Lefty reliever Pedro Feliciano and the Mets have agreed to wait until after the season to hold contract talks, reports ESPN's Adam Rubin. Feliciano will be eligible for free agency for the first time.
Feliciano, 34 in a few days, has been worked hard in his Mets career. This year he's got a 3.05 ERA, 8.5 K/9, and 4.9 BB/9 with only one home run allowed in 44.3 innings. For the third straight year, he's leading MLB in appearances.
FanGraphs splits are the best way to judge Feliciano's work against lefties and righties. You can see he's been very strong (xFIP of 3.06 or better) against lefties the last few years but middling or worse against righties (xFIP of at least 4.49 each year). Despite Feliciano's protestations, it's more than just groundballs getting through against righties. He's allowing too many walks and often too many home runs against them.
Feliciano profiles as a Type B free agent in our latest Elias projections, and he's earning $2.9MM this year. The Mets would be wise to offer arbitration, but a multiyear deal would be risky.
He’s been a Met for awhile–and a steady one at that. But, please, no extension. He’s a lefty reliever, not starter.
Unless they have someone in mind, or are planning to tear down their roster, it probably makes sense to try to resign him at a low-cost deal.
He’s around $3MM this year. At 34 for next season, I doubt he’s going to really top that figure by much, and there’s a chance he could get less.
But for a team in a huge market, a restless fan base, no real desire to actually re-build the roster, I can think of worse ways to spend $2-3MM than a decent lefty reliever — even if that reliever is trending towards “specialist”.
Re-signing him is fine, but a two or three-year extension is not a smart move.
I’ll agree with 3, and if you can avoid two, hey take a shot.
However, sometimes you need a two year deal to close it. And sometimes that second year helps the athlete settle in, gives him the feeling that if he does his job he’ll be back next year.
If the Mets can’t burn $4-6MM on a two year deal for Feliciano (again.. if they have a minor league guy in line, or in their thought process, everything I’m saying isn’t relevant) and can’t eat it if it goes south, that sounds like a Met-specific problem.
The Rays ate money on Burrell. Yanks ate the money on Johnson (well, not technically, but practically). Milwaukee ate the money on Suppan.
If the Mets just ate money on all the bad contracts they currently have, they’d have a historically dire case of indigestion.
My point is to avoid another one. The compromise could be an incentive based second year option (i.e. based on # of appearances, etc…).
The point I’m making, is that Pedro Feleciano isn’t on a bad contract.
And I really don’t think a low cost two-year deal to make sure you keep him would qualify as a bad contract.
Again.. this is major league baseball. If the Mets can’t handle a 2 year, $7MM deal for a guy like Feleciano, why are they bothering?
Fire your whole front office already and sell the team to someone else who won’t get jacked for like $300MM.
You’re right, a $7 million deal is easier to stomach than a $36 million deal (ala Oliver Perez).
“Fire your whole front office already and sell the team to someone else who won’t get jacked for like $300MM.”
Realistically, that should be done REGARDLESS of what happens with Feliciano…but few of us would accuse the Wilpons of making what’s best for their team an actual PRIORITY.
We know what he brings, 80+ games every year and lights out against lefties. I would definetly extend him.
the longest tenured NY Met and probably the most unknown. A 2 year deal is definitely worth it but obviously a 1 year deal is preferred.
And when they dont resign him, who will they over pay to be the lefty out of the bullpen? Stupid Mets could have traded him before the deadline to some team desperate for a lefty reliever and get something in return other than a supplemental pick.
I agree. It would have been interesting to see what the Mets could have gotten for Feliciano at the deadline.
typical met fan response…
if the mets let feliciano go and he shines for another club…they will chalk it up as another Omar bullpen mistake ( see bradford, lindstrom, oliver and bell ) ….if the mets re-sign feliciano for 2/8mill and feliciano gets injured, it will be another case of Omar mis-reading the market and giving a contract away cuz its one of his own…
…Not to mention conveniently forgetting that Jeff Wilpon is basically at the helm now.
what’s weird is that jeff is supposed to be the full-time president of the met franchise..but also runs several other operations under sterling enterprises…( i have a friend tha works for another company under sterling ) …so when fred wilpon says jeff is doing a great job…u have to remember he is talking in the context of the several hats jeff wears for him. ( rather than hire a full-time pres, like every other team has, they hire one guy to run 3 organizations ) smh
Why would you extend a LOOGY?