Firstly, to explain. When a player still has years of arbitration left, sometimes teams opt to allow them to hit free agency instead of negotiating a new deal. This is done primarily for money savings as you may see the Mets do with Angel Pagan, Mike Pelfrey, Ronny Paulino and Taylor Buchholz. The following players are on the edge of not being asked back by there teams and I think they might have value as Mets.NOTE: Not all of these players will be non-tendered.
Hitters:
Jesus Flores - Back in 2008, Jesus Flores seemed like a pretty steady catcher. He hit for a pretty good average, had some power and used it to drive in some runs. In 2009, Flores hit some injury problems and by 2011 he had been supplanted as the starter for the Nationals. He'll only be 27 this season and might be a good alternative/platoon to Josh Thole.
George Kottaras - Is George a superstar? No. Is George a power catcher? Yes. I have always liked George Kottaras. Part of this is years of playing Baseball Mogul and watching him become a 30+ HR hitter. Kottaras is potentially good enough to be an everyday player and I'd give him a look.
Ian Stewart - Let us imagine that we trade David Wright and have lost Jose Reyes. The Mets will NEED NEED NEED offense. After Stewart's 2011... maybe I shouldn't list him. HOWEVER... I think I still should. Assuming we trade Wright and don't want Murphy AND Turner starting every day, Stewart is an option to add quite a bit of power back into the lineup.
Ryan Theriot - Purely if we DID move Reyes... I'd prefer Theriot as an everyday player to what I see as a BAD situation for Ruben Tejada. Before you ignore this and assume I'm just being my usual self with Ruben, think about being THE GUY who came in to replace REYES.
Andres Torres - So... for all those anti-Angel Pagan people out there. Here is a guy who I'd like to look at. He's got a similar tool set to Angel and might be a better fit. If he were non-tendered... I'd probably like him. WITH OR WITHOUT Angel being on the team.
Pitchers:
Tom Gorzelanny - Should Tom not be tendered a contract he becomes a reasonably attractive SP in general. I like the idea of Gorzelanny because he's a lefty and the Mets really could use another lefty in what will eventually be the post-Johan era.
Hong-Chih Kuo - has had issues since being hurt, but if there ever was a buy low candidate for a bullpen it might be him. If he can rebound to his 2010 numbers he could not only be the closer, but he might be better than most of the closers on the list.
Joe Saunders - HOORAY FOR BORING! Joe Saunders isn't a sexy pitcher, but he IS an innings eater who can be mighty useful to a team on a rebuilding year. He doesn't need to win 20 games... he just needs to go out and throw 6 innings every 5th game.
Kevin Slowey - Slowey... should he be healthy... could be another guy like Gorzelanny who draws some interest on the free agent market. Slowey has shown plenty of glimpses of stuff to make me think him capable as a #3 pitcher. That's not a terrible thing.
Chris Volstad - Alright... scoff. Volstad has been a HUGE... COLOSSAL... GIGANTIMOUS disappointment for the Marlins. Why would we want him? Well... when he isn't giving up HRs and hits to just about everyone... he's still gifted with stuff scouts like. Low Risk... High Reward?
Take a look and see who else the Mets should look at:
Non-Tender List
