Did Wagner make a mistake?

EDITORS NOTE: I apologize it took so long for this to be published, it is my fault and has nothing to do with the writer, Corey Sobel. My apologies to all the readers and to Corey as well.

There is a month left in the regular season and Billy Wagner made the right choice. Finally realizing that going to the Boston Red Sox was the smart move after continually changing his mind. But before we get into what happened, let me tell you a little bit about this man and his career.

Wagner is a 38 year old closer in his 15th MLB season. He is only 15 saves away from 400. He can pass John Franco, another great closer in saves and become the all time saves leaders among left handed pitchers. John Franco has 424 compared to the 385 Wagner has, which also puts Wagner at 6th place all time. In two full seasons he probaly could accomplish that feat if he gets back to the dominant pitcher once was.

August 20th 2009 was the first game he pitched in since August 2, 2008 because he was recovering from Tommy John Surgery. Wagner was with the New York Mets for the past four seasons and was put on waivers in the past week. If you don't know what that means, here's how you break it down. Any player under contract can be put on waivers by his team at any time. The player that is now on waivers can be picked up by any team. If a team claims a player off waivers, his current team may choose to do one of the following options:

• arrange a trade with the claiming team for that player within two business days of the claim
• keep the player on its major league roster, canceling the waiver
• or do nothing and allow the claiming team to (1) assume the player's existing contract, (2) pay the waiving team a waiver fee, and (3) place the player on its active major league roster

If no team claims the player from waivers in three business days, the player has cleared waivers and may be assigned to a minor league team, traded, or released.

Back to my point though, my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox went on and claimed Mr. Wagner. Which I think makes a great addition to the Red Sox bullpen. The other night watching the MLB Network though, according to Ken Rosenthal, he thought otherwise. “Wagner will be staying with the New York Mets” said Rosenthal. Then the very next day it is reported that Wagner has decided to allow the trade to proceed.

I’m sorry, but this really annoys me as I’m sure it does anyone else. If you are a respected writer and you are on national television, do your job and do it right! My problem is how he said “Wagner will be staying with the New York Mets.” If it is not 100% that he is staying, then he should say something like “it is very likely that Billy Wager will be staying with the New York Mets” or something of that nature. I think it should be his responsibility to do your job to the best of your ability and to report false information in my opinion you are doing your job poorly.

After a lot of thought, Billy Wagner has decided to go to the Red Sox. It almost didn’t happen though and here's the reason why;
If a player has a no trade clause like Billy Wagner does then he may decide to decline going to any team, which is what almost has happened here. Now you may be asking yourself why Wagner would not want to leave a team like the AAA Mets to go play for the wild card leading Boston Red Sox right? Yeah I'm wondering the same thing, but here's why as far as we know. Wagner wants to be a closer for a team next year and not an 8th inning setup man. Which is what might happen if he stayed with Boston after the next year, since the Red Sox have one of the best closers in baseball with Jonathan Papelbon. Wagner has a club option for $8 million next year or the team can use their buyout for $1 million. He is still owed about $3 million for the rest of the season.
The team can then offer him arbitration.

His concern was that Boston would try to keep him as a setup man in 2010 which is not what he desires. The main issue is if he's offered and declines arbitration, it will be hard for him to receive a new contract that he thinks he deserves because he will be considered a type A free agent. This means that if a new team acquires him next year, they will now have to give up two draft picks in the next seasons draft. Something teams obviously don't like to do.

This trade works well for both teams in my opinion. The Mets save themselves about $3 million by letting go of a player they didn’t need this year. They also acquire two players from the Red Sox minor league system and the Red Sox get a player who can possibly be the setup man they desperately need right now.

So to answer the question if Billy Wagner made the right choice, YES I would definitely say that he did. Leaving a team like the Mets and knowing how they will finish the season at best 4th place is one reason. I think he can acquire more interest from other teams next year going to a team like the Red Sox and possibly pitching in the post season showing off how good he really can be. Plus I figure this way they can use Papelbon as much as they want and rest him more often for the playoffs. Also then when they need a closer they have Wagner as a back-up. Looking at that situation, I bet in Boston he will have had a much better chance to close a game then with the NY Mets this year at least.

The downside of him heading to Boston could turn out to be like the John Smoltz experiment. Smoltz had pitched in the National League his whole career until this season. He came to the American League Boston Red Sox and did awful. He went 2-5 as a starter with an 8.33 ERA. Now Smoltz is back in the NL with the Cardinals though and in his debut he allowed 3 hits in 5 IP, 0 walks, 0 ER and on top of that had 9 SO. Now if Smoltz was a reliever with the Red Sox maybe things would have turned out differently for the future Hall of Famer. As his statistics indicated when he went through the batting order:

First time through: .250/.342/.313
Second time through: .388/.397/.657
Third time through: .400/.429/.900

Also Wagner heading to the AL East and pitching at Fenway can only hurt his statistics instead of helping him since he’ll be leaving the friendly confines of Citi Field. It's a tough choice for anybody to make especially if he has to move his family which is another factor entirely. Something we often forget when talking about players moving to a new city and playing for a new team.

The other problem with this scenario is that Papelbon, whether he is really threatened or not about his job, is opening his mouth like always and letting everyone know he does not think this is a good idea. So bringing another closer to the Red Sox could possibly hurt some chemistry between the team. Not a huge concern of mine, but maybe it could be a bigger deal then I realize.

In Wagner’s first few games he has pitched well just so everyone knows. In his 5 innings of work he has given up 1 hit, 2 walks, gotten 11 strikeouts, and has not given up a run yet.

As always this has been, Corey Sobel, with a special report.