Hello one, hello all, welcome on back! Well as you know, the tumultuous Major League Baseball Winter Meetings have concluded. Some teams, such as the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and the Milwaukee Brewers made multiple acquisitions, and 3 teams including the cross-town Yankees finalized a big blockbuster deal sending Curtis Granderson to the Bronx. The Mets generated plenty of rumors, but haven’t made any new acquisitions just yet. The last day of the Meetings provided us with plenty of Mets news nuggets, such as the club handing out offers to both Jason Bay and Bengie Molina, in addition to signing former Expos 1st round pick Clint Everts. The Mets also made a Rule 5 draft pick, but shipped him quickly over to the Dodgers for cash considerations. Aside from these, one other story emerged, and it isn’t a very uplifting one if I do say so myself.
First let me start off by saying, I never dreamed that this winter I would be spotlighting Henry Blanco in as many posts as I have. Maybe it’s a sign that the offseason isn’t exactly panning out the way we thought it would, maybe it isn’t. Time will tell. But as for Blanco, the Mets went and restructured his contract due to concerns over his shoulder. The deal is now an incentive-laden one starting with a base salary of $775,000. If all incentives are met – which would take a major injury to whoever our starting catcher is going to be – Blanco may wind up netting over 2 million dollars at the end of the season.
Maybe this whole ordeal will wind up zipping under the radar, maybe it won’t. But you can’t deny, after a season that featured injuries coming as if they grew on trees, this is alarming. In fact, this is downright scary. Why would you ink a player to a major league contract…only to renegotiate the entire pact over health anxieties? It’s very frightening, because it seems as if Omar Minaya is just signing guys based on gut decisions. He eyed Blanco for the backup catcher’s job, and hastily promised the man 1.5 million dollars, an amount which may be the difference in signing a big ticket free agent, or watching him join another team. Didn’t Blanco take a physical? Did they sign him without an examination? The fact a contract had to be restructured after it’s been signed for nearly a week is seriously baffling, and seriously scary.
Blanco says his shoulder has been hunky dory since he underwent a procedure for treatment in 1997. Is this true? Over a decade of assurance and still a contract reorganization? I don’t know what to believe at this point. The only silver lining here is that the Mets actually had the gall to say to Blanco "Hey, we know we’ve guaranteed you 7 figures and all, but we’re a tad on the skeptical side in regards to your shoulder and want a little insurance at your expense." I appreciate the Mets having the guts to do that, and also appreciate Blanco allowing the restructuring to take place. If something winds up happening and he does go down, the Mets won’t lose money this way, and can turn to a cheaper in-house option to assume his duties (coughOmirSantoscough). Still confused as to why Santos isn’t the second stringer in the first place, but there’s nothing we can do to change that, just root for the team they give us.
In the end though, the Mets signing a guy they had legitimate injury worries about is not the most comforting thing they could have done to dampen our qualms following the 2009 season, which was lost in large part due to never-ending injuries. It really looks as if Omar went with his gut here, and signed the guy based on nothing more than a gut decision. He figured "Henry Blanco fits the team’s needs, Henry Blanco is the man I want no matter what", then realized a week later that he guaranteed money to potential damaged goods and said to himself, "Oh crap, I didn’t look into this enough, let me try and make this as better-looking as I possibly can without causing to much of a stir." Again, this insurance policy does guarantee we won’t be wasting money, but this shouldn’t fly under the radar as "no big deal". What if Omar employs this same "gut feeling" thought process on a bigger hole the team’s got, and can’t get an insurance policy out of it? Think before you act Omar, get those medical results clear before you go and do something stupid, like signing “injury-risk” Henry Blanco while you’ve got the younger & cheaper Omir Santos already in-house. Now it’s too late.
What do you guys think? Does it bother you at all that this whole thing had to take place? Am I making much ado about nothing here? It’s an interesting topic, so comment below. As always thank you so much for stopping by to read my thoughts, you guys are what makes this blog possible and I love you endlessly for it! Fire away now!
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