As the off season is slowly coming to an end the Mets keep signing more and more players. Today on January 23rd 2009 the Mets signed SP Freddy Garcia, OF Cory Sullivan, OF Rob Mackowiak, 2B Alex Cora. Three out of the four players were signed to minor league contracts giving the Mets more room to sign more players to the majors. They have been trying to get as much help from the free agents as possible. All of these players being veterans they give the Mets more experience. Freddy Garcia who has played for many teams such as the Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and many others has done great on all of them. He is a starting pitch that will get great support from the bullpen after letting up major runs while pitching. Garcia who is 118-77 for his career and has a 4.07 ERA can show the Mets that he deserves the 5th starting spot unless the Mets sign Oliver Perez. Both OF's Sullivan and Mackowiak have had great careers. Mackowiak who played for the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, and other many teams. For his career he has a .257 batting average with a total of 603 hits. He has been in and out from injuries and has hit some rough spots but he is ready to prove to the Mets that he is one of the players that should play in the outfield for them. Sullivan on the other hand is ready to play. Since he has been drafted in 2001 he has been playing for the Colorado Rockies but was in the minors for four years. With a career batting average of .279 and 259 hits he has had the potential of doing very w
ell but the Rockies haven''t given him the chance to prov
e that he can do very well. So now the Mets have given him the chance in the upcoming spring training to prove himself to the team to show that he deserves a spot on that field with the Mets. Cora who was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1996 and played for them until the end of the 2004 season then was shipped to Boston for half the season. After being in Boston for the half season he was off to Cleveland, but after the 2005 season the Red Sox offered to take him back. So he accepted and went back to them for 2006 season till now when the Mets signed him for $2 million but only for a year. He has shown the teams that he has been on that he can do good it just takes him time like anyone else. The Mets have been looking for players like him and all of the others that they signed this off season for a long time. Many people have been saying it is the Mets' year this year. That they won't collapse at the end and will keep going. Well with signing all of these guys in the off season and there is still more to come they will have a very good chance to prove that they are the team to beat other than the Phillies. They will contend and beat anyone that stands in there way.