K-Rod trade clears cash for Mets to chase Reyes

Perhaps Sandy Alderson’s most important move of next year’s offseason came in the top of the ninth of Tuesday night’s All-Star Game.

That’s when the general manager put the finishing touches on the Mets’ trade that sent closer Francisco Rodriguez, and his $17.5 million vesting option, to Milwaukee for a pair of minor leaguers to be named later.

And in the process, Alderson may have freed up enough cash for the Mets to realistically pursue Jose Reyes when he becomes a free agent.

“Clearly, we now can look forward in 2012 to considerably more payroll flexibility,” Alderson said during a conference call yesterday. “That flexibility to allocate our resources will be very important to us [heading into] next season.”

AP

HAIR-RAISING DEAL! The trade of Francisco Rodriguez, who had a $17 million vesting option for next year, gives the Amazin’s more flexibility to negotiate a new contract for All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes.

Alderson also said that flexibility will be “perhaps more important than most years.”

Whether that means they will have enough cash to keep the dynamic, but fragile, All-Star shortstop remains to be seen. Alderson wouldn’t say if the Rodriguez trade put the Mets in better position to retain Reyes, who is in the midst of his finest season.

“Everybody seems to have an opinion about that question,” Alderson said. “I’ll leave it there.”

Reyes will open the second half of the season on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring, but could return on Monday.

But at least Alderson will not be shackled with Rodriguez’s option, something he denied would have been “crippling,” but it certainly would have hurt the Mets’ desire to cut payroll a year from now.

“It was a consideration, but there were also other factors involved,” Alderson said. “Any time you add flexibility, I think it’s a positive.”

Alderson, who said the move was “somewhat independent of others” and added the Mets were covering “a substantial” amount, believed to be $5 million, of the roughly $8.4 million Rodriguez has left on this year’s deal.

As for making the move when he did — more than two weeks before the July 31 trade deadline — Alderson said he wanted to take advantage of the current situation.

“We felt it was better to do something earlier rather than later,” he said. “It primarily had to do with the current market for relievers.”

Alderson also didn’t put too much importance on newly hired agent Scott Boras after Rodriguez left Paul Kinzer last week.

“I don’t believe the arrival of Scott Boras had much of an impact,” Alderson said. “The change added a little bit of uncertainty.”

Rodriguez is on pace to surpass the 55 games finished necessary to activate the $17.5 million option, with 34 finished so far, but Alderson said that didn’t have much to do with the timing of the trade.

“I’m not saying it was not a factor,” Alderson said. “It was one of many, but he certainly wasn’t gonna vest by the end of July.”

Rodriguez will still close games in Milwaukee, though likely not enough to vest the option. Brewers GM Doug Melvin said yesterday that both Rodriguez and incumbent closer John Axford will be used in the ninth.

Rodriguez went to Twitter yesterday and welcomed his “new opportunity” with the Brewers and added, in Spanish: “I want to thank all the Mets fans for your support during these 2 1⁄2 years in which I wore this jersey.”

David Wright, still rehabbing in Florida, said he was sorry to see Rodriguez go, but understood the move.

“Frankie was a great teammate,” Wright told SNY. “He had some issues off the field, but as far in the clubhouse, there’s no other guy you’d rather have the ball in the ninth.

“Obviously, there’s a plan. You want to have success now, but you also want have to have success in the future. From Day 1, Sandy has had a plan in place and he’s sticking to the plan. So far, it’s been pretty good and everybody’s on board.”

dan.martin@nypost.com