Addison Reed just galloped off into the sunset, never to be seen again (Minnesota).

Screen: SNY/MLB

Addison Reed is Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars without the baggage and with a talent for throwing strikes. He does not walk off the mound; he ambles, cap tilted upward like he just greeted the deputy’s wife with a “mornin’”. The man has a cowboy’s gait and a cowboy’s audacity to slap his boss’s butt. He’ll do your 7th inning dirty work, but he’ll have a not so kind word or two about it with you later. He’ll flash a smile at your poor opponent soon after, and you’ll learn to forgive again. He’ll celebrate with you by way of a joyous hip bump, until you have to miss a few games because of your new hip injury. After coming across, somewhat improbably, as both arrogant and affable, Reed is sauntering off to the Twins as the owner of the lowest ERA (minimum 142 innings, sure) by any Metropolitan ever.

About that: Why?

The reports are Reed turned down a three year offer somewhere and preferred to play in the Midwest. There are four possibilities here:

“I prefer to play in the Midwest” was code for “Sorry Sandy, I don’t trust you guys with my physical health, nor with spending the money necessary to win a championship.” (Completely understandable.) Addison got a faulty globe and erroneously believes his offseason home of Ohio is closer to Minneapolis than Queens. He wants to close, and like everybody else doesn’t find Fernando Rodney that much of a threat. The Mets made it known they spent most of their remaining money left on Jay Bruce.

That last one would particularly sting if true. A bullpen of Familia, Reed, Ramos, Swarzak, and Blevins would ease all of my recurring nightmares of the starting pitchers who aren’t deGrom or Syndergaard only lasting five innings every time out. The very idea that a New York team had to choose between Bruce and Reed is kind of infuriating.

This is not a good look for the Mets superficially speaking either. Sandy Alderson made what at the time seemed like a very crafty move by trading for Marlins closer AJ Ramos a few days before shipping out Reed. It ensured he would get a better offer for Reed in a weakened relief pitching trade deadline market, and he picked up a lesser but still good reliever that unlike Reed was under contract in 2018. But just yesterday Ramos and the Mets settled on a $9.225 million salary, or $725,000 more than Reed a season.

Swarzak’s 2 year, $14 million contract mitigates the slap in the face a little bit. I suppose getting struck by a ballistic missile would put everything in perspective as well. Maybe the Mets don’t need a bunch of good relievers because they’re going with my tandem starters idea and will subsequently nominate me for a MacArthur Fellowship. Perhaps, like Reed, they’ll pick up an unwanted, seemingly broken but talented relief toy in late August and make him into a new, shiny Addison Reed. A new phoenix rising from the ashes to help save Panic City from itself. Honestly though, how many times can you rely on that magic?

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