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Shea-Rod

Let me take you back in time. It was October, 2000. The Subway World Series was underway, much to the chagrin of everyone but Mets and Yankees fans. The boyfriend of one of my girlfriend's housemates, a devoted Yankee blowhard, had nothing nice to say about the Mets. That is, except for this:

"A-Rod will look good in a Mets uniform next season."

The Mets were busy losing Game 2, but my heart was aflutter with thoughts of Alex Rodriguez playing gold-glove defense at short and launching bombs into the Pepsi Picnic Area. As we all know, the Mets went on to lose that series 4-1, but at least I could take solace in the fact that the best player in baseball was a good bet to be joining an already-playoff-caliber team.

And then, a bombshell. The Mets were out of the hunt, citing A-Rod's alleged demands for private jets, offices at Shea, etc. Whether these "asks" were legit, who's to say? All I knew was that our consolation prize for losing the World Series was not in the cards (that prize turned out to be Kevin Appier). Even up until the day that A-Rod signed that massive $252 million deal with Texas, I still held out hope that the Mets might change their tune and sign him up. However, it wasn't meant to be.

Back to modern day. The Mets have done seemingly-nothing right since (and including) that offseason, while A-Rod has toiled away in Texas, putting up MVP-season-after-MVP-season-after-MVP-season for a last place club. For the first time in a while, the Mets have a surplus of cash (their 2004 payroll currently stands on the order of $60 million, with designs on keeping it under $100 million), and it seems more likely than ever, in the face of baseball's ever-changing economic landscape, that Texas would like to unload that $25 mill-per contract and A-Rod would like to get out of dodge. This is where the Mets come in.

If the Mets would be willing to assume most of A-Rod's contract, they could probably hang on to most or all of their highly touted prospects. For argument's sake, let's say that Texas is willing to pick up $7 million per for each of the seven years left on the deal. That puts his annual salary in the $18 million ballpark. Now, I originally thought it would be necessary to trade Jose Reyes, but with the Mets picking up most of A-Rod's hefty salary, they could probably get by without sending him. With the money saved, the Rangers could sign Miguel Tejada at $11 million per and still have enough money to throw at a couple other positions. The Mets would definitely need to send Aaron Heilman, and probably three or four of the following:

Danny Garcia (2B)
Royce Ring (RP)
Victor Diaz (2B)
Tyler Yates (RP)
Lenny Dinardo (SP)
Matt Peterson (SP)

This, I would be okay with. While I like most of the above players a great deal, I don't feel that any of them will be worldbeaters, and would gladly part with most of them for A-Rod. Even with losing a handful of those prospects, the gems of the Mets system will be left intact (including the aforementioned Jose Reyes):

David Wright (3B)
Scott Kazmir (SP)
Justin Huber (C)

Granted, these three are at least a year or two away, but they all project to be very good major league players at key defensive positions.

So, we now have A-Rod in the fold and our payroll is around $78 million. Now, despite his offensive-shortcomings, we sign Mike Cameron (assuming he won't cost us draft picks), to shore up our outfield defense. I would go two years at $5 mill per, and might be willing to go three years at $14 mill total.

Next, we get Richard Hidalgo ($12 mill) and Billy Wagner ($8 mill) for either:

a) a couple mid-level prospects, with Houston picking up half of their combined salaries
b) Roger Cedeno ($9 mill over two years)

Let's take option (a), just for simplicity's sake. We would then have Hidalgo and Wagner under contract for 2004 at a total of $10 mill.

We now have a closer, right-fielder, shortstop, center-fielder, and second-baseman (Reyes moving over from SS). We can then pick up one or two low-cost free agent/non-tenders to round out the pitching staff. The following are available:

Dustin Hermanson - Sure, he's a dried-up husk right now. He was once a first round pick of the Padres in 1994, and still has mid-90's heat. He's probably worth taking a flyer on, because if anyone can turn his career around, it's Rick Peterson.

Corey Lidle - This could be another reclamation project for Peterson. Lidle has great control (had a very good 2.89 K/BB with Oakland in 2002), and would definitely benefit from the Mets newfound up-the-middle-defense strength.

Rick Reed - This guy was a horse for the Mets, and he still has great control (29BB in 135 IP in 2003)

None of these three would likely command a salary in excess of $2 mill. Now, with these acquisition, the 2004 Mets look like:

Lineup

2B - Jose Reyes (<$1)
LF - Cliff Floyd ($6.5)
1B - Mike Piazza ($15)
SS - Alex Rodriguez ($18)
RF - Richard Hidalgo ($6)
CF - Mike Cameron ($5)
C  - Jason Phillips (<$1)
3B - Ty Wiggingon (<$1)

Total salary: $45 million

Rotation

Al Leiter ($8)
Tom Glavine ($10.5)
Steve Trachsel ($5)

and two of...

Corey Lidle ($2)
Rick Reed ($2)
Dustin Hermanson ($2)
Jae Seo (<$1)

Total salary: $27 million

Bullpen

David Weathers ($3.6)
Mike Stanton ($3)
Jason Anderson (<$1)
Dan Wheeler (<$1)
Scott Strickland ($1)
Pedro Feliciano (<$1)
Billy Wagner ($4)

Total salary: $12.6 million

Bench: Tony Clark, Matt Stairs, Tony Batista, Ellis Burks, Brian Jordan, whoever, etc... ($5 million)

Grand Total: $89.6 million


Even if they had to pick up all of Hidalgo and Wagner's salaries, this would still come in a shade under $100 million. Is this a likely scenario? No, probably not. Is it feasible? Maybe. It would make for a very interesting and very entertaining ballclub, with a great mix of talent, some speed, great character guys, no real clubhouse problems, and a Mets team I would be proud to call my own.