Washburn Like Seattle/Minnesota, Garland Signs with San Diego

And then there were three...options.

There was a rush on starting pitching today, and none of it rushed into New York. First the A's sign Ben Sheets, then a report came out from Jon Morosi on FOXSports.com, basically saying he heard from a source that Washburn wants to pitch for a short list of teams including, Minnesota and Seattle. Morosi then goes on to say that the list, "may not be much longer than that." That doesn't sound too promising for the Mets. And now there's a report from Rosenthal on twitter that Jon Garland has signed with the Padres for one year, $5.3 million.

I'm not upset the Mets missed out on Garland, or that Washburn seems less interested in any town not Seattle or Minneapolis, but couple the loss of those options with the signing of Sheets by Oakland earlier today and I'm getting slightly concerned.

At this point the only options that are still out there for the Mets are John Smoltz, Chien-Ming Wang and a trade for Bronson Arroyo. I'd take one of those moves, would prefer two (involving a Smoltz bullpen swing situation), but if none of the above happens and the Mets decide to stay with Nieve as their fifth starter, I won't be pleased.

This team came into the offseason trying to improve their starting pitching, and with pitchers and catchers not all that far from reporting, the Mets are yet to address that need.