Matt Pignataro of Seven Train to Shea tweeted that Buster Olney of ESPN said on air this morning that the Mets could end up signing free-agent OF Jason Bay within the next 48 hours.

Bart Hubbuch believes Bay’s options are disappearing and resolution with the Mets “should be coming soon.” Mark Feinsand hears the Yankees don’t trust Bay’s defense and Buster Olney believes there’s no chance the Yankees bid on Bay or Matt Holliday. The Red Sox “officially” pulled out of the Bay sweepstakes on Monday, according to Gordon Edes.

The Giants, Mariners and Angels have shown interest. Earlier this month,  Geoff Baker wrote that the Mariners were making a “concerted push” for Bay. On SNY’s Hot Stove Report, Jon Heyman told Kevin Burkhardt that the Mariners are “not a serious player” for Jason Bay, the Braves and Giants don’t appear to be engaged with Bay and the Angels aren’t focused on him now, leaving the Mets as the only team actively pursuing the free agent left fielder.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jason Bay Rumors: Friday (mlbtraderumors.com)
• Buzz: Bowden on Bay & Molina, Holliday & Mystery Team (metsblog.com)
• Buzz: on Mark Derosa, the Yankees and Mets (metsblog.com)

Mark Healey at Baseball Digest tweets “Mets are in serious talks with Reds” for Bronson “Arroyo-plus, I’m not being told who the other player is”

Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse recently tweeted that the Reds were still trying to trade Aaron Harang, who is due to earn $12.5 million next season with an 2011 option for $12.7 million.

Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times hears that the Dodgers are discussing a deal for Harang with the Reds asking for one or two major league players.

Healey hears Ike Davis has not been included in part of the talks thus far, he stated that the Reds want young MLB or minors back, along the lines of RHP Bobby Parnell and RHP Brad Holt.

“If Mets just wanted (Bronson), the deal might have been done already,” said one baseball official familiar with the talks. “Mets are also discussing one, maybe two other players with Cincinnati.”

Healey has more about this in his post at Baseball Digest.

@RedReporter who blogs about the Cincinnati Reds at RedReporter.com tells me that the Reds needs are SS, LF, and starting pitcher.

Back on December 6th, I wrote the following as part of my Mets off season plan…

A solid top of the rotation starter instantly gives the Mets credibility. They can’t expect to be taken seriously going after the likes of Jon Garland and Jason Marquis. With the Reds seemingly trying to shed payroll, they could look to Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang, both who are a tier above the types of pitchers that the Mets seem to be aiming for this off season. The Marlins say they’re not dealing Josh Johnson this off season, but you have to figure they’ll be listening with Johnson nearing free agency and the Marlins penchant for fire sales. Outside of John Lackey, who will demand far more than he’s worth, there is very little free agent pitching talent available. The only way the Mets will be able to find that top of the rotation arm they need is through trade.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Brandon Phillips: What’s His Trade Market? (bleacherreport.com)
• Bronson Arroyo: What’s His Trade Market? (bleacherreport.com)

The Mets have “a basic agreement to sign relief pitcher Ryota Igarashi according to NPB Tracker on twitter, based on a report from Japanese site Sansho.com

Igarashi’s agent Arn Tellum was quoted by NPB Tracker in another tweet saying “the fine points of the contract” are still being worked out.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mets Are Close to Signing a Japanese Relief Pitcher (nytimes.com)

Jon Heyman reports that the Mets increased their offer from a four year deal to five years for slightly less money per year. Bay now seems to be going for a six year deal. The Mets will meet with Scott Boras as early as Wednesday to discuss a possible deal for Holliday.

Buster Olney disputes the report, saying the Mets offer for Bay stands at four years but they could go to five eventually. He also believes the Mets are monitoring the Holliday talks but are not actively involved.

John Harper sees the Mets drawing the line for Bay at five years.

However @NPBtracker on Twitter writes “Despite Mets reports, Sponichi has Red Sox in the lead for Igarashi with 2-year, $2-3m deal.”

It seems more and more likely the Sox are in the drivers seat. Bart Hubbach tweets “Apparently not only are the Red Sox offering Igarashi more money than the Mets, but he wants to pitch alongside Dice K and Okajima.”

There is a translation of the article Hubbach is referring to at the blog Fonzie Forever, provided by @yaysarcasm

Igarashi missed all of 2007 due to Tommy John surgery.

He was courted by multiple teams, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, and Indians.

Last season Igarashi was 3-2 with a 3.19 earned run average in 56 games. He is likely to be in strong contention to be the set up man for Francisco Rodriguez.

