Putz still have appeal to the Mets. Had the club offered arbitration, it would have run the risk of having the players accepting. In the case of Delgado, an offer and acceptance probably would have obligated the club to a salary comparable to the $12 million he earned last season.
Even if the club was certain it wanted to re-sign Delgado -- and it is anything but -- it was quite sure it didn't want to pay that much for a 37-year-old first baseman with, at best, ordinary defensive skills, who missed most of last season. And as much as manager Jerry Manuel wants another year of Tatis, the club senses it might be able to acquire a player with comparable skills and less age and contract.
Of the six Mets, only Delgado and Tatis would have brought the club compensation -- an extra selection between the first and second rounds of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft in June -- if he signed with a different organization club after receiving an offer of arbitration.
The Mets were interested in what other clubs, particularly the Giants, did. Free-agent catcher Bengie Molina is on their list of possible additions. Unlike Delgado and Tatis, he is a Type A free agent, meaning the club would lose its second-round selection to the Giants if it signed Molina after arbitration had been offered. But a person familiar with the Mets' thinking said Tuesday losing a second-round selection would not be a major concern.
The person also said the chance of the club acquiring its regular catcher via a trade is about equal to its chance for signing Molina or another free agent. The trade possibilities are Chris Snyder of the D-backs and Gerald Laird of the Tigers, neither of whom is likely to provide the offense the Mets seek from their catcher. They spoke with the Rangers about Laird last offseason and more recently have inquired about Snyder.
Neither the club's signing of veteran catcher Chris Coste and nor the presence of incumbent near-regular Omir Santos preclude the Mets from pursuing a catcher to handle the majority of the innings.
Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
