Billy Wagner To Pitch For Red Sox

Sports Betting News - August 25th, 2009 - Written by Scott

With an hour before the trade deadline set to take effect, New York Mets reliever Billy Wagner shockingly agreed to waive his no-trade clause and has been traded to the Boston Red Sox for two players to be named later.  Up until now, it seemed as though Wagner, who turned 38 in July, would not agree to the trade.  The Red Sox agreed to not pick up the left-handed reliever's option for 2010.  They did however retain the rights to offer arbitration and could still acquire two draft picks for him if he departs as a free agent.

Wagner hesitated on his decision to go for various reasons.  The first being that he did not want the Red sox to pick up his $8 million option for 2010.  In addition, he wished to not be offered arbitration due to the fact that Boston would acquire first and second round picks when he became a free agent.  A final reason for his hesitation is that he still has three months left in his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery.  He is also scheduled to only pitch once every third day.

With 385 career saves already, Wagner stated he has a goal of reaching the 400 career save mark.  Wagner has only appeared in two games this season with a total of two innings of work after being expected to miss the entire season.  He returned to the Mets last Thursday night and struck out two in one inning of work.  His second outing was a scoreless inning against the Phillies on Monday.  Throughout his fifteen year career, Wagner is 39-37 with 385 saves and 1,070 strikeouts.  His career earned run average is 2.39 and has made it clear that he wishes to end his career as a closer and not a set-up pitcher, wherever he ended up.

 "I don't want to end my career as a set-up man," Wagner said. "I'd like to have that option."

Currently, the Red Sox have a record of 71-53.  They are in 2nd place in the American League East and 1st in the American League wild card race.  It appears they are beefing up their staff for a successful playoff run.  The Red Sox are at home Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.  On the other side, the Mets are 57-68 and are fourteen games behind in the National League wild card race.  They begin a three game series with the Florida Marlins Tuesday night.

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