I hope the ultimate fallout from this whole Frankie Rodriguez saga is that people start using the term “krod” as an expletive. Not K-Rod, krod. One syllable.
As in: “Krod! He’s bringing in Dessens again!” Or: “Man, he beat the krod out of that old guy!” Or: “Holy krod, why in krod’s name did they give a vesting option to a pitcher with such kroddy peripherals?”
Anyway, now Rodriguez is presumably done for the year. He gets thumb surgery, the Mets get Hisanori Takahashi closing games, and the girlfriend’s father gets to say, “you should see the other guy” when people ask him about his bruises.
The small glimmering scrap of upside — beyond the krod stuff, of course — is the hope that the Mets will be able to void the rest Rodriguez’s contract, though it seems unlikely. That would free up some money for the team to pursue free agents this offseason, though I wonder if those celebrating the possibility are giving the team too much credit.
Does anyone really think the Mets have, in a year and a half, gotten over the need for a ninth-inning reliever with the “closer” brand? It seems way more likely the Mets spend any money allotted to K-Rod on another silly contract to another closer, and quite likely one not as good as Rodriguez — albeit one less likely to fight in the family room.
I’ll allow that Takahashi could prove good enough in this audition to convince the Mets he has the elusive closer mentality and earn himself an extension — should they successfully part ways with K-Rod, of course. That’s about the best way this could play out.
Most likely, the Mets won’t be able to void K-Rod’s contract and they’ll end up with the reliever back for a super awkward year in their bullpen in 2011. I imagine that unless they’re right in the thick of a pennant race they’ll bend over backwards to make sure his ridiculous 2012 option doesn’t vest. But since they struggle to part ways with sunk cost, since K-Rod still brings actual value to the team despite his off-field problems, and since they’re almost certain to believe they need someone labeled “closer” for 2011, he’ll probably be back.
So we’ll deal with that krod when we get there.
Tedquarters 
But the good thing even if they cant void his cantract is that with him missing the rest of the season, it will make much harder for him to reach that automatic option.
I also dont see Krod as the same type of sunk cost as someone like Ollie, or Castillo, because if he gets fixed and is healthy, the guy is still pretty good.
I’m not sure if trying to void krod’s is the best course of action. It’s going to be hard enough to try and get FA’s to come here given the state of the Mets and how pissed off the fanbase is – do you really want to put another seed of doubt into players’ heads about playing in Flushing?
Adam Rubin pointed out in his blog that the Shawn Chacon – Ed Wade dispute from 2008 was just recently resolved, and that seems like a much more black and white case. Considering that krod is still legally presumed innocent, I can’t imagine that the Mets have much recourse between now and next year.
Sean, I think you are focusing on the wrong aspect here. I dont think anyone beleives that the Mets can void his contract based on bad behavior or him commiting a crime. Its the injury aspect, which is pretty clear cut, which may allows them to pursue voiding the contract.
Totally agree Chris. I’m no lawyer, but it would seem if you injure yourself doing something that’s in violation of your contract, you’d be in danger of having your contract voided.
It’s like a team wouldn’t try to void a contract just because a guy went skiing. But if he tore his ACL skiing, they might.
Ok, if it’s the injury aspect, then how are you going to prove that he tore his tendon punching his father-in-law last week when he pitched on Saturday?
If the Mets thought he was healthy enough to pitch after the fight, then I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch for krod to claim that he injured it pitching on Saturday, or that he exacerbated the injury by playing through it.
My main point is that it is really, really hard to void a MLB player contract outside of committing specific violations like skiing or playing basketball. Getting hurt b/c of punching or kicking (see Oliver Perez breaking his toe w/ the Pirates,or Kevin Brown punching a wall in 2004).
Damnit all, the mets medical staff strikes again.
Well how exactly would one tear a thumb ligament pitching? You have to look at the injury itself and and the nature in which an injury like this would occur and there is nothing about throwing a baseball that would lend itself to tearing a ligament in the the thumb.
Yeah but it’s not just looking at the injury situation it’s proving it in arbitration. It’s kind of hard for us to go in and say “well our medical staff cleared him” and then say the injury was sustained before the medical staff cleared him. I agree realistically it’s obvious it had to be during the fight but being realistic and proving it legally are different things.
I believe Mejia actually tore a tendon or ligament in his middle finger throwing a pitch extra hard because he was angry at a previous call.
Between the Church, Beltran and Putz injury handlings, general bad PR and bad play I have a hard time imaging voiding K-rods contract would even register in the top 5 reasons FA’s would not want to sign here.
Think about it this way, if expensive, over the hill FAs are reluctant to come here, it’ll force the front office to invest in their farm system and develop their players properly for a change.
although he hasnt pitched a full season, it looks like putz is healthy again. i saw his #’s and the K:bb ratio is something like 3 or 4 to 1. cant believe that guy didnt have the decency to resign with us even for just 1 yr to give some kind of return on the trade. of course it is possible the team told him to get the hell out of town immediately after he was out for the season.
Yeah, the recollection I have was that we didn’t want Putz back, and it had nothing to do with his desire to re-sign with us. I could be wrong though.
I imagine we didn’t endear ourselves to him though.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Krod&defid=167520
Sounds right to me.
This is my favorite definition from urbandictionary…
“a man that thinks he is a horse but in reality is actually a frog in a tuxedo”
Yeah, that’s my favorite definition of anything ever. Because man is that tuxedoed frog confused.