| Christopher Reina. 9th December, 2008 - 7:36 pm
 29, 3.
Those were perhaps the two most important numbers during the New York Mets' 2008 season.
Twenty-nine blown saves.
Three games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.
They could blame the Billy Wagner injury, but he blew seven saves himself. Alhough their bullpen problems were more widespread than just Wagner, he wasn't exactly Automatic Mo Rivera.
But neither was Francisco Rodriguez, who himself blew seven saves and came to terms with the Mets on a three-year deal on Tuesday.
K-Rod really became Save-Rod in 2008 by setting the single season record for saves with 62, five more than Bobby Thigpen.
The belief that Rodriguez is already trending downwards, however, is accurate from just about every statistical measurement. His K rate, WHIP and ERA+ have all gotten worse from his excellent 2004 and 2006 seasons.
His velocity is down and there are six other closers with a better ERA+ over the past two seasons than Rodriguez (Nathan, Saito, Soria, Papelbon, Rivera and Putz). In terms of dominance, he is in that second tier and doesn't merit the kind of reach it will likely to take to sign him.
Thirty-seven million over three years is a relative steal for the Mets, who were the only big market team looking for a closer and also shrewdly and very loudly kicked the tires on making a trade for a closer with the White Sox on Bobby Jenks, Mariners on J.J. Putz and Rockies on Huston Street. Trading out a highly coveted prospect for one of these closers with Rodriguez sitting there on the open market would have been an unneeded and overly complicated maneuver.
The Angels offered Rodriguez just $3M less last winter for an extension.
The length will put Rodriguez in a Mets' uniform for his 27th, 28th and 29th years, which should remain relatively level in terms of overall efficiency.
For Rodriguez, he avoids a dreaded one-year deal, gets to play for a perennial contender, and without much competition beyond the Mets, his agent Paul Kinzer did relatively well.
Grade for Mets: B+ |
