Not surprisingly, the Mets made an offer of 3 years for $36 million dollars today to Derek Lowe. If you had asked me to make a prediction on what I thought the opening bid would be, it would be this. It is a safe bet that is neither a low ball offer nor too high to start. Derek Lowe will not sign for this and I still think he gets four years and around $52 million dollars. I wouldn't even rule out a fifth year option since Boras is involved. However, I am happy the Mets are progressing.
I expect there will be an offer to Oliver Perez tomorrow. He would probably get an offer very similar. It it were me, I prefer Perez. He is left-handed, much younger and he loves the spotlight. Lowe is a safe bet also since he is an inning eater, playoff tested, and perennially healthy. I get the sense that the Mets want Lowe because he is a vet that throws a lot of innings and they would love to get back a couple of draft picks since they are losing them from K-Rod and possibly Lowe. Randy Wolf is a distant third choice that I really think has a stronger market that Lowe or Perez based on his mediocrity. More teams can afford a mediocre pitcher than a premium guy at this point.
I assume that the Mets will sign Lowe at this point. I am guessing it will be around 4 years for $52 million dollars. I would be very happy with that. Add that to the K-Rod deal and you are still under $100 million dollars. At that point, I firmly believe you have to either go after Oliver Perez or Manny Ramirez . This off-season has shown the Mets can get some bargain deals. What good are they unless you can exploit that and sign additional players?
The next couple of days will lay out the future. Good luck Mets faithful. We need it.
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