Free agent Odorizzi felt ‘hated’ by new regime
DENVER — Jake Odorizzi is still perplexed he’s pitching for the Astros rather than the Mets.
The veteran right-hander was a Mets target for much of the offseason, as the team looked to bolster the rotation behind Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman, but the stars never got aligned for the two sides.
“Early on, I thought I was going to be a member of a certain team, then some people took over that team and they pretty much hated me, so it fell through,” Odorizzi said on “The Chris Rose Rotation” podcast, appearing with Mets reliever Trevor May. “It was Trevor’s team. It was an interesting thing, so it’s a weird one.”
Mets president Sandy Alderson pursued Odorizzi early in free agency, but the Mets then hired Jared Porter as general manager (he was fired only a month into his tenure after his sexual harassment of a female reporter during his Cubs employment was uncovered) before Zack Scott ascended to acting GM.
After acquiring right-hander Carlos Carrasco in the Francisco Lindor trade, the Mets still had a rotation opening and pursued Trevor Bauer. But last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner jilted the Mets to sign with the Dodgers for three years and $102 million. Still in need of another starter, the Mets ultimately signed Taijuan Walker to a two-year deal worth $20 million. Stroman returned to the team on a qualifying offer worth $18.9 million just as free agency began.
“It’s one of those things where you get down the road far enough, you’re like, ‘All right, things might happen,’ and then obviously a lot of weird, interesting things happened with that organization this offseason, good and bad,” Odorizzi said. “It was a weird one, that is for sure.”
Odorizzi remained a free agent into spring training before signing a two-year contract with the Astros worth $20.25 million.
“My time in free agency this year was the single most frustrating time I’ve had in baseball,” Odorizzi said. “At certain points you think you are going to be a member of a certain team and then it falls through or whatever maybe and it’s like, ‘All right, now what?’ And it’s March and I am still sitting at the house. It’s like, ‘What the hell is going on right now?’ ”