Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports that the Mets will face stiff competition from the Houston Astros when they look to re-sign Luis Castillo.

The Astros are looking to replace Craig Biggio, who retired this season, and Rosenthal’s sources say that they will make a ’strong run’ at Castillo.

Five more players have filed for free agency today, including Josh Fogg of the NL Champion Colorado Rockies.

Cleveland
Foulke, Keith (RP)

Colorado
Fogg, Josh (SP)

San Diego
Mackowiak, Rob (OF) Tomko, Brett (SP)

San Francisco
Matheny, Mike (Catcher)

The following players declared free agency today…

Baltimore:
Benson, Kris (SP)

Boston:
Mirabelli, Doug (Catcher)

Cincinnati:
Guardado, Eddie A. (RP)

Colorado:
Hawkins, LaTroy (RP); Matsui, Kaz (2B); Redman, Mark A. (SP)

Kansas City:
Thomson, John C. (SP)

San Francisco:
Klesko, Ryan (1B)

While I realize that this ship has sailed, the Mets could do a hell of a lot worse than Kaz Matsui. The Mets have such a long line of second basemen that found greener pastures elsewhere. Jeff Kent, Melvin Mora, Kaz Mat, etc…

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports points out that the Mets could have $33.5 million dollars off their payroll this year with a number of players declaring free agency and potentially another $37.3 next year.

Partial list of 2007 free agents

LHP Tom Glavine $10.5 million last season
C Paul LoDuca $6.25 million
2B Luis Castillo $5.75 million, pro-rated
2B Jose Valentin $3.8 million
RF Shawn Green $3.7 million (Mets’ contribution)
RHP Jorge Sosa $1.25 million
LHP Dave Williams $1.25 million
RHP Aaron Sele $1 million

Partial list of 2008 free agents

1B Carlos Delgado $16 million next season
RHP Pedro Martinez $11 million
RHP Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez $6.5 million
RHP Guillermo Mota $3.8 million

Rosenthal notes, the Mets obviously would need to pay for replacements for these players but they have several young, cheap in-house options such as Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey for the rotation along with Carlos Gomez and Lastings Milledge available for the outfield.

In addition to these contracts coming off the books, the Mets will earn $20 million a year from Citibank for naming rights in 2008 along with approximately $30 million from shared MLB revenues.

This does not even factor in SNY revenue, the flood of revenues the Mets will be earning with the new ballpark, and many other cash streams. All things considered, the Mets appear to be in a very good financial position to throw their weight around when it comes to going after free agents in 2007 and beyond.

How aggressive they plan to be with this wealth remains to be seen.

When asked what the Mets biggest off season priority should be, Mets fans chose pitching by a wide margin.

The poll was taken on Mets.com and as of this time 47% of fans said bullpen help was the biggest priority with the starting rotation not far behind, garnering 46% of the vote. Catcher (4%) and Second Base lagged far behind (2%)

I agree 100%

While I want the Mets to add an arm or two to the rotation, I feel the bullpen is the Mets biggest weakness. There appear to be more impact players available as relievers than starters this offseason via free agency.

After the jump, the full list of free agent starting pitchers, closers and middle relievers. (more…)