[Updated @ 11:18am: Astros, Reds, Phillies]: News of arbitration [non-]offers are trickling in, so whenever I hear something new I'll add it here. If you discover any on your own don't hesitate to include them in the comments, but be sure to provide a source. I'll update this list accordingly. I am only going to include Type A and Type B free agents, since the arbitration status of unranked players is inconsequential.

Players who were offered arbitration are listed in bold green (Type A) or green (Type B).
Players not offered arbitration are listed in bold red (Type A) or red (Type B).

Angels

Garret Anderson (MLB.com)
Jon Garland (MLB.com)
Darren Oliver (MLB.com)
Francisco Rodriguez (MLB.com)
Mark Teixeira (MLB.com)

Athletics

Alan Embree (MLB.com)
Frank Thomas (MLB.com)

Astros

Doug Brocail (MLB.com)
Mark Loretta (MLB.com)
Randy Wolf (MLB.com)

A.J. Burnett (MLB.com)
Gregg Zaun (MLB.com)

Braves

John Smoltz (MLB.com)

Brewers

Eric Gagne (MLB.com)
C.C. Sabathia (MLB.com)
Ben Sheets (MLB.com)
Brian Shouse (MLB.com)

Cardinals

Jason Isringhausen (MLB.com)
Braden Looper (MLB.com)
Russ Springer (MLB.com)

Cubs

Bobby Howry (MLB.com)
Kerry Wood (MLB.com)

Diamondbacks

Juan Cruz (MLB.com)
Adam Dunn (MLB.com)
Orlando Hudson (MLB.com)
Randy Johnson (MLB.com)
Brandon Lyon (MLB.com)

Dodgers

Joe Beimel (MLB.com)
Casey Blake (MLB.com)
Jeff Kent (MLB.com)
Derek Lowe (MLB.com)
Greg Maddux (MLB.com)
Brad Penny (MLB.com)
Manny Ramirez (MLB.com)

Mariners

Raul Ibanez (MLB.com)

Marlins

Luis Gonzalez (MLB.com)
Paul Lo Duca (MLB.com)
Arthur Rhodes (MLB.com)

Mets

Moises Alou (MLB.com)
Luis Ayala (MLB.com)
Oliver Perez (MLB.com)

Padres

Trevor Hoffman (MLB.com)

Phillies

Pat Burrell (MLB.com)
Jamie Moyer (MLB.com)
Rudy Seanez (MLB.com)

Rangers

Milton Bradley (MLB.com)

Reds

David Weathers (MLB.com)

Red Sox

Paul Byrd (MLB.com)
Jason Varitek (MLB.com)

Rockies

Brian Fuentes (MLB.com)

Royals

Mark Grudzielanek (MLB.com)

Tigers

Edgar Renteria (MLB.com)

Twins

Dennys Reyes (MLB.com)

White Sox

Orlando Cabrera

Yankees

Bobby Abreu (MLB.com)
Mike Mussina (MLB.com)
Andy Pettitte (MLB.com)
Ivan Rodriguez (MLB.com)

Lee Mazzilli won't be back with SNY this season. I nothing-ed him, so this doesn't really strike me one way or the other. SNY has reportedly reached out to Bobby Ojeda as a possible replacement.

At RotoGraphs, David Golebiewski looks at Jon Niese as a possible back of the rotation guy. RotoGraphs is a fantasy-centric sub-page of FanGraphs, so while the content is somewhat geared towards fantasy league play, most of what I've read so far could very easily double as non-fantasy content.

At Beyond the Boxscore, Peter Bendix breaks down the Nick Swisher-to-the-Yankees deal, and concludes -- as everyone else has -- that the Yankees bought low and likely made out like bandits on this one.

Further reaction on the trade can be found at South Side Sox and Pinstripe Alley.

Keith Law has posted his free agent rankings over at ESPN.com. Baseball Digest Daily has posted their rankings, too.

At Bleed Cubbie Blue, Al Yellon reflects on the end of the Kerry Wood era in Chicago.

AZ Snakepit discusses the likely impending departure of Randy Johnson from Arizona. Rob Neyer thinks he could be a bargain (subscription required).

Off-topic economy-in-turmoil post of the day, Peter Schiff will have has now had his revenge on Wall Street.

And finally, even Donald Fagen has to convince his friends that Steely Dan is teh r0xor.

