MET GAIN: The New York Mets today made their first big free-agent splash in quite a while, bringing lifetime Atlanta Brave Tom Glavine to Shea with a three-year deal worth about $35 million. The signing prevented the Phillies from gaining a monopoly on major free agent signings this year, as they had coveted Glavine as well. The trade will also serve to pacify angry Mets fans upset about last offseason's bad moves, on top of their Yankee-envy. He'll help the Mets, but then that's what they said last year about Roberto Alomar and Mo Vaughn.
Glavine, a likely future Hall of Famer, has long been a consummate professional, which made him sort of an anomoly in the land of the Tomahawk Chop, Ted Turner, and such unsavory characters as John Rocker, Gary Sheffield, and Chipper Jones. Glavine's departure means that the last remaining Brave from the 1991 team that lost the World Series to the Twins is fellow hurler John Smoltz.
The best case scenario for next year's NL East? 1. Phillies, 2. Mets, 3. Braves. I wouldn't mind the Expos or Marlins overtaking Atlanta either. At any rate, the bottom line for the Mets is that by getting Glavine they helped themselves while hurting both the Braves and Phillies.