Newsday’s David Lennon has the Bellagio lobby staked out and reports the New York Mets and free agent reliever Francisco Rodriguez have been spotted, well, trying to get to the elevator.
Moving through that wall of humanity minutes ago was Francisco Rodriguez, his family in tow, holding a large stuffed animal. After dropping them off, K-Rod was back downstairs again, this time chatting with Mets’ VP of player development, Tony Bernazard.
When approached by reporters, K-Rod said the Mets told him not to talk about their discussions, so that was that. With various reports surfacing that the team had offered him a three-year deal, SI.com knocked that down to two with an option, which is crazy.
It’s incredible to think that K-Rod’s agent, Paul Kinzer, actually began this offseason thinking of a five-year contract for his client. With a very limited market, however, and the Mets having no one to really bid against, they’re going to get him at a bargain rate, no matter what it ends up being by the time it’s finished.
Mets Blog’s Matthew Cerrone claims the Mets are meeting today with representatives of the Beverly Hills Sports Council to discuss the status of Trevor Hoffman and Brian Fuentes. I like to imagine the BHSC is helmed by Ian Ziering, instead of say, Jeff Borris, but perhaps I just need a good night’s sleep.
An unnamed source of Baseball Prospectus’ John Perrotto claims free agent P CC Sabathia “does not want to sign with the Yankees or Red Sox and instead prefers to either remain with the Brewers or return to his native California and sign with either the Dodgers or Giants so he can stay in the National League.” That seems reasonable enough, but try to imagine, if you will, the Players Association flipping out over how such a decision might affect the rest of the market. The only two persons more eager for Sabathia to sign with the Yankees than Hankenstein and Brian Cashman are Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett.