In a post to his
Daily News Blog, Adam Rubin writes about the Mets bullpen situation and catcher glut.
According to Rubin, yesterdays signing of Calero is not keeping the Mets from looking into another lefty to match up with Feliciano. Rubin says the Mets"appear to prefer Joe Beimel over fellow free agent Ron Mahay. Still, the offers are lowball, with Mahay only offered a minor-league deal." At this point, low-balling is not a bad thing in my mind in that, had these guys been offered better deals they probably would have jumped on them by now. Regardless, I think a second lefty is a great idea, and would go a long way towards proving my theory, that the team will use Feliciano as their primary set-up man.
In the same article Rubin talks about Santos and Coste as trade possibilities for the Mets later on in camp. Rubin specifically mentions the Orioles and Rangers as two teams who may have interest, mainly because of the youth both teams currently have behind the plate. Although I think Santos is probably a better player than Coste, and would bring back a slightly better return, I can see Coste being the one who is dealt. It's be basically for the same reasons we were told the Mets got him. Coste could serve as a mentor to Salty/Teagarden in Texas or Weiters in Baltimore. But Rubin tends to think that Omir would be the one out the door, and also throws out the option that Coste's ability to play other positions could allow the Mets to keep three catchers at Triple-A. Interesting...
Either way, whichever catcher isn't dealt will probably stick around and help Thole out at Triple-A, while Rubin projects Shawn Riggans to go to Binghamton and get some playing time there. One way or the other, someone's getting traded or sent down to Binghamton. I guess how they play this spring will be the deciding factor...
