Saturday, July 16, 2011

Why Trading Away Francisco Rodriguez is a Good Thing

After a long day at work on Tuesday, I come home only to hear that closer Francisco Rodriguez has been traded away to the Milwaukee Brewers. My initial thoughts consisted of "Why would we do that? We're still in the Wild Card hunt." and "Uh-oh, here comes the fire sale." But after a few days of thinking about the deal, it actually makes sense. Here's why.


With Jose Reyes becoming a free agent and given the current financial situation that the team is in, the Mets could not afford (literally and figuratively) to pick up the option of $17.5 million if he had finished 55 games this season. Having already finished 34 games, it seemed in all likelihood that the option would be picked up and the Mets would lose Reyes.

Reyes has become invaluable to this team in what could possibly be an MVP type season. Hitting .354 with 30 stolen bases, 15 triples, an on base percentage of just under .400 (.398) [that's a good thing], and slugging a shade under .530 (.529) Reyes will likely land a big contract somewhere including with the Mets now that there is no worry of K-Rod reaching his mark.
With the contracts of Rodriguez, Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran all coming off the books, the organization can make a legitimate offer to Reyes.

But, the risk with that comes with this trade is that the bullpen becomes unsettled with no roles set for players like Bobby Parnell, Pedro Beato, Ryota Igarashi, and Jason Isringhausen. This could mean that the team falls out of contention and the fire sale begins. This is something that no fan ever wants to see. If that happens then the already slim turnout at Citi Field will become an empty cavern.

The K-Rod trade makes sense, but it will not be worth it if there is no payoff.

Posted by metfan722  
Bookmark this post:
Facebook Twitter Yard Barker DiggIt! Del.icio.us Reddit Newsvine Technorati Yahoo Google

0 comments:

Post a Comment