Sandy's Brief Shopping Spree

During a period of a few hours on Tuesday night, Sandy Alderson managed to acquire 3 relief pitchers and a center fielder. These additions will help bolster the Mets bullpen.

Big man Jon Rauch was signed to a one year, $3.5 million deal. The 6’11, 33 year old will likely compete with Bobby Parnell for the Mets’ closing job, and the two will

 probably be interchangeable in the set-up man and closer roles.

The club also inked relief pitcher Frank Francisco to a 2-year, $12 million deal. Francisco is 32 years old, and spent last year in Toronto with Rauch while notching 17 saves and recording a 3.55 ERA. 

Both big signings, the additions of Rauch and Francisco weren’t the biggest Mets news of the night. The club completed a trade with the Giants that sent Angel Pagan to San-Fran, bringing relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez and center fielder Andres Torres to New York.

Ramirez has posted a 2.07 ERA since moving to the Giants in 2010, and Sandy Alderson has said that he will become the team’s seventh inning man for next season.

Since they were losing the club’s starting center fielder, the trade sent Torres --an excellent defensive player-- to become Pagan’s replacement; this clearly addressed Alderson’s desire to improve the club defensively.

Overall, this total revamp of the bullpen was a bargain; the total damage was a mere $9 million dollar hole: $14 million in acquisitions minus the $5 million contract of Pagan. Putting financials aside, any number of the new additions could become a breakout, bargain player, the type the Mets have had success with over the past few years, and they will all certainly bolster the club’s bullpen.

After the loss of Jose Reyes, this shopping spree signals the Mets moving on and entering an era of rebuilding. Though I do not believe the team will end up being as bad as many people seem to think, they need to slow the pace down and focus on forging the team for the years to come.