Per Steve Popper's blog, the Mets have signed free agent reliever Matt Wise to a one-year deal -- presumably a big-league one -- though the value of the deal wasn't announced.
Wise was non-tendered by the Brewers last week and I spoke briefly about him at the time. Here are his pertinent rate stats courtesy of FanGraphs.com:
| Season | Team | K/9 | BB/9 | K/BB | HR/9 | AVG | WHIP | BABIP | LOB% | FIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Angels | 4.82 | 3.13 | 1.54 | 1.69 | .275 | 1.42 | .279 | 70.1 % | 5.69 |
| 2001 | Angels | 9.12 | 3.28 | 2.78 | 2.01 | .253 | 1.32 | .288 | 77.5 % | 5.29 |
| 2002 | Angels | 6.48 | 1.08 | 6.00 | 0.00 | .230 | 0.96 | .286 | 66.7 % | 2.48 |
| 2004 | Brewers | 5.13 | 2.56 | 2.00 | 0.51 | .256 | 1.25 | .288 | 64.3 % | 3.77 |
| 2005 | Brewers | 8.67 | 3.50 | 2.48 | 0.84 | .169 | 0.96 | .206 | 70.7 % | 3.79 |
| 2006 | Brewers | 5.48 | 2.84 | 1.93 | 1.22 | .265 | 1.33 | .285 | 70.3 % | 4.82 |
| 2007 | Brewers | 7.21 | 2.85 | 2.53 | 0.84 | .287 | 1.45 | .341 | 68.1 % | 3.81 |
| 2008 | Bill James | 6.98 | 2.93 | 2.38 | 0.90 | .252 | 1.28 | .294 | 4.00 |
The final line represents Wise's 2008 projection from the Bill James Handbook. I'm ambivalent to the signing. Wise isn't anything special, but he's not really awful (his BABIP was .341 last year, which likely accounted to his jump in ERA). It'll be interesting to see how he performs relative to Guillermo Mota, whom the Mets dumped on the Brewers who, in turn, dumped Matt Wise.
UPDATE: The contract is for $1.2 million, or $750k if Wise is cut during spring training. Pretty low-risk move on the Mets' part. For the Brewers' part, Jeff Sackmann of Brew Crew Ball gives his take in a post amusingly titled "Omar Minaya 2, Doug Melvin 0, Brewers Fans -7":
Short version: the Brewers traded Matt Wise for Guillermo Mota and took on an extra $1.5-2MM to do so.The only way this is defensible to me AT ALL is if the Brewers know something about Mota or Wise that we don't know. Maybe Mota is ready to bounce back (though he doesn't have that lengthy of a good track record) and maybe Wise really is done after hitting Pedro Lopez in the face. I guess we'll see. It's also possible that, when Melvin traded for Mota, he couldn't imagine that he'd be able to get three more superior relievers in Gagne, Riske, and Torres, and didn't think Mota's acquisition would mean we couldn't keep Wise.
But, regardless of the thought process, this doesn't make me happy. I wasn't happy about losing Wise before, but losing Wise to the Mets is even more obnoxious.