Marlins Make Offer to Jose Reyes?
As I’ve written before, I am trying to stay away from all of the Jose Reyes rumors for fear of driving myself and you readers crazy, and also because most of them will likely prove incorrect. But it is a fact that Reyes visited the Marlins this week.
Reyes took a tour of the Marlins new ballpark, complete with a hardhat emblazoned with “Marlins,” and there’s video to prove it:
But there is no proof to Friday’s rumor that the Marlins have made a “substantial” offer to Reyes (as well as Albert Pujols). Fortunately this “report” comes via a tweet from Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, whose track record for being right is about as high as his height, so it’s nothing much to worry about.
John Harper of the Daily News wrote earlier this week that the Marlins strategy could be to lure free agents to their new ballpark by offering shorter contracts at higher per-year salaries, “presumably more than $20 million a year” for Reyes. Matthew Cerrone of Mets Blog speculates the offers to Reyes, Pujols or Prince Fielder could be as high as $35 million per season over three years.
I don’t know about any of that, but if the Marlins offer Reyes some kind of crazy short-term contract he will likely take it because there is no way the Mets or anyone else would match it. As much as I want Reyes back on the Mets, they would be insane to pay him $20 million-$35 million per year. I think Mets fans would understand that and cancel plans for any revolt. But if he happens to sign a reasonable contract with anyone but the Mets there would be no way to hold back the fans from burning effigies of Sandy Alderson and the Wilpons, if not the real things.