Here’s video of Igarashi striking out the side last season. Hat tip to TheRopolitans.com

The Mets should clean house and hire smart, new people with fresh ideas that can give Mets fans a brand they can be proud of. Again and again Mets fans are embarrassed by the way their team is run from a business aspect. This trickles all the way down to the team and effects real wins and losses, and is already resulting in losing fans, as their slow ticket sales have proven.

Mets fans are in a panic over the fact that the top two pitchers of this offseason are off the market, but did the Mets ever have a realistic chance at either of them?

The Mets would have had to clear out what little they have in their farm system to get Roy Halladay and that assumes what they have the Jays would have been interested in to begin with. They could have overpaid for John Lackey, which is what the Red Sox did, but they would have committed a great deal of money to a pitcher who is unlikely to provide a return on that investment in the later years of a very long contract.

Let me be clear though, the way the pitching market is now, it is almost impossible not to overpay for pitching. The leverage that pitchers have, the lack of options on the market, especially this year, is forcing teams to put themselves into a position that will no doubt have consequences on how they will be able to improve their team later down the line.

The Mets could make a big splashy PR move and give Jason Bay the 5th year he’s pretty much guaranteed to get from someone, or they can break the bank for Matt Holliday, highly unlikely since he has a massive offer of 8-years at 16 million per from St. Louis. Neither of these would be wise. The Mets are better off waiting for a better crop of free agents in 2010, when Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Josh Beckett, and Brandon Webb can all be acquired with cash, not by trading.

It is a hard pill to swallow, fans in a market like New York are not used to being told their team should rebuild and wait for a better market that will allow the team to win for several years, rather than make a foolish run at a 2010 season. I wouldn’t completely write off 2010 either, the team as presently configured, although having huge holes in the starting rotation, could be respectable if healthy.

Wait until next year is tough to hear in December, before the rebirth in spring even gives you a chance to believe again. Until the Mets address their business from an internal standpoint, no number of player acquisitions will address the real problems that will continue to prevent them from being an elite baseball organization and a championship worthy ballclub.

This would be the most expensive deal in Cardinals franchise history.

Update 3:10pm, 12/15/09 – Contrary to Strauss’ report, Buster Olney believes the Cardinals are still stuck on five years for Holliday, and don’t believe there are too many teams able to bid on him.

Honestly, The Phillies probably made the move to better their team, but also probably did the deal to keep Halladay away from the Mets. Very shrewd move by Ruben Amaro and co.

Halladay is also 32 years of age, 2 years older than Lee. Halladay will probably cost the Phillies what Johan Santana cost the Mets. That deal may look good now, but in a few years when Halladay is 36 or 37 years of age, it may not.

The Mets need to make a move, but they have to be smart and not overreact to this news.

It is believed that the third team could be the Angels, who seem to be on the verge of losing out on John Lackey to the Boston Red Sox.

Update 3:56pm – Jon Heyman just reported that Cliff Lee has been traded to the Mariners, Roy Halladay goes to the Phillies, an unknown player goes to the Blue Jays. It is suspected the Blue Jays will get a bounty of prospects from both the Mariners and Phillies.

Update 5:36pm – Rosenthal and Morosi believe P Phillippe Aumont of the Mariners and “possibly” outfielder Michael Taylor of the Phillies are headed to Toronto in the trade.  OF Michael Saunders and P Brandon Morrow are possible as well

Update 3:18pm - Jon Heyman says the Red Sox and Lackey have agreed to a five-year, $85 million deal.

Buster Olney writes “There are signs they may have made a significant offer to free-agent LHP John Lackey.”

However David Lennon on Twitter said  the Mets have not made an offer to Lackey and are focused on Jason Bay at this point.

Ken Rosenthal reports that Bay has rejected the Red Sox latest offer. It is not known what that offer is. The last reported offer was in November and was for $60 million over four years, the Mets recently countered that offer with $65 million over four years. Rob Bradford of WEEI reports that a Major League source told the station an unnamed team has made Bay a five-year offer. David Lennon has been told it’s not the Mets. Gordon Edes hears from Bay’s agent that negotiations are ongoing and nothing will be decided this weekend.

A team source tells Bart Hubbuch that the Mets’ offer to Bay is heavily backloaded, starting out with a $10MM salary in the first year and increasing to $20MM in the final year. Hubbuch notes that Minaya often does this, citing Carlos Beltran’s deal as one example.

John Tomase at the Boston Herald hears that Bay’s agent countered Boston’s original four year, $60MM offer, asking for six years at $16-18MM annually.

In other news, several players of note were non-tendered, including Scott Olson, Chien-Ming Wang, Garrett Atkins, Ryan Church and Kelly Johnson.

