Matthews to take a bite of the Big Apple!

It was never Gary Matthews Jr.'s fault the Angels over payed for him.  Bill Stoneman always had a way of signing talent that never lived up to the expectations of the Halo Faithful.  Does anyone remember when the Angels front office went out and signed a fat, aging first baseman... Cecil Fielder.  Then attempted to right the ship by signing a fatter more aged first baseman... Mo Vaughn.  In that situation, it didn't work out.  Well Stoneman signed GMJ for far more money than he should have.  With numbers that may have been inflated with banned substances.  Tony Reagins attempted to right the signing of his former mentor Stoneman.  And he did, because Torii Hunter was great.  But what to do with Stoneman's little mistake.

The idea so far had been to play him as a 4th Man.  He would come in when needed.  And he was overpaid, but he did his job and with few complaints.  He looked great with Hunter was out with injury.  But GMJ wanted out.  And said so at the end of the season.

"I don't expect to be back; it's time to move on," Matthews said. "I'm ready to play for an organization that wants me to play every day. This organization has other plans, and that's OK."

And when many of the Angel faithful saw Matthews heading for Atlanta, Reagins managed to send Matthews to the New York Mets, got a choice reliever in Brian Stokes, and it only cost the Angels $21MM!  The price was high, but it was the only option the Angels had.  Matthews got what he wanted, out of the franchise.  The Angels got what they wanted, the ability to keep another AAA on the depth chart, be it Peter Bourjos, Chris Pettit, or Terry Evans. And even managed to strengthen one of the few weakness the Angels of 2009 had. Good move for Matthews, but a better move for the Angel's Front Office. So long Matthews!