Like It Or Not, Omar Completes Staff With Unpredictable Perez

I suppose once they'd let the Braves shoot their wad signing Derek Lowe this day was inevitable all along.

(Bore me a river...)

Oliver Perez is coming back to the Mets for a "reasonable" 3 years and $36 million. On the excitement scale, this is like watching paint dry or a back-to-back showing of The English Patient.



On the sanity scale, it's like entrusting your young child to a day care assistant with a history of untreated schizophrenia.

Let's face it, for this kind of money, Perez, whether we like it or not, whether the Mets admit it or not, is now the de facto Number Two pitcher in the rotation. You lay out all the accolades you want about Pelf or Maine but in that pair you've got a guy who if we're lucky, will mirror the career of let's say John Lackey, (and that's assuming he can make the leap to two consecutive 200 IP seasons after more than doubling the number of games started last season) and another guy coming off of arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder. Neither can be counted on as the Number Two guy in your rotation and so now it's up to Ollie to shoulder the burden.

If there was ever an off-season move that merited a half-hearted golf clap, this is it. Lots of potential we've been hearing about for the last two and a half seasons, a lefty, a guy entering his prime, a guy who pitches the Phillies, Braves and Yankees silly. A guy with maddening inconsistency.

So the rotation, for all intents and purposes, is complete. In essence, it looks no different than the 2008 rotation if you forget about that early season dream of the Santana-Pedro one-two punch.

Is it time now, Omar, now that the rotation is finally sorted, the pitching has been taken care of, that you've signed eight thousand two hundred and twenty six washed up free agents, to revisit the option for your batting order and left field?

Reality dictates that the frequent fan fantasy of the Mets jumping into the Manny Sweepstakes is just that - baseless, hopeful speculation. Yes, the Dodgers have given Manny a one year take-it-or-leave-it offer which should bring negotiations to a head but no matter how much you wish it, it ent happening. Manny will stay somewhere on the West Coast.



Whilst the pending platoon of Fernando Tatis and Dan Murphy is not terrorising the off season of NL East pitchers, it is a subtle, effective combination, much like the signing of Perez, not the stuff of fantasies but a solid, difficult-to-argue-against choice.

Barring any last second shocks, this is in effect, your 2009 Mets. A better bullpen, equivalent starting rotation, Luis Castillo at second and an incredibly left-handed bench.

Nothing to suggest another September collapse can be avoided.