PBA Free-Agency: Who needs Sol Mercado? Is Ray Parks out of the trade block?

A big name is added to the free-agency market after Phoenix Fuel Masters and Sol Mercado failed to close a deal. Phoenix got him this offseason for LA Revilla and Rey Guevarra.

According to the report, Phoenix has given Sol the green light to negotiate with other teams. Phoenix was hesitant at first to negotiate with him because of their depth in their guard rotation but still opened the negotiation. Unfortunately, they cannot match the previous salary in the last contract of Sol.

So, who needs Sol?

We saw how disheartened Sol was when he was traded by Brgy. Ginebra. I am pretty sure, he will love to return to the red franchise but the management of Ginebra is not that sure if they need another guard.

This is the current guard rotation of Ginebra: Stanley Pringle-Scottie Thompson-LA Tenorio-Kent Salado-Mark Caguioa.

Do they need Sol Mercado?

I think the answer is yes. Other than getting minutes in the guard rotation, Sol is more than capable of handling minutes in the wing. Also, they may need to add one more perimeter lockdown defender to back-up Scottie Thompson.

The other big news in free-agency is the one-year contract that Bobby Ray Parks signed with TNT. First things first, that doesn't mean that Parks is now out of the trade block. There is a very good chance that TNT is still dangling Park's name in some trade discussions. Especially if it is true that his teammates are not the biggest fans of him.