The Mets non-tendered Tim Redding, Cory Sullivan, Jeremy Reed and Lance Broadway.

MLB Trade Rumors is keeping track of the non-tender deadline, which ends at midnight.

Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Red Sox have not made a counter offer to the Mets $65 million, four year offer to Jason Bay. Jon Heyman reported that Bay rejected the Sox $60 million, four year offer in November.

The Yankees non-tendered Chien-Ming Wang. Wang made $5 million last season. Wang is the fastest pitcher to record 50 wins since Dwight Gooden, doing so in his 85th start on April 22, 2008. Wang missed significant time later that year due to a foot injury and again last year with a shoulder injury. In 2006 he was runner up to Johan Santana in Cy Young voting.

“They’ve been very aggressive,” a baseball source told Verducci. “They’re putting together a package, even if they need another team. They’re trying to find the players [on other teams] the Blue Jays want to get it done.”

Meanwhile, SI.com’s Jon Heyman and Newsday’s David Lennon have differing opinions on whether the Mets will have a chance to sign Jon Lackey. Lennon told SNY’s Hot Stove Report he thinks the Mets will still push for Lackey even if they take on significant financial obligations to Jason Bay.

However Jon Heyman told SNY he “doesn’t see the Mets getting Lackey” citing the fact he prefers the west coast.

Alex Cora called in and said that there was both a positive and negative element in the clubhouse last season, and that the key to winning next season will be “pitching and defense” citing the team’s weak fundamentals.

Matt Holliday

Jason Bay

Other things to consider:

• Holliday helped by hitting behind Albert Pujols.
• Holliday helped by hitting in Coors Field.
• Bay slightly better fielder than Holliday and Bay much better arm.

Jim Zachowski at New York Hot Stove has done a tremendous job putting together a hit chart for both Bay and Holliday superimposed over the dimensions of CitiField. Hat tip to David Lennon at Newsday for bringing this to my attention.

Weigh in with your preference and why in the comments.

Francesa said he “knows” the Mets prefer Bay over OF Matt Holliday.

Francesa said he believes the Mets would will still have the money and players to try to acquire RHP Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays.

Update 2:30pm - The offer to Bay is $65 million over 4 years, $5 million more than the offer from the Red Sox.

Update 5:20pm – Peter Gammons believes this will be the Mets final offer and the Red Sox will wind up topping it, and ultimately resign Bay.

I have a hard time listening to Francesa when he had to have a caller inform him that Peter Gammons left ESPN. He’s horribly misinformed and his producers don’t seem to be much help.

That said, it’s possible he has sources with the Mets that might use Francesa to manipulate the market to their advantage and use Francesa as their patsy.

Time will tell.

Monasterios was 5–6 with a 3.73 ERA,with 71 strike outs in 82 innings. He was named to the Florida State League Mid-Summer All-Star Team.

In the minor league portion of the draft, the Mets selected RHP John Lujan and 1B Thomas Hubbard.

The Mets did not lose any players in the draft.

Mike Jacobs was released by the Kansas City Royals prior to the draft. He hit .226 with 18 HR last season a year after slugging 32 homers and driving in 92 runs.

The Mets are expected to extend a two-year deal to Bengie Molina before leaving Indianapolis today, according to Adam Rubin. Steve Popper expects one other offer to be made before the Mets leave.

Late last night, the Rangers traded C Max Ramirez to the Boston Red Sox for 3B Mike Lowell in addition to paying 9 million of the 12 left on Lowell’s contract.

The Mets renegotiated C Henry Blanco’s contract down to one-year, $775,000, instead of $1.5 million, due to concerns about his shoulder.

The Mets had been reported to have interest in OF Josh Willingham, but when they asked the Nationals what they wanted in return they said he was unavailable.

In other news, there is a must read post this morning over at MetsGrrl.com regarding the slow ticket plan renewals.

Speaking of money matters, you should head over to Rob Neyer’s Sweet Spot blog for a really interesting post about the state of the market and what is driving prices at this year’s Winter Meetings and beyond.

Given that the market has set the entry price so high for marginal pitching, will the Mets decide to pay a little more for the best available, which happens to be John Lackey?

Kevin Baxter at the LA Times isn’t so sure

The Mets, who say their focus is a top-of-the-rotation pitcher, remain interested in Lackey. But they’re also interested in cutting payroll, and after signing infielder Alex Cora ($2 million for 2010) and catcher Henry Blanco ($1.5 million), the Mets have just $25 million left to spend on contracts for next season. And Lackey’s agent, Joe Urbon, is asking for a better deal than the five-year, $82.5-million contract the Yankees gave to A.J. Burnett last season.

