The Mets will have to overpay for Zito if they want him.  Texas has already had a meeting with Scott Boras and Zito and if history is any lesson, Zito with Boras as his agent will sign with the highest bidder.  After the 2000 season another one of Boras’s clients signed with Texas.  That would be Alex Rodriguez, now the Yankees third baseman. A-Rod was inked to still the largest baseball contract in history, a 10 year 252 million dollar deal. Of course A-Rod was later traded to the Yankees and Texas still pays a chunk of his salary.  Chan-Ho Park is another Boras client who got huge dollars out of Texas, more than anyone else offered.  All of this points to the fact that the Texas owner, Hicks, is not afraid to spend money. He spends it unwisely having nothing to show for all the cash he has handed out.

Many argue that Zito would benefit from moving to the National League, he likes New York, Rick Peterson is the pitching coach whom Zito had for many years in Oakland, and the Mets have a lot better chance of a championship then the also-ran Rangers.  Boras will hear none of it. Zito is the skillful agent’s top prize this off season so whoever gets him will pay through the nose.

The Mets would probably offer Roy Ozwalt type of numbers but the Mets, and rightfully so, will not go to the 100 million mark for Zito.  He is not that type of pitcher.   He really is not an ace of the staff kind of guy.  Don’t get me wrong, Zito is very good but the Mets are in a position where they can do other things with that kind of cash and still build a decent rotation.  Omar and the Mets will be in the Zito game, you can expect it but you can also expect that Arlington Texas is where the lefty will pitch.  A financial win for Zito but a career loss for him as well. 

There is talk of Omar trading with the White Sox or the Rockies for a front end rotation pitcher.  This will most likely be the way Minaya goes but I certainly hope he does not trade Mike Pelfrey and Phillip Humber to accomplish it.  In my opinion, the Mets would be better served getting a second tier starting pitcher like Vicente Padilla, Miguel Batista and Gil Meche as is reported in today’s Newsday.  You give up nothing in return and you still have your young stud arms that can develop into excellent starters the Mets would control for years. Why trade away that type of commodity?  I certainly wouldn’t trade Pelfrey for a guy like Javier Vazquez who really hasn’t been very good since he was with the Yankees.  It sounds like shades of Kazmir for Zambrano.  Well maybe not that bad but you get my point.

Pitching will be the number one issue this week for the Mets at the winter meetings.  Perhaps nothing gets done this week, maybe talks will begin that won’t come to fruition for some time.  Never the less it will be interesting to see what Omar has up his sleeve.