Mets Bring Back Moises Alou, Damion Easley

The Mets may be staying mum on their interest in Alex Rodriguez, but they did lock up a couple of their own on Wednesday, ensuring that Moises Alou and Damion Easley will return in 2008. The Mets held a $7.5 million option on Alou, while Easley signed for $950,000. From the New York Daily News:

"I was thinking about retirement early in the year. Or I wasn't sure I wanted to come back," [Alou] continued. "But the way I ended up playing, and what happened this year to us, I really wanted to have another shot at winning a world championship."

Saying "I ended up playing well" is an understatement: he ended up hitting .341 with a 30-game hitting streak. That's incredible production, let alone from a 41-year-old veteran whom many regarded as being on his last legs.

He only played in 87 games, largely due to a strained calf that sidelined him for two and a half months, but he's shooting to play in at least 140 games this year. Is that overly optimistic? Perhaps; he's only in that many games over a full season five times since making his big-league debut in 1990, and he hasn't topped 123 in a season since 2004.