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Well it looks like Derek Lowe has just inked a 4 year $60 million dollar deal with the Atlanta Braves.  The Mets, who were believed to be the front runner, had only offered Lowe a 3 year $36 million dollar deal about 2 weeks ago.  At that time, it seemed likely that Lowe would be forced to sign with the Mets, as no other big market teams seemed interested.  Now, it appears the Braves have slipped in the back door.  Even when the Braves started discussion with Lowe, it appeared as if they were a long shot, but the Braves, who had been extremely unsuccessful in the free agent market thus far (missing Burnett, Furcal, Peavy via trade) seemed ready to play ball to land a big name player, and offered Lowe the full extent of what they could afford.

With Lowe off the market, the Mets have moved their sites to their next target, and have offered Oliver Perez a 3 year $30 million dollar deal.  There are a few other teams who have expressed interest in Perez, including the Yankees, Reds, Brewers, but once again, the Mets seem to be the front runner here.  It will most likely take a 4th year on the contract to secure Perez.  With Lowe gone, and some players such as Smoltz, Marquis, Penny having signed while the Mets were messing with Lowe, the starting pitching Free Agent market is starting to thin out.  There are still some notable names on the market including Ben Sheets, Jon Garland, Randy Wolf, Andy Pettitte, Kip Wells and Jason Jennings, but the Mets better look to get an answer out of Ollie sooner rather than later, or they may miss out again.

In other news, Omar Minaya made it clear that pitching is still their priority, although there is some news on the Michael Young front.  Young, has been given an ultimatium by the Rangers, that he MUST play 3rd base next season.  In response, he has demanded a trade and said he would either play 2B or SS for another team.  He played SS last season where he won a Gold Glove for the first time.  He is also a 5 time All Star.   Young is a player who consistantly gets 200 hits and bats over .300.  If the Mets acquired him, the would be moved to 2nd base and bat 2nd in the order. However, to do this, the Mets would have to trade Luis Castillo, and it is unlikely that Texas would want him, as they already have a 2nd basemen in Ian Kinsler.  This will be an interesting situation to keep an eye on.

Side Note:  If the Mets aqcuired Young, their lineup would probably look like this:

1 - Reyes
2 - Young
3 - Beltran
4 - Wright
5 - Delgado
6 - Church
7 - Tatis\Murphy
8 - Schneider\Castro

Wright would probably move to 4th, so that the right handed bats and left handed bats weren’t all stacked together.

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