The last two days we looked at The Bill James Handbook projections for Mets hitters and pitchers. That's fun and all, but one thing we've had to acknowledge is that any number of those players won't actually be on the Mets next season (I'm looking at you, Marlon Anderson!). So let's have a crack at some players who spent 2008 elsewhere but have varying degrees of likelihood of landing in Queens this offseason.

The Mets may have as many as three rotation spots to fill and as many as two three all of their bullpen spots that need plugging. There are a lot of options out there in both buckets, and the Mets will spend plenty of time this winter trying to make the staff over.

We'll do pitchers today, position players tomorrow. First the starters.

Lots of interesting names on this list. I threw Jake Peavy up there just for kicks, even though there's next to zero chance the Mets will trade for him. Still, those numbers are purty, and they're *not* park-adjusted yet.

• A.J. Burnett is a strikeout machine, but he's 32 and has a history of so-so control and arm trouble. He's a better pitcher than Oliver Perez, for sure, but he's also five years older and will probably make more money per year. The Mets could do worse, but if you're going to spend $16 million a year on Burnett, why not just spend $23 million (or whatever) on C.C. Sabathia?
• Ryan Dempster was terrific for the Cubs this year, but should we judge him on 207 great innings of 2.96 ERA in 2008 or 1195 career innings of 4.64 ERA as a starter?
• Jon Garland will only be 29 next year, but he has terrible strikeout marks and isn't even really a groundball pitcher. He has very good control, but is that enough?
• Perhaps the most interesting name on this list is Randy Johnson, who had outstanding peripherals as a 44-year-old in 2008. We know he had problems in New York when he played with the Yankees, but on a one-year deal he would be a decent risk. I don't think it'll happen because I think the Mets would be gun-shy about his experience in the Bronx, but it would probably work out better than most people suspect.
• The biggest problem with Derek Lowe -- and it's definitely a problem -- is his age. He's basically been awesome for the Dodgers these past four seasons. He is an extreme groundball pitcher, has good control and strikes out enough batters to keep 'em honest (whatever that means). Are you going to hand out $12 million a year for three years to a 36-year-old? It's a tough sell. I might go for a two-year deal with a team option, though I feel like someone will go to three.
• Sabathia isn't as good as Peavy, but he's the same age and would cost only money and a first-round pick. He throws a ton of innings, which is both good and bad. He's going to cost Johan Santana money, and while it would be tough to pony up $50 million for two pitchers, imagine running those two out there for two games apiece in the LDS.
• I'm a huge Ben Sheets fan: He strikes out a lot of batters, he walks very few. He's also had a laundry list of injuries and would be a colossal risk on any deal that wasn't year-to-year.
• Randy Wolf is a BLAIM (Below League Average Innings Muncher). 200 innings of 4.30 ERA has plenty of value on the open market. Could the Mets do better? Sure. They could also do worse (see: Pedro Martinez circa 2008).

Now the relievers.

There are more guys than those listed, but this is a pretty good sampling of what's out there. We've got young and old, righty and lefty, closers and middle relief.

• Everybody hates Kyle Farnsworth, and though he isn't really closer material, he could certainly contribute to a quality bullpen if used appropriately.
• Brian Fuentes is probably my top choice to close for the Mets next year. His platoon splits are fairly even, despite using a sidearm delivery from the left side that is commonly susceptible to right-handed batters. He'll be 33 next year, but three years of Fuentes seems preferable to six years of Francisco Rodriguez.
• Trevor Hoffman probably won't ever leave San Diego, but he'd be a decent signing for a year if the Padres committed to rebuilding. He has great control and still strikes out a lot of batters even though his fastball tops out in the mid-to-high eighties.
• I'm not really a huge Brandon Lyon fan. He's interesting, and has good control, but he's really a bridge guy. Could be useful in mid-to-late innings.
• Will Ohman stunk for two years in Chicago before turning in a nice season with the Braves last year. The Mets could do worse in the middle innings.
• Arthur Rhodes is like a hundred years old and he's not so hot against righties, but he dominates lefties like nobody's business. There's probably no room for him if the Mets still have Pedro Feliciano and Scott Schoeneweis, but none of that is set in stone.
• Juan Rincon used to be a dominant setup man in Minnesota, but then he got busted for steroids and has been mostly terrible the past seasons.
• Francisco Rodriguez is the prize of the free agent relief market, but I have a hard time dumping six years and $100 million on him. He's not quite as good as his saves record might indicate to someone who actually cares about that sort of thing. He's no better than the fourth-best closer in the AL; is that worth breaking the bank?
• Kerry Wood is another interesting name. Would come far more cheaply than Rodriguez with comparable peripherals.

