Mets Closer Situation - Sussman's Angle

As all talkingNYsports readers know, we love hearing other people's opinions. Sussman and others will be writing a bit for talkingNYsports. As usual, feel free to comment! Here is Sussman's view of the Met Closure Situation:


SUSSMAN

The Mets appear to have several possible options for closer next year, and none seem overly appealing to me.

The most popular – and likely – option is K-Rod. There is no doubt that he would make the Mets a better team, and strengthen their bullpen for 2009, but is the cost really worth it? He saved a Major League record 62 games, but saves can be a misleading stat. Was he better than Mariano Rivera, who saved 39 games? No way! Yankees just were involved in a lot more blowouts and had many less save chances.

That’s not to say that K-Rod isn’t great. He’s probably the 4th best closer in baseball behind Papelbon, Rivera, and Nathan. But he wants to be paid more than them. 5 years 75 million seems a bit excessive to me. I could see this contract becoming an albatross in a few years. His K/IP ratio has declined every year since 2004 when it was 13.18 to 2008 when it was 10.14. Still very dominant, but the downward trend worries me. As does his very violent delivery which is a recipe for an injury.
Of course the Mets can likely afford a contract which they may regret in 2012 and 2012 in light of the alternatives and how bad their pen was this past year.

As for those alternatives:
I have ZERO interest in Brian Fuentes. He wants 10 million a year, and the only year the Rockies were any good, he lost his job midseason. He’s also 33 – certainly no spring chicken.

Trevor Hoffman may be the all times saves leader, but he’s also no Rivera – not even in his prime. Now, he’s certainly well past that prime. He also never met a big save he didn’t blow: 1998 World Series, 2006 All Star Game, 2 games in the final weekend of 2007 which could have clinched the division. If not for the Mets choke of 2007 – he would have gotten a lot more negative attention.

Then there is Kerry Wood. Wood obviously is a HUGE injury risk, but because of that, likely won’t cost nearly as much as K-Rod, and would sign for fewer years. Wood, had a very good year, with 34 saves, and proved he still can be dominant when he is on his game. He struck out 84 batters in 66.1 innings this year. If he could be convinced to sign a 1-2 year deal, I think he may be the way to go.

Sussman