Adam Rubin at the NY Daily News is reporting that Freddy Garcia has agreed to a minor league deal with the Mets. According to Rubin, the deal is loaded with incentives that could reach up to $8-9 million for the year if Garcia reaches them all. In the end, it seems that the Mets beat out the Yankees, Rangers, and White Sox for Garcia's services.
This is a great signing for the Mets, especially because it seems to be a minor league deal as the Daily News is reporting. The Mets need to sign a couple risk/reward guys to bring in as insurance and as possible rotation members if they prove to be healthy and serviceable. Garcia will not be a signing instead of a Sheets, Perez, Wolf, Garland. Rather, from what I can gather around the block is that Perez or Sheets most likely will be signed hopefully and Garcia, Redding, Niese, et al. will compete for the 5th spot and stay in waiting in the event of an injury.
There is a lot of grumbling that the Mets may now be setting their sights on Sheets for a couple years rather than the four or five year deal that Perez wants. It would seem that the Mets coul use a Sheets signing as a way to get to Parnell and Niese in a year or two. Next year's free agent class is pretty slim, except for John Lackey and Justin Duchscherer (Rich Harden & Erik Bedard are also FA, but injury risks as well). I am still a fan of locking up Perez for a deal and do not see four years as to much. He is only 27 years old and has been very reliable. If he can mature, get his emotions in check, and work a little less to accomplish more, I think he can easily be a 200 inning guy for several years.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Sheets. I think we will see him end up somewhere within a week or two.
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