MetsFail

Sexier than the Mets at the moment

The hits just keep on comin’!  A source told the Daily News’ Adam Rubin that John Smoltz might prefer to take the first half off the season off and join a contending team mid-season, much like Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez have done.  It is noteworthy, however, that the New York Times’ David Waldstein passes along quotes from Smoltz’ agent Lonnie Cooper that while the Mets have expressed interest, they haven’t submitted a formal offer while other teams have. 

This falls in line with comments from ESPN’s Buster Olney and FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, who both mention the front office’s lack of hard budget guidelines as a hinderance to their free agent strategy and affects timely negotiations.  From what he can gather, Matt Cerrone on MetsBlog thinks that the Mets only offered a minor league deal to Smoltz, which naturally would seem unattractive to a soon-to-be 43 year old former ace.

This, naturally, leads to the usual blogger and radio station outrage from Mets fans, who are angry that a pitcher they didn’t want anyway prefers not to sign with the team.  In any case, Smoltz has earned the right (and more than enough money) to choose taking out the garbage rather than bringing it to Citi Field, or to be heckled by his wife instead of the Mets faithful.  Hey, at least Fernando Tatis knows who writes his checks!