AP 10:15 p.m. EST update: Gulp. FOXSports.com’s Jon Paul Morosi states that the deal is worth $12 million over two years. Apparently, the Mets didn’t get the note that there are more closers available than teams needing them.
10:10 p.m. EST update: Jon Heyman confirms the original report from Newsday’s Ken Davidoff. No word on terms yet, though $4 million per season is a pretty good guess.
///
Who knew the Mets would suddenly turn into the busiest team of the winter meetings?
The team has rebuilt its bullpen on the fly tonight, inking Frank Francisco to a two-year deal mere minutes after signing Jon Rauch for one year and picking up Ramon Ramirez in a swap of center fielders Angel Pagan and Andres Torres.
Francisco almost certainly will be the closer in the group, with Rauch, Ramirez and Bobby Parnell battling for seventh- and eighth-inning duties.
Francisco, 32, had a 3.55 ERA and 17 saves in 21 chances for the Blue Jays last season. Talented but injury-prone, he’s thrown 60 innings just once since debuting with the Rangers in 2004. He has, however, struck out 368 batters in 334 career innings and posted a sub-4.00 ERA four straight seasons.
-
- JBerardi - Dec 6, 2011 at 10:15 PM
-
Buying an expensive bullpen for your non-competitive team is the new market inefficiency.
-
- sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo - Dec 6, 2011 at 11:05 PM
-
Kudos Mets. Better than $50MM+ for Papelbon for similar skills
-
- friznitz5 - Dec 7, 2011 at 12:34 PM
-
Is this a joke? Papelbon WAR over the last 7 seasons – 17.1. Francisco WAR over the last 7 seasons – 5.6.
Pap has 6 years of 30+ saves. Francisco’s top two years are 25 and 17.
-
- foreverchipper10 - Dec 7, 2011 at 5:56 PM
-
I think he means the collective signings as a whole, not just Francisco.
-
- proudlycanadian - Dec 6, 2011 at 11:43 PM
-
He was very erratic last season. Toronto fans did not want Francisco and Rauch back.
-
- cshearing - Dec 7, 2011 at 8:10 AM
-
Very much so, Both were disasters in big situations, not traits you want in your late inning relievers.
-
- Francisco (FC) - Dec 7, 2011 at 8:23 AM
-
It’s safe to say the Mets are going to the Orioles of the NL East…
-
- sdelmonte - Dec 7, 2011 at 9:39 AM
-
I want to say something positive about my team.
Something positive!
-
- friznitz5 - Dec 7, 2011 at 12:30 PM
-
This is ridiculous. The guy made $4M last year and was borderline decent. Now we’re paying him 50% MORE than that for two years? Good grief.
Obviously Torres was just baggage in the Pagan-Ramirez deal. He’s awful. Are we seriously looking at a starting outfield of Murph-Bay-Duda?
