Mets don't tender a contract to Maine
New York Mets starting pitcher John Maine looks toward the dugout before leaving the game during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals. (May 20, 2010) Credit: AP
The Mets hope to add some pitchers, albeit some low-cost ones, in the coming days. Today, however, they’ll bid farewell to a well-known arm.
Teams must tender contracts to players under their control by midnight, and the Mets will not tender a contract to John Maine, an industry source confirmed. That will make the 29-year-old a free agent.
As the club’s top decision-makers convened this week at Citi Field, they were still mulling whether to tender a deal to righthanded reliever Sean Green.
By tendering a contract, a team guarantees no worse than a 20-percent pay cut for the player in question. With Maine making $3.3 million in 2010 and missing the bulk of the season with arm troubles, he’s in line for a far greater pay cut than 20 percent.
Maine, an important part of the Mets’ rotation in 2007 and 2008, posted a 1-3 record and 6.13 ERA in nine appearances, all starts, for the Mets in 2010.
His season — and Mets career, for now — ended memorably May 20 in Washington, when manager Jerry Manuel lifted him after he threw only five pitches. Maine and Manuel engaged in a shouting match over Maine’s health. Maine subsequently went on the disabled list and underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder in July.
Green, 31, pitched in only 11 games for the Mets last season, as he missed the bulk of the year with fractured ribs. Since he made just $975,000 in 2010, and because the Mets lack bullpen depth, the team could re-sign him by midnight at a reasonable figure or even roll the dice on him in the arbitration arena.
Meanwhile, Mets manager Terry Collins said yesterday in an interview with Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton on WFAN that the team was “looking into” a signing of pitcher Chris Young “pretty heavy.” New Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and lieutenant Paul DePodesta know Young, a 31-year-old righthander, from their time together in San Diego.
Collins said he was trying to get in touch with outfielder Carlos Beltran to discuss the possibility of playing rightfield in 2011, and that former Met Mookie Wilson probably would join his coaching staff. He added that he would interview candidates for hitting coach at next week’s winter meetings in Orlando, Fla.
