The Mets didn’t pick up the 9 million dollar option of JJ Putz this week, thus making him a free agent. Anyone shocked by this? So where does Putz exactly rank nowadays? Is he a closer? A set up man? A middle reliever? And how do you pay him? Do you pay him closer money? Do you give him a 1 year incentive laced deal? What’s the market going to be for him and whose in need of back end help? Well I can give you 15 reasons for 15 teams why they should give Putz a shot, but I’ll stick to my love- Chicago Cubs.

Lets start with the Cons. JJ Putz had a brutal last couple seasons and had elbow surgery last year. He might demand to be the closer, and therefore might demand closer type money.Obviously the Cubs are a little cash strapped this offseason, they have a closer in Carlos Marmol, and I’m sure the elbow surgery doesn’t appeal to Jim Hendry so the odds of making a play at him are probably slim to really really slim.

Pros- JJ is still relatively young. He’s got great stuff when healthy. He’s got some experience being at the back end of the bullpen. Could be part of a nasty 7th, 8th, and 9th inning with Angel Guzman and Carlos Marmol.

Why I would go after him. JJ Putz clearly wasn’t healthy the last couple years, and speaking as a pitcher that’s tried to pitch through arm injuries- well I’ll be the first to tell you it’s extremely difficult if not impossible for anyone not named John Smoltz. His command really struggled which shows in his sub par numbers, but when your elbow’s hurting, you cannot locate consistently. Especially on the outer half when you literally have to reach farther than normal to get the baseball out there. Your arm angle can change and IMO Putz’s did slightly to compensate. That slight change in angles can really flatten out Putz’s bread and butter pitch- the split fingered fastball and it did. Well- Putz is going to be healthy next year. And a healthy JJ Putz could add to an already solid back end of the bullpen. Keep in mind, this guy has been a lights out closer/all star for Seattle 2 years ago, so it’s not like he’s completely forgotten how to pitch.

If I were Jim Hendry- it’s hard to ignore the fact that he’s out there and the Cubs could need some help in the pen. Sure, Jose Valverde is an option along with Rafael Soriano, but I would say there’s no chance because those guys are going to be high in demand and they’ll get their payday not to mention Jose Valverde being disgustingly over rated. If you look at the free agent class, there’s not a whole lot the Cubs are going to be able to do- so why not stock up in the pen if all possible? The odds of Zambrano or Lee being traded are slim to none even though I posted articles explaining why each one should be- so there’s not going to be a big opening in the payroll or a big opening in positions. Assuming the Cubs don’t make any trades this off season of significance, why not take some money and resign John Grabow and then bring in JJ Putz? Your now looking at the 7th, 8th, 9th innings of- Guzman, John Grabow, Putz, Marmol, John Gaub. That’s pretty deep and it shortens the game for a pretty deep starting pitching staff.

Regardless of what people say, the Cubs do have a little money they can spend- but they have to spend wisely. So again- I ask….Why not? JJ Putz 2 year deal worth about 8 million is not much different than Kevin Gregg’s 4 million last year, and I think it’s safe to safe, JJ Putz would scare more teams than Kevin Gregg did.

Why not? The Ricketts family said they’d do anything they could to bring a winner to Chicago and basically guaranteed it. Here’s your chance Ricketts family to prove it. You bring Putz in, resign John Grabow and you now have one of the better bullpens in baseball.