ESPN reports that David Riske is close to a multi-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. Riske had a 2.45 ERA in 65 games of middle relief for the Kansas City Royals.

Ken Rosenthal on Fox Sports Riske’s agent, Nez Balero, who believes his client could close for the Brewers.

“We feel that David would be given an opportunity to be more than just a setup man. He’s not shying away from being a closer at all. If given that opportunity, he would welcome it.”

These relievers are flying off the board. I hope the Mets work fast before all the quality middle relief is gone, unless of course Omar is going by the rationale that its unlikely any of the available options will perform at the same level they did the previous season. As we have seen time and again, middle relievers are rarely consistently from one season to the next.

Of the guys left on the board, I like Ron Mahay the most. He would make for a solid 8th inning option if Duaner Sanchez isn’t able to do the job, and at the very least would give you a good 7th and 8th inning 1-2 punch to get you to Billy Wagner.

The importance of middle relievers in baseball has increased in recent years, as the trend of starting pitchers failing to go deep into ballgames continues. The Hardball Times provides a graph of the decline in the number of innings pitched by starters over the past hundred years.

With this increased importance, comes a price. In the New York Times, Murray Chase points out that relievers had an average salary of $1,433,992 in 2006 up from $1,316,384 in 2005.

The Mets currently have Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez, John Maine, and Mike Pelfrey tentatively penciled into their rotation for 2008, with a fifth pitcher likely to come from free agency or via trade this winter. The uncertainty of the Mets rotation makes the need a quality bullpen even greater. The inconsistency of the Mets rotation last season caused the Mets starters to fail to get deep into ballgames, and put a great degree of pressure on an overworked Mets bullpen.

The Mets enter 2008 with a bullpen consisting of Billy Wagner, Scott Schoeneweis, Duaner Sanchez, Jorge Sosa, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, Juan Padilla and possibly Orlando Hernandez.

The Mets will likely use Aaron Heilman as a trading chip to acquire a front line starter.

As we scan the free agent landscape this off season, there are quite a few quality arms available to upgrade with. Two big name closers are on the market, Francisco Cordero and Eric Gange, but will want to close so would be of no use to the Mets.

Ron Mahay, Jeremy Affledt, David Riske, LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Linebrink, Octavio Dotel, and Byung-Hyun Kim are some of the other arms who might be worth a look as middle relievers. Chad Cordero is a longshot, as the Nationals have asked for Carlos Gomez in return and Cordero is also likely to perfer a closing role.

Mahay was 3-0 last year, with a 2.55 ERA and 1.33 WHIP over 67 innings for the Braves. He is considered the best of the middle relievers on the market and has attracted the Yankees interest.

David Riske was 1-4 with a 2.45 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP over 69.7 innings for the Royals. Riske hasn’t had an ERA over 4 since 2002.

Matthew Cerrone on Mets Blog relays information from Mike Pagliarulo who advises the Yankees, who Mark Feinsand of the Daily News said has interest, to steer clear of Linebrink, whose stats indicate a ‘structural decline.’

Octavio Dotel was traded to the Braves from Kansas City at the trade deadline and compiled a 4.11 ERA with a 1.33 WHIP. He spent time on the disabled list with a shoulder strain in August.

The Orioles could look to move Chad Bradford, who is signed to a three year, $10.5 million contract. He compiled a 3.34 ERA with a 1.43 WHIP.

Tom Haudricourt at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Brewers GM Doug Melvin is being pro-active in upgrading his bullpen whether or not closer Francisco Cordero decides to return to the club.

Among the eight or nine relievers Melvin is targeting are Matt Herges, LaTroy Hawkins and Ron Mahay.

Herges was  5-1 with a 2.96 ERA in 35 relief appearances last season. Hawkins had a 3.42 ERA in 62 outings.

Mahay went 3-0 with a 2.55 ERA in 58 appearances.

Melvin hasn’t put in a bid yet for Scott Linebrink. 

Haudricourt names David Riske as someone worth looking into. Riske had a big year for Kansas City, posting a 2.45 ERA in 65 appearances.