"Sandy Alderson acknowledged the Mets need starting rotation insurance, in part because there's no absolute assurance Johan Santana will be ready in April.

Still, Alderson acknowledged, adding starting pitching depth is tricky because assuming everyone is healthy, the rotation should be Santana, Jon Niese, R.A. Dickey, Mike Pelfrey and Dillon Gee and any signee would need to work out of the bullpen or be dispatched to Triple-A.

"If we stick someone in, who's the logical person to go down? We don't really have a logical candidate to go down," Alderson said. "But we do have some question marks, of course, with Santana being one of them. We think he's going to be ready, but he might not be. That's where the depth becomes important. "