…and the Houston Chronicle’s Jose De Jesus Ortiz says he’s signing with the Mets. Newsday’s Jon Heyman also claims a Mets announcement is imminent.
The Mets and Beltran were said to be “only $4 million or $5 million apart” in negotiations. The Mets had bid $112 million and were believed willing to bump the bid slightly, to perhaps $115 million if it would secure their chances to land the player who batted .267 with 38 home runs, 104 RBIs and 42 stolen bases last year.
Boras was working hard to get the Mets to raise their $112-million bid throughout the day. Mets people were in lockdown mode again and not speaking about their talks, but they were having to decide whether to raise what they believe may be the high bid.
Sorry folks, but the potential “Miracle” signings of Beltran and Pedro smacks of, I dunno, Bret Saberhagen and Vince Coleman.
Face it — every big splash free agent signing the Mets make implodes.
Enjoy the firecrackers and bleach, kids!
What, you didn’t think George Foster, Bobby Bonilla, Eddie Murray, Robbie Alomar or Roger Cedeno were worth citing?
Actually, Saberhagen wasn’t a free agent. He came to the Mets in December of ’91 in with Bill “you’re gonna love him” Pecota in exchange for Kevin McReynolds, Gregg jefferies and Keith Miller.
And while your general point — that most of their big ticket free agent signings have been collossal busts —- the Mets have had some success with pricey vets they’ve acquired via the trade route (often when their trading partner was dumping salary or couldn’t re-sign the player in question). The deals that brought Gary Carter, Frank Viola and Mike Piazza come to mind (though they did give up Rick Aquilera in the Viola trade).
Sabes had the even/odd year thing happening and turned out to have a thing for menacing sportswriters with a bleach-loaded supersoaker. Pedro, at his nuttiest, has yet to pull such a stunt, and has been far more consistent (though is of slighter frame than Saberhagen and seems a massive longshot to produce at a high level for the life of his contract). But the comparison of Beltran to Coleman just doesn’t wash. That the Mets seem willing to overpay for Beltran cannot be denied. But for a change they’re overpaying for a player who is on the left side of 30 years old and is a multi-dimensional talent