We'll do non-Mets batters tomorrow.

So, yea, this happened. Billy Wagner will undergo left elbow surgery and miss not only the remainder of the 2008 season, but most-if-not-all of the 2009 season. I think most of us were prepared for the former; Wagner had been showing some signs of progress in the days leading up to his most recent setback, but even the most optimistic fan couldn't have expected much out of him this month (or next, Jebus willing). The Mets now have some decisions to make that will affect the final three weeks of this season and six months of next and beyond.

First things first: What does Wagner's injury do for the Mets' Septemeber outlook? Look at the last four weeks and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the coming weeks will look like. Losing Wagner means losing the best reliever the Mets had this season. I'm told that this was one of the worst -- if not the very worst -- season of Wagner's career. Aside from the blown saves I don't really see it: his WHIP is under .9, his strikeout and walk rates were both superb. But whatever, in a sea of Heilmans and Sanchezes, Wagner was at the very least a PVC life raft with copious cup holders and a DVD navigation system (if you're searching for a hidden analogy there don't waste your time).

Wagner could very well have thrown his last pitch as a Met, and he certainly has his share of vilifiers. He had a proclivity for running his mouth and alienating himself from his teammates, but he is one of the handful of best relivers the Mets have ever had (that's a topic for an offseason post, I think), and the Mets will miss him very much during this and next regular season, even if his somewhat limited career postseason track record left much to be desired.

In Wagner's absence the Mets will continue to do what they've done in.. uhh.. Wagner's absence. Luis Ayala is the de facto closer, at least until such time as he implodes and/or otherwise proves himself to be unfit for the job. I hope it doesn't come to that; I've heard nothing but good things about Ayala the person and he was a very good reliever for the Expos/Nationals a couple of years ago. He is still relatively young and has some closing experience, and the Mets got him for next-to-nothing, so if he can be a productive bullpen arm for them, closing games or otherwise, his acquisition will be a major coup.

Behind Ayala, the Mets will look to cobble together a few innings a game for as long as they can. Heilman, Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, et al. can't all fail miserably every day, so Jerry Manuel's most important task over the next nineteen games will be to mix-and-match them and to be fairly liberal with the fast hook when he sees that one (or many!) of his guys doesn't have it on a particular day. Brian Stokes has been astonishingly good in his 17.1 innings as a reliever, compiling a 1.04 ERA and a 13-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Look for Manuel to lean on him more heavily in the season's waning days.

Beyond this year, the Mets will probably look to bring in an established closer to take over in 2009 and beyond. Omar Minaya likes Ayala, but I think he'd be much more comfortable with Francisco Rodriguez or someone else. There are some problems, of course. For starters, Rodriguez may be going through the worst season of his career. Despite gaudy save totals, his K/9, BB/9 and xFIP are all career lows (or highs; whichever is bad). Having said that, K-Rod is one of the elite closers in baseball and just turned 26 this year. He has logged a lot of relief innings for a pitcher his age, throwing 86 innings as a 21-year-old in 2003 and 65+ in every season since. He'll also cost an arm and a leg in both years and annual salary. The Mets got Wagner three offseasons ago for four years and $40 million; Rodriguez will likely be in the 5/$75 range, I'm guessing. That may be a bit high, but I don't expect it to be much less.

Another interesting name out there is Kerry Wood, who has proven to be relatively healthy this year and has performed well as the Cubs' closer. His strikeouts are way up and he has only allowed two homeruns in 58 innings. He turned 31 in June and his arm is always a pitch away from falling off, but if you could get him for 2/$20 million or something, that might be far preferable to backing up the truck for Rodriguez.

The alternatives to Rodriguez and Wood are not awe-inspiring: Eddie Guardado, Damaso Marte, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, Tom Gordon, Jorge Julio, Byung-Hyun Kim, LaTroy Hawkins, Braden Looper, Brandon Lyon, Guillermo Mota, David Weathers. Retreads, former Mets, failed closers, crusty dinosaurs, assorted ghosts of Christmases past. Smart money -- brand spanking new Citi Field money -- is on Rodriguez, but the Angels and a number of other teams will be after his services, so even if the Mets are willing to pony up there are no guarantees that he's even theirs for the taking.

The bottom line is that the Mets aren't really any different today than they were yesterday. They have no Billy Wagner, so they're just going to have to make do. Next season is a different story, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Ever since baseball went to three divisions per league in 1994, the Mets and Cubs only get to meet a couple of times a year. I was fortunate enough to get some perspective on the Cubs' fast start from Byron Clarke of the inimitable Cubs blog Goat Riders of the Apocalypse.

