METS TRADE RHP FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ AND CASH CONSIDERATIONS
TO MILWAUKEE BREWERS FOR TWO PLAYERS TO BE NAMED LATER
FLUSHING, N.Y., July 12, 2011 – The New York Mets tonight announced that they have traded RHP pitcher Francisco Rodriguez and cash considerations to the Milwaukee Brewers for two players to be named later.
Rodriguez this season was 2-2 with a 3.16 ERA and 23 saves in 26 appearances. Last year, he was 4-2 with a 2.20 ERA and 25 saves in 53 games; in his first year with the Mets in 2009, he was 3-6 with a 3.71 ERA and 35 saves in 70 games. For the Mets, Rodriguez was 9-10 with a 3.05 ERA with 83 saves in 165 games.
The 29-year-old was signed as a free agent by the Mets on December 10, 2008, after seven seasons with the Angels. Since breaking into the Majors in 2002, Rodriguez has a 32-27 record with a 2.54 ERA and 291 saves in 573 appearances.
“We thank Frankie for his contributions to the Mets and wish him well with the Brewers,” said Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson. “This trade allows us to develop and more fully utilize other members of our 2011 bullpen and offers some payroll relief as well.”
Alderson will address the media via conference call Wednesday at a time to be determined tomorrow.
Sigh. So it begins. 2 players to be named? Wow. Desperation to cut payroll? Fire sale time?
I can’t quite get behind this or bemoan it yet. Very interested to hear what Alderson has to say today.
All along one thing remains the same for me. If the Mets were incapable of operating as a team next season due to Frankie Rodriguez vesting option, then quite frankly the Mets owners should be put in the same gun to head position as the Dodgers.
Never liked the vesting option but it was for one year, not a decade, and it simply shows that the Mets ownership are not sound minds at business, at very least the business of baseball, because at one time they saw that option as not a problem.
“Rodriguez this season was 2-2 with a 3.16 ERA and 23 saves in 26 appearances.”
Actually, no.
Frankie has appeared in 42 games this season.
I like this move, especially as the first of many. Face it we were gonna finish in fourth or fifth with him anyway.
Lets give Parnell a shot!
That is the famous try to disprove the unprovable argument. The Mets are 43-32 since their bizarre and wretched start to the season, with many of those first 13 losses (at least 4 if not 5) being very winnable games in which the bullpen tanked.
So how exactly is a team that has been playing .575 baseball without David Wright and Ike Davis for nearly 80% of that stretch something we are supposed to face as 4th or last anyway. If the Mets continued to pace at .575 they would have netted 86 wins. The plus/minus of potentially pulling out four or five more wins with Ike Davis and David Wright likely to return had much better odds with an established closer than Bobby Parnell.
If you really think the Mets have a shot at the playoffs at this point–one game over .500 after 91 games, 7 1/2 behind the wild card leader, and with 4 additional teams in-between–that’s great, but I have one simple question for you:
Would you bet $17.5 million on it?
Unfortunately, the business aspects of modern baseball made this trade necessary. With a “win now or die by using free agents” mentality, the Mets made contracts under Omar (albeit approved by the check-writing Wilpons)that people thinking about the longer road and bigger picture would never have considered. And as well as Beltran has played this season (and remember, his history with the Mets has been injury-riddled), his trade will likely set up a better future for the Mets in a season or two. Frankly, at this point in his career Beltran is better suited to play in the AL as a permanent Pinch Hitter (better known as a DH) than as a fully rounded player on both offense and defense.
K-Rod is still a good, and at times very good, pitcher. But he is no longer the awesome pitcher he was earlier in his career with the Angels. Hopefully for the remainder of this season the Mets will have Izzy closing and Parnell acting as his apprentice in the 8th inning.
Wait…what? Is this an onion…er, apple…or is this real?
The two players to be named has me thrown for a loop.It’s not as if he was a bum.
his contract option was obscene for most teams, including the Brewers, but it also goes to show, for months he was considered a dead weight untradeable and the most unfathomable of locations has reared its head.
I have to give Sandy the benefit on this one…last few times I watched K-Rod, he was topping out at 89 MPH. If the Mets kept him and somehow got into contention, he would likely have blown a big save or two.
That makes, no sense.
Well, sometimes players are traded because if you look at what they are doing on the field, something isn’t quite right. This guy used to throw in the high 90s and now barely hits 91 once in awhile. I think you will see him blowing some big games when the heat is on.
If Rodriguez did not have very good secondary pitches I would agree, and frankly his secondary pitches are often his primary pitches. This year he has an unusually high BABIP of .342, so yes while he is not blowing people away he is also at the mercy of some bad luck. His career BABIP is .274, even if he regressed some to a norm based on his lost fastball, it would be in line with the .294 he had last year, not over .340. All that being said when he was hurling his fastball an average of 94 mph in 2007, his BABIP was .299, so again, often it is where the ball bounces.
Pitching in New Shea probably helps him too. I am scared when a guy loses 5 MPH…when he faces a good tem in a pennant race, they will lay off the junk and sit on fastballs. If he has a day where he can’t get the breaking ball over, he’s toast.
Whatever. Wake me up when this franchise actually achieves something than starting another rebuilding process.