Article 254 on Blowing Up the Mets

by
September 9, 2009

The most common off-season related article theme so far appears to deal with the Mets. Jayson Stark (taken apart here) wrote a piece all but announcing that they had to rebuild and had to trade Jose Reyes or Carlos Beltran in order to do so. Why do they have to though? Well because of injuries, and they need a few new players, and oh yeah, they need to shake things up; because nothing quite shakes up a roster like trading one of your legitimate studs at potentially their lowest value.

Reyes is a soon-to-be 27-year-old shortstop signed through 2011 for 20 million. Further, since 2006 Reyes has posted WAR of 5.5, 5.1, 5.9, and a injury depleted 0.7. Unless he eats bat boys in the clubhouse or brings back Hanley Ramirez, there’s not a logical reason to deal him.

The Mets are one of those intriguing teams to me. They have a plethora of stars and the media jumps on the “TRADE X” bandwagon every time something goes wary. Heading into next season the Mets will have David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran. Depending on Johan Santana’s health, they could legitimately post four four/five win players without spending a dime on free agency.

A new first baseman, probably a new catcher, and a new rotation piece will be pricey, but the market for sluggers looks to be oversaturated once more. How much would a Russell Branyan or Nick Johnson really cost? Or they could always operate with a small market’s team mindset*; focusing on role players and smaller additions rather than the big names and marquee fillers.

Besides simply not making sense, does anyone honestly trust Omar Minaya to trade Reyes, Beltran, whomever and get a fair return?

*Speaking of which, one of my baseball fantasies is Billy Beane taking over the Mets. A) David Forst gets his GM gig, B) Beane would be re-energized by a new challenge, and C) he could work with fantastic resources.





 

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Eno Sarris
14 years ago

While I don’t think he should trade Reyes, the one thing that Minaya has seemingly shown is a good eye for which prospects should be traded away. In reviewing his trades, he’s given up Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom and many many spare parts in return for the all the players that have helped his team and are currently helping.

There’s a lot of chicken little in New York. A corner outfielder or infielder, perhaps a number two starter (to cover up for Minaya’s worst contract, Ollie Perez), and this team could be back in the mix, no?

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Sokojoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Eno Sarris

Are you being sarcastic?
Heath Bell had FIPs of 2.50 3=and 3.34 in 07 and 08 when we could have used bullpen help bad and he has a FIP of 2.30 so far this year. In return we got Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins who are not helping this team. The Matt Lindstrom deal got us Vargas, who was traded in the Putz deal, and Bostick who has not helped us yet. The aforementioned Putz deal has been worth nothing for us and we could have used Vargas and Carp.

Really the only prospect trade Omar won was the Santana deal and that had more to do with the Twins being between a rock and a hard place.

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Dan
14 years ago
Reply to  Sokojoe

Sokojoe, I think you’re missing Eno’s point. Minaya has, basically, traded for a lot of this team: Johan, Maine, Ollie (bleh), Delgado, Castillo, Francoeur (who I can’t stand), etc., and all he’s given up is two good pitchers and a bunch of parts.

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big baby
14 years ago
Reply to  Sokojoe

what would vargas or carp do for the mets?

omar lost bell. i’ve never heard of a reliever coming good out of nowhere before.

and matt lindstrom has had one good year.

omar’s problem isn’t trading players away wantonly.

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Sokojoe
14 years ago
Reply to  Sokojoe

@Dan
I agree with you, but I’m not sure that I agree with Eno’s point that Omar knows when to deal prospects. While the trades you mention were good sans Frenchy, Johan, Delgado and Castillo were more salary dumps than prospect trades while Maine and Ollie were traded with ML players (Benson and Nady.) I’m not saying Omar is a bad trader but I have mixed feelings on his valuation of prospects.

@big baby
Vargas pitched well for the M’s before getting hurt and the Mets needed SP depth this year. Carp has also played well and the Mets needed 1st base depth this year. Both wouldn’t have saved the season but the depth traded for a RP with a recent injury history was not a great valuation of prospects is my point.

As for Bell, check out his minor league numbers, it wasn’t out of nowhere.

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dovif
14 years ago
Reply to  Sokojoe

Sorry have to disagree

RP even if they are as good as Bell does not win a lot of games for you, K-Rod would have only been worth 1-2 wins at most

The problem from Minaya is FA signings, the likes of Perez, Castillo and K-Rod had not been great so far

His trades have been good, Putz has been injured, that is not Minaya’s fault, would those players have netted Santana today – no

Did we get a bargain in Perez from the trade- y, was Frenchy worth Church a 4th OF at best a good trade – y, was it a good trade for Schneider and Church – Y

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