THERE’S a new Boss in town – and he’s not living in Tampa.
More than anything, last night’s dramatic signing of Tom Glavine by the Mets to a three-year deal worth a guaranteed $35 million with a vesting option for a fourth year that brings the package to $42.5 million puts Fred Wilpon in the spotlight as an owner not to be taken lightly.
This is no longer just George Steinbrenner’s town. Now, of course, all the Mets have to do is string together some championship seasons to really earn some respect, but the word is out among the baseball brethren that Wilpon and son Jeff run a professional show.
You can be sure that Glavine, one of the most respected players in the game and a union honcho, will pass that word along to his brothers. If you are going to land a big-time player, it’s even better when he is a big-time player in the union and you take him away from your chief competitor, the Braves, and keep him away from an up and coming rival, the Phillies.
“Tom really felt comfortable with the Wilpons,” Glavine’s agent Gregg Clifton told me last night from Phoenix after two wild days of negotiations. So comfortable that on Wednesday afternoon when so much was running through Glavine’s head, when he knew he was leaving the Braves after 18 years with the organization, the lefty put a call into Fred Wilpon to talk over the situation and get some answers to his questions, and help him decide where to land, Philly or New York. Glavine mulled over the situation with his wife Christine for the next 24 hours.
“This was a gut-wrenching decision,” Clifton said. “Tom really didn’t make up his mind until [yesterday] afternoon.”
To have that kind of comfort level with an owner after dealing with the corporate AOL Braves, makes a difference to a player. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Mets upped their original offer from a guaranteed three years, $28.5 million to three years, $35 million, but when you can talk to the chief it does make life easier.
Clifton said Glavine realizes the Wilpons want to build a winning team, that they have the passion for the game in this day and age when it’s all about luxury taxes, bottom lines and cutbacks.
Fred Wilpon was kicked in the head by the media following the Bobby Valentine firing, but this move is a kick for Mets fans. Even if Glavine falls flat on his face, which is not going to happen, at least Wilpon stepped up to the plate and acquired the best free-agent pitcher available. And there was no way the Mets could let Glavine go to Philadelphia.
The vesting option can kick in via a number of ways, either Glavine throwing 170 innings in his third season or by a combination of innings the first three years. Essentially, that fourth year is all but guaranteed and that is something the Braves wouldn’t consider and it is a place where the Phils did not venture.
That brings it all back to Wilpon getting his man. Glavine is more than a successful pitcher, he’s a Rock. The kind of pitcher and leader the Mets desperately need.
At the very least, the Mets have made the offseason interesting and Wilpon has stolen the Back Page away from Steinbrenner and the Yankees.
New York, New York, a town so great they named it twice, a town big enough for two Bosses.
Here’s a look at how the 2003 rotation may look going into Opening Day on March 31 when Mets play Cubs at Shea: 2001 Stats W L ERA
Glavine 18 11 2.96
Trachsel 11 11 3.37
Leiter 13 13 3.48
Bacsik 3 2 4.37
Astacio 12 11 4.79
