Mets Sign Henry Blanco
According to reports, the Mets have signed catcher Henry Blanco to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. This signing puzzles me. The Mets have made it clear Blanco would be a back-up, and that they are still pursuing a starting catcher. Bengie Molina is the name most prominently mentioned. But why spend a million and a half bucks on Blanco when Omir Santos proved himself to be a competent back-up, and would come at a third of the price?
The Mets are alleged to be cash-strapped because of Bernie Madoff, yet they sign Blanco (left), and re-sign Alex Cora to a $2 million contract when a cheaper back-up infielder could easily have been had. This leads me to believe the Mets are doing just fine financially. Maybe reports that they pulled their original invesment (and then some) from their Madoff account may be true after all.
Or maybe Omar Minaya is working on something big, and Santos or Josh Thole will be part of a major trade, thus the need for Blanco and Chris Coste.
Or maybe, just maybe, Minaya is using his failed formula from last year. In case you forgot, he spent a couple of million dollars here, a couple of million dollars there, on retread pitchers like Livan Hernandez and Tim Redding, when he could have pooled that money and spent it on one good pitcher like Jon Garland or Randy Wolf.
So assuming the Mets have money to spend, it will be very disappointing if they can’t land at least one of the top free agents, like John Lackey or Matt Holliday, or trade for a big-ticket player like Adrian Gonzalez. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.
Date: December 3, 2009
