SI.com first reported the terms — a three-year deal worth $37 million. FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal confirmed the terms Tuesday and also reported that the deal includes a vesting option for a fourth year that could raise the total value to approximately $50 million.
That is well south of the five-year, $75 million mark that K-Rod was reportedly was shooting for initially in this offseason. That would have been a record for a closer. But those dreams came before the nation’s economy tanked and began to seriously impact baseball, as well.
The Mets have concentrated their full energies on securing a closer as the leadoff to their offseason strategy. In Francisco Rodriguez, they are obtaining a reliever who does not turn 27 until next month and generated 62 saves last season for the Angels.
In recent days they put an offer out to Rodriguez and indicated they were about to follow with offers to others such as Brian Fuentes, Kerry Wood and perhaps Trevor Hoffman.
The Mets identified K-Rod as the best closer available due to his pedigree and age. However, in negotiations for a closer, the Mets were channeling their inner Scott Boras. They were doing to their closer candidates what Boras does when multiple teams seek one of his free-agent clients.
Boras is expert at making teams uneasy by playing one against the other while using time as his ally. As the clock ticks, teams tend to grow edgier, imagining that they will lose the player and often react by blindly increasing their bid.
The Mets still have worries about Rodriguez. He is not very big. He throws with maximum effort. His velocity dropped off a few mph last year. But the Mets also worried that Fuentes might not be temperamentally built for New York and that Wood is a pitching medical ward. Despite all the duress, Rodriguez has stayed healthy and effective for a perennial contender.
Now he is ever so near to being the man the Mets hope can replace Billy Wagner.