The Mets, openly worried about closer Frank Francisco, are optimistic that they’ll be landing another late-inning option in free agent Brandon Lyon, an industry source confirmed.
The agreement with Lyon could be completed and announced this coming week, although the right-hander’s agent Barry Meister cautioned, in an e-mail, “We are still talking to clubs and there is no deal with the Mets.”
Lyon, 33, split the 2012 season with Houston and Toronto and pitched quite well in both locales, totaling a 3.10 ERA in 67 appearances and striking out 63 and walking 20 over 61 innings. He picked up just one save; he has spent his 12-year career bouncing back and forth between closer (he recorded 20 saves for the 2010 Astros and 26 for the 2008 Diamondbacks) and setup man.
The Mets already have added Scott Atchison and LaTroy Hawkins, both on minor-league contracts, to a unit that performed exceptionally poorly in the 2012 season’s first half. Francisco, entering the second year of a two-year, $12-million contract — the most money Sandy Alderson has committed to a free agent since taking over the team two years ago — performed dreadfully last year, tallying a 5.53 ERA in 48 appearances, and is coming off December surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow.
If they can complete the deal for Lyon, as they anticipate being able to do, the Mets could be finished renovating this area and could be close to done overall as spring training approaches. They’re interested in free-agent outfielder Michael Bourn, yet they have neither been able to agree on financial terms with Bourn nor get assurance that they wouldn’t lose their 11th overall selection in the 2013 amateur draft as compensation.
CBS Sports, on its website, first reported that the Mets were close to signing Lyon.