K-Rod and Mets Closing in on Deal

Word is coming out that the Mets and Francisco Rodriguez are close to agreeing to a three year deal.  Lets use... ESPN for this one:

Sports Illustrated, the New York Post and Newsday reported that the team has offered K-Rod a three-year deal. It is a one-year increase over the two years and $24 million the team is said to have initially offered Rodriguez, who broke the major league single-season saves record last season with 62.

Sports Illustrated and Newsday reported that the deal is worth about $37 million. "It's going to get done,'' a person familiar with the talks said, according to SI.com. Rodriguez's agent, Paul Kinzer, said, "I am more optimistic than I have ever been" about finalizing a deal between K-Rod and the Mets, according to the Post. "We will know more in the next 24 hours, but so far everything has been positive."

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The contract would pay Rodriguez about $3 million more than he was offered by the Los Angeles Angels in spring training and $6 million less than Wagner's deal with the Mets, according to SI.com.

For a guy who seemed adament on getting paid by the Angels, K-Rod doesn't seem to be driving too hard a bargain here, does he?  Here's the best closer on the market coming off a record-setting season with a great injury history and reasonable workload the last three years.  His market value can't get much higher than it is right now. And yet, he's looking at three years at just over $12 million per.  Mariano Rivera, twelve years his senior, signed a three year $45 million contract last winter.  Yes, he is Mariano Rivera and yes, it is the Yankees who are paying him, but the Mets aren't exactly small market or even middle market especially with Bailout Field opening next season. This is a pretty good deal for the Mets.  I often find myself at odds with Omar Minaya's decisions, usually because of deals like this, or maybe this one. Getting K-Rod for three years makes sense and I think the price point is reasonable for those three years.  The Mets bullpen still has a lot of overhauling to do and K-Rod will only amount to about 70 innings of it, but it's a good place to start. I will counter myself with this: you don't necessarily need to pay a guy $12 million a year to give you a reliable 70 innings a season.  The Mets do, because the Mets have collapsed two straight Septembers and their bullpen is in shambles.  But to pay a pitcher roughly $176k per inning, which is what K-Rod will make based on last years numbers, doesn't make a lot of sense for most teams.  At that avergae, CC Sabathia should make about $45 million a season. Yeah, I know, he's "the closer." It's the most important inning of the game.  Sure it is.  And the inning before, the eighth inning was the most important inning of the game.  It's one inning of nine, and if your starters and offense do a good enough job, the ninth inning won't mean squat with a lead over three runs and K-Rod will get a nice day off. Despite all of that, I think it's safe to say we've learned a few things from this pending transaction: K-Rod didn't want anything to do with the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim anymore for whatever reason, and the economy is helping keep salaries at bay.  The other option is that GMs really have been reluctant to throw too many numbers around because nobody knows where the market is.  As players grab what they think is their best deal, we'll see salaries that won't be much of an increase. Unless, of course, the Yankees are paying the tab.