It’s hard to know who to believe. This morning Jon Heyman tweeted that the Mets are talking to the big three: Lackey, Matt Holliday, and Jason Bay. Talk is cheap though, and that doesn’t mean that the Mets will like what they hear enough to open up their wallets.

The market is fluid and there are variables that will change the prices for all three. Lackey’s price presumably has gone up with pitchers well below his talent having already received substantial deals. Holliday’s price will change depending on what suitors are left, which is dependent on if Jason Bay signs before he does and for how much. It will also depend on if one of those suitors signs Roy Halladay, making it unlikely they will want to spend more on Bay or Holliday.

The Mets renewed interest in going after the top talent is music to Mets fans ears, but they might be setting themselves up for disappointment when the team decides they can’t make the leap and prefer to go after a much better free agent class in the next two years.

The arrival of presents under Met fans collective trees are in limbo at the moment.

Baseball Hall of Fame journalist Peter Gammons has decided to pursue new endeavors and will no longer be a contributor to ESPN after this week’s winter meetings.

“My decision to leave ESPN and move on at this point in my life has been conflicted. I owe a great deal of my professional life to ESPN, having spent more than half of my 40 years in journalism working for the network, and the choice to move on was made with nothing but the strongest feelings for the people with whom I worked. ESPN gave me a great deal more than I gave it, and will always be a huge part of who I am.

“I will forever be joined at the hip with John Walsh, who hired me as an ink-stained wretch, plunked me on TV and has always been a guiding spirit. Understand how the people who run ESPN treat people: when I was felled by a severe aneurysm in 2006, George Bodenheimer, John Skipper, Norby Williamson, my former Boston Globe boss Vince Doria and everyone made certain that my family and I had the best care and support, far, far beyond any reasonable expectation. My ESPN life has been lined with foxhole people whom I’ll never forget.

“I’ve been able to work with my closest and oldest friends, like Jayson Stark, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, Peter Pascarelli, Jerry Crasnick and Charlie Moynihan.  I spent three seasons doing games with a producer, Tom Archer, who is among the most revered leaders I’ve ever met. I told everyone last October that the team baseball coordinating producer Jay Levy put together with Mark Preisler and Marc Carman was the most creative in my 20 years on the show. I apologize to hundreds of people I owe for all these years for not mentioning their names.

“You would have had to be there for 20 years to know how hard so many good people sweated in anonymity to make all of us look as if we knew what we were doing.

“My friend Tom Rush – who taught James Taylor and me our first guitar chords – once wrote how strange it seems to walk away alone. With no regrets.”

Granderson hit 30 homers, and knocked in 71 RBI last season while swiping 20 bases. His batting average was .249, a major dip from the .280 and .302 he hit in the prior two seasons. He had a .327 on-base percentage.

Ken Rosenthal believes the only thing holding the deal up is completing a medical review.

Torrealba talk, more likely than Molina?

David Lennon at Newsday reports that the Mets have met with the agent for Yorvit Torrealba and he could be a very real possibility since the years and money Bengie Molina is demanding may be too much for the Mets.

Reyes in studio next week with Mike Francesa

Jose Reyes will join Mike Francesa in studio next Wednesday, Dec 16th on WFAN to discuss his recovery this offseason.

• The rumor dujour this morning was floated by Joel Sherman, with the Mets sending John Maine to the Brewers for Corey Hart. It seems if the Mets were able to acquire Wolf they would look to trade Maine for Hart and look to trading for Kevin Millwood as well. While I like the acquisition of Millwood, the Maine to Hart deal makes no sense as Hart had declined sharply last year and would not fit in lineup with Molina and Jeff Francoeur with horrible OBPs.
• Randy Wolf seems to be trying to use the Mets for leverage in his search for a three year deal. He was reported to be close to a deal with the Brewers but is now talking to the Mets and others as well, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel.
• Mets signed a career minor leaguer by the name of Mike Hessman, who can play OF, 1B, and 3B.
• Mets also signed former manager Bob Melvin to be a Major League scout and possibly a manager in waiting, should Jerry Manuel become expendable.
• On the starting pitcher market, Mets are not inclined to give 5 years to RHP John Lackey and are interested in Edwin Jackson but do not have the pieces or are unwilling to trade the pieces to acquire him. The Mets are also believed to be interested in RHP Kelvin Escobar, who has pitched 1 game over the last 2 years. I do not see much there with a injury prone team and a injury prone pitcher… not really a good deal.
• Jayson Stark at ESPN tweeted that the Mets have interest in Mark DeRosa.

Not much else going on at the moment on the Mets front. We will provide another update later in the afternoon and will also give you news up to the second if it does indeed break before then.

Stay tuned.

Nick Camp contributed to this report.