"It didn't take long for new agent Scott Boras and the Brewers to solve the quandary over former Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez 's $17.5 million vesting option for 2012.

In exchange for upping the value of K-Rod's buyout from $3.5 million to a reported $4 million, the option - which will vest if K-Rod finishes 21 more games this season to reach 55 - is now a mutual option.

That means Rodriguez instead can decline it and become a free agent this winter, enabling Boras to seek additional dollars and years - and of course, commission for himself - on K-Rod's next deal. In the short term, the move enables the Brewers, who already have a closer in John Axford , to also use Rodriguez in that role without fear of being on the hook for the exorbitant option.

"We've said all we want to say on the matter," a team spokesman said when asked whether the Mets had been offered the same deal by Boras to bypass Rodriguez's option.

Through the spokesman, GM Sandy Alderson also declined comment.

Rodriguez, who was traded Tuesday to Milwaukee with about $5 million for two players to be named later, switched agents earlier this month. Alderson confirmed Thursday that K-Rod's previous representative, Paul Kinzer , had failed to submit to the Mets the list of 10 teams to fulfill a limited no-trade provision in the pitcher's current three-year deal.

REYES BACK BY MONDAY?

Jose Reyes plans to sprint in straight lines Saturday and then around the bases at full speed Sunday, with an outside possibility the star shortstop could be activated as early as Monday, the first day he's eligible to come off the disabled list.

"We have to wait and see how I'm going to perform on Sunday...and then we'll determine what we're going to do after that," Reyes, who has been sidelined with a strained left hamstring since July 2, said before last night's opener against the Phillies. "The last five days, it's been very, very good. So hopefully it can continue to feel like that.""