New York Mets Premium or Poor Gotay?

I was happy to listen to the Mets conference call tonight, regarding the signing of Luis Castillo. Like others have mentioned, the length of the contract causes you to scratch your had though. If you scour the rumor sites like I do, the word on the street was that Castillo was entertaining offers of two years and out of the blue, he signs with the Mets, for four years!

Listening to Boomer & Carton on the way into work this morning, they brought up an interesting point. They were rattling off players that the Mets have signed over the last few years and for all intents and purposes, how they overpaid for them when compared to the market conditions at the time. If I can find the examples he gave, in the interest of posting factually correct information, I'll edit this post and add them later. In my opinion, what they were saying made a lot of sense and it definitely made you wonder.

How is it that the Mets can be in the largest market in baseball, be one of the teams with the highest payroll and still not have the aura about them, where players want to be here. I think that they took significant strides towards getting there by establishing some credibility; bringing in players like Pedro, Beltran, Delgado and Glavine. However, it obviously wasn't enough to attract players without throwing them an extra year on their contract here or there. I know we're not the [insert Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox or the Cardinals], but I'd imagine the chance to play for the Mets, in New York, would be a big enough draw on its own. We've been a competitive team for the last few years and up until 'the collapse', we were doing a great job under Willie.

Anyway, prior to Castillo coming back, a part of me was pulling for Ruben Gotay to get the nod at second base. I'd love to see what the kid could do if given a full-time opportunity. With the signing of Castillo though, we probably won't be the market to see him get his shot.