The Mets got bad news today, but news that we were starting to expect. Wagner is out with a torn ligament, and the surgery will knock him out all of next year as well. So that leaves some questions with the closer roll. Who will be it this year? Who will hold that position next year? How long will he have to be signed for?
Luckily, the first question is answered already. Ayala has been great after being thrown into that closer roll. He is not Billy Wagner, but he is not old Brandon Looper. The good news is that we have him, and that the pen has been good as of late. There is nothing else we can do this season with that roll, so the book is closed on that.
Now next year. The Mets have a few options. Within the system, Kunz is not ready yet to be that closer, to fill that roll. He is at least one season away. One of the best closers in the Majors right now, K-Rod, will be on the market, but that will not only cost a lot of money, but a lot of time. Street is available, but at what cost in the market? Personally, I feel that K-Rod might be the way to go. With Delgado on his current streak, the Mets are no longer in the Texaria sweepstakes, so the only other one besides K-Rod would be CC Sabathia (and possibly Oliver Perez). The question then becomes what to do with Kunz. When he is ready, we'll bring him up, but if K-Rod is there, then Kunz is not our closer, but our setup man. This actually can be quite good for Kunz because K-Rod started up as the 7th inning man, and worked his way up the ladder, so possibly Kunz would be able to learn a lot about pitching from K-Rod.
This is another conversation that will be picked up again at the end of the season, right now, the attention is on Ayala, Feliciano, Heilman, Stokes, and the rest of that Mets pen to finish out the season and hopefully the postseason.
