213 Miles From Shea

In November, the Mets released Ryota Igarashi and he has now signed with a new team.

There are reports out saying that Igarashi signed a split contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you are like me, and were unsure what a split contract is, well here you go: A split contract is a contract that includes separate salary for time in the minor leagues vs time in the major leagues.

Igarashi with the Mets showed a lot of promise when he first started. At the time he looked like the set-up man of the future. However, after his first injury, when he came back, he was never quite the same. Overall with the Mets he posted an ERA of 5.74 (79 appearances).

The Mets signed him to a 2 year contract worth 3 million.

You know what you can still purchase from MLB.com?

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(Ok, I guess if you read the title of the article, you already knew the answer of that question)

Seriously though, WHY DO THEY STILL HAVE THESE?

When it comes to making fun of the Mets, both of New York's tabloid Sport Papers can agree on the best course of action to take:

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The Mets have made a collection of small moves in the last 24 hours ranging from the minors to working out the major league roster. The story up to this point is that the Mets needed to make room on their 40 man for Rauch and Francisco, and in addition they needed to figure out who they would tender contracts to at the tender deadline. In the last 24 hours the Mets have completed the following moves:

– Ronny Paulino non-tendered

– Mike Baxter non-tendered

– Mike Pelfrey Tendered

– Manny Acosta Tendered

– Ramon Ramirez Tendered

– Andres Torres Tendered

– Lucas Hay Signed

– Jeremy Hefner Claimed

– Garett Olson Signed

Let's Break This Down:

The Mets were expected to cut Paulino who never really fit on the team. The question now becomes how will the Mets deal with the back up catcher vacancy. They could sign a free agent, or they could save their money for an infielder (or one of the new pitchers that were just non-tendered by another team) and use Mike Nickeas as a back up catcher. The signing of Lucas Hay also seems like a back up, back up option for the Mets behind the plate.

Offering Pelfrey arbitration was expected, Acosta was also expected. Ditto for Ramirez and Torres.

The next questions for the Mets is how they will fit Rauch and Francisco on the roster if they make another signing, especially with Hefner now on the roster.

Aaron Rowand has started his path back the NL East as he just signed a minor league deal with the Miami Marlins.

(Just saying that if was a minor league deal he wanted, I would have totally done that)

Anyway, Rowand was cut last year by the Giants after hitting .233. He has one year left on his contract and the Giants still owe him 12 million for the upcoming season (minus the major league minimum of course). MLB Trade Rumors reports hat the last time he posted a positive WAR was back in 2009. Still, having a player in the minors like Rowand, that could come back to form at at any time, is a huge plus for the Marlins.

If he makes the team, and I don't really see where he fits, but lets say he needs to make a start somewhere on the field, he will receive a lot of lineup protection thanks to names like Reyes, Ramirez, Stanton, and so forth. If you recall, when he was with the Giants at first he was the center piece of their lineup. A lot of people credit his success in Philly to his protection from Rollins, Howard, etc.

In the craziness of the winter meetings, there was a picture I wanted to post, and just forgot, so here it is! It is the New York Post the day after Reyes's unveiling, and I'm not sure if I agree with their analysis (However, I rarely agree with the post):

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It has now been one week since Reyes made it clear that he was going to become a Miami Marlin.

At this time last week, I, like many Mets fans, was just depressed. I thought the Mets would have no chance in 2012, that it would take years to win again, that the offense would never be the same, and that the Mets lost a key part of their identity.

I'm not going to say here that we are a playoff caliber team, but after losing Reyes, Alderson did make the necessary moves to make the Mets a better team, and we will still be competitive. When it comes to reality, even with Reyes signing, we probably were not a playoff team because our problem wasn't the offense! Last year, with Reyes having a career year, we were 6th in scoring. However that includes Reyes, Murphy and Wright missing considerable time. Most importantly, it includes Davis missing almost the entire season. There is enough evidence that even without Reyes, we can still have a strong offense.

The downfall of the Mets last year was an ineffective bullpen and a mediocre rotation. The only improvements the rotation has made this offseason is hoping that Santana is ready for next season (and then, of course, we lost Capuano). The bullpen did go through significant improvements with Rauch, Francisco and Ramirez. It's not the best, but a lot better than what we had before.

The other aspect holding the Mets back is that the NL East is a very strong division. The Phillies are still the Phillies with an amazing rotation. The Marlins are set to have a lot of new talent to a lineup that was already good and rotation that was already good. Finally, the some of the best bullpens are in the NL East. It is just tough to be in the NL East.

We have a lot of talent coming up, we have a lot of talent, some undervalued, at the Majors right now. As someone said on Twitter, and I forgot who, the Mets won't go 40-122 just because we don't have Reyes. We are not a playoff contending team, there are problems with ownership, but at least, right now, we can still play competitively.