Eric Simon:: Despite a terrific season last year with Iowa, Geovany Soto is a career .280/.358/.426 hitter in the minor leagues. He's off to a fast start with the Cubs this season (.304/.403/.537). Tell me a bit about him and where you think he'll end up, offensively and defensively.

Byron Clarke: The Soto situation is a little a-typical. He was cruising through the minors, probably not going to make it, and then last year, it apparently just clicked for him. He had a tremendous year, got a September call-up, impressed then, impressed this spring, and has continued to impress in the first tenth of the season. I'm fairly certain he's not as good as his early line, but the Cubs do not have a history of strength at #2, so anyone who's halfway decent is given a hero's welcome. At the end of the season, he'll probably have a .290/.370/.500 line with around 20 home runs. Defensively, he's passable. He's not going to throw a lot of runners out, but he's apparently a decent game caller.

ES: What's the status of Alfonso Soriano? Where does his gaffe rank among the stupidest sports injuries of all time? Worse than the Sammy Sosa sneeze-spasm? The Clint Barmes dear meat incident? The Bill Gramatica jump-n-tear?

BC: The whole Soriano situation is a little surreal. It's as freak-an-injury as a sneeze-spasm, and it's given all the Soriano haters a good opportunity to get in their cracks. As for where it fits in the pantheon of stupidest injuries? Somewhere between sneeze-spasms and 'washing my truck.' Still, it's not as bad as Jason Williams driving his motorcycle into a lightpost and ending his Bulls career.

ES: Give me your early impressions of Kosuke Fukudome.

BC: He's a complete player. Very fundamentally sound. He has a great approach at the plate. He's patient, will take the pitch and drive it to any part of the field. He runs well, might steal a base if the pitcher's got a high leg kick, and can throw out runners at the plate, especially if they don't run hard. He started off very hot, has cooled down a little, but the fundamentals are still there. For a Cubs team that has struggled for years with over-aggressiveness, his patience at the plate sets a great example for the rest of the team. He sees about 4.5 pitches/appearance. He has some power, but that's more of a bonus. He ought to be hitting in the #2 slot, but the Cubs have been doing well with him at #5.

ES: A lot of Cubs fans I've spoken to were happy to see Mark Prior go. What are your thoughts on the matter?

BC: To me, the whole situation was unfortunate. If events had occurred in a vacuum, I would have been in favor of giving him one more shot in Chicago, but the world is not a vacuum. About two years ago, the local media decided to make Prior 'a bad guy,' and Mark didn't handle it well. (The media also tried this with Kerry Wood, but he handled it much better and is now even more beloved than before.) Anyhow, relations between the fans and Prior, and Prior and the team soured. It was appropriate to let him go, but I'm saddened by the whole parting. I think Mark has some excellent and productive years ahead of him, and I'll be sad to see those occur in someone else's uniform... but I'll be one of the Cubs fans that feel that way. In the end, he was done in by high expectations, high salary, and poor relations with the local beat writers and talk radio guys.

ES: Ryan Dempster has a great ERA so far, but he seems to have gotten pretty lucky in allowing just nine hits in 19.0 innings. His 13-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio is unspectacular. Are you bullish or bearish on his future as a starter?

BC: Sell. He hasn't had a good season as a starter since 2000, and as long as I keep repeating that fact, he's been pitching well. So, I will state once more for the record. Ryan Dempster has no business in the Cubs rotation. His early results are a fluke, even if he's been our second best starter.

ES: Kerry Wood: Closer. The results have been good to this point. How does he look, and how is the rest of the bullpen shaping up?

BC: Wood looks better and better with each outing. He struggled a bit at first, allowing runs in two of his first four or five games, but he's looking like a shutdown closer, much like people expected he would be. Currently, Carlos Marmol is the eighth inning set-up man. I've commented a few times that Marmol is the Mariano Rivera to Kerry Wood's John Wetteland. Marmol has been shaky at times, but still dominant. We've also got Bobby Howry who struggles in April, but will be excellent down the stretch, Michael Wuertz (reliably solid), Jon Lieber (ought to be in the rotation), Sean Marshall (also should be in the rotation), and Kevin Hart (unheralded but solid.) To jinx us, I would say that the bullpen is a real strength of the team... but if the starters can't get it together, that won't last for long.

Thanks, Byron. You can check out my responses to his questions at Goat Riders of the Apocalypse.