The 2009 Future Of Billy Wagner

Lots of speculation regarding what is going to happen to Billy Wagner this season as a Mets.

He continued his rehab last night by pitching another scoreless inning. He should pitch two or three more times, than make his way to Queens to show he still can do it at the MLB level.
Trust me folks, the last thing the Mets want to do this year is let Wags back in the clubhouse. His isn’t that poster boy of the team. I remember when I asked Jerry Manuel in spring training if Billy Wagner was around, Manuel didn’t answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’… he looked at me and said ‘he wasn’t invited to spring training.’ He spoke volumes with that sentence.

The future of Billy Wagner and what they do with him in the next two weeks will give Mets fans a peek on how they will operate the team in the future. Normally, you can just use the guy, let him go free agent, and take your supplement round pick, but why wait and draft a name that could be five years off, if ever, when you can trade now for someone that already has proved themselves as high as the AA level.

Here’s where the Mets can help one of their future needs, which translate as a catcher, at least one more staring pitcher, a first baseman, and a full time outfielder.

A lot of people ask me a lot of questions about the prospects and I can tell you right now that the next two years are still pretty cloudy. Ike Davis has done remarkable at the AA level this year, but he’s not ready to jump to Queens. Josh Thole is a hitting machine for Binghamton, but he has limited pop, even more limit running the bases, and an average arm to second at best. Every Mets expert believes they will go after an SP2 via free agency, but the rotation is totally p in the air with the dings on Maine and Niese, the wildness of Perez, and the age of Hernandez. And lastly, yes, it’s F-Mart’s turn to take over a full time position in the Queens outfield, but why does an outfield of Martinez-Beltran-Francouer just not excite the hell out of me?
No, right now I could use a good prospect to write about in the off-season, right next to the other kid that is really going to screw-up the plans for the Mets infield in the near future, Ruben Tejada. But that’s another column.

We’ll keep an eye on the Wagner progress and, if I had to guess, I’d say he’s out of here easily by the end of August.

I mean, wouldn’t Milwaukee like Wagner for the drive, and all it would cost them is someone like LHP Aaron Poreda, C Angel Salome, or RHP Jeremy Jeffries. What about the White Sox and 1B Brandon Allen? Or Detroit and CF Casper Wells? Or Boston and RHP Daniel Bard.

This is where the true value of Billy Wagner lies in 2009 for the Mets.

Bait.