Dec 31 2008
Mets offer Lowe a 3 year deal
SNY.tv is reporting that the Mets have offered Derek Lowe a 3 year deal in the amount of $36 million dollars. Other teams who were reportedly interested in Lowe were the Phillies, Braves, Yankees and Red Sox. At this time, the Mets appear to be the front runner to land the 3 year old pitcher, who was 14-11 with the Dodgers last season.
“Lowe recently told a friend that the Red 
Sox have never showed serious interest in him,” explains John Harper in the Daily News, who believes, ‘more and more,’ it is only a matter of time before Lowe signs with the Mets.
According to ‘the friend,’ the Mets and Lowe exchanged contract proposals before Christmas, like the Boston Globe suggested last week.
Harper’s right, it is feeling inevitable – in the same way the Johan Santana Trade was starting to feel inevitable one year ago.
To me, what is most impressive about Lowe is that despite his age, he has not missed a start in over 7 seasons as a starter and consistantly compiles over 200 innings. Also, in 4 years in the National League, Lowe never posted an ERA over 4 and is a career 19 games over 500% as a pitcher, and actually has a record of 106-75 as a starter.
If the Mets do land Lowe it most likely means they won’t pursue Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf or Pedro Martinez. The 5th Starter slot will probably be fielded by Tim Redding or Jonathan Niese. My personal opinion is that they should start the season with Niese at AAA and bring him up during the season if someone performs badly or gets injuried. That way if Niese fails to perform, the Mets still have options. It would also reduce his innings for his first MLB season.
More to come on this.
Source: Metsblog.com
