Have the dulcet tones of the late Joe Strummer rang out over the Shea Stadium tannoy for the very last time? Is there a better way to address the paucity of quality starting pitching on the free agent market than by dangling the one reliever on the big league who has all but begged to return to starting pitching for the past 3 years? Newsday’s Ken Davidoff explains the Mets’ current line of thinking.
The field of free-agent starting pitchers is mediocre at best, and the available catchers aren’t even that good. The Mets, therefore, are prepared to trade to fill both needs, even if it means draining their core of enticing players.
The most prominent major-leaguer to be traded could be reliever Aaron Heilman (above), who still has value among opposing teams. The Mets have long held Heilman out of trade discussions, but Minaya clearly wants to pull off a big deal.
“They’re going to be active,” one official from an American League club predicted of the Mets. “They’re going to use those guys as trade chips and try to get some pitchers back.”
“Those guys” could include Heilman, pitchers Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Mike Pelfrey and Joe Smith, and outfielders Carlos Gomez, Fernando Martinez and Lastings Milledge. The official called Mulvey, who recorded his first full professional season in 2007, “probably the sexiest guy” among the pitchers.
On the catching front, the Mets would like to trade for either Baltimore’s Ramon Hernandez or Texas’ Gerald Laird. Having negated a three-year, $14.4-million deal with free- agent catcher Yorvit Torrealba, the Mets think their own free-agent catcher, Paul Lo Duca, is asking for too many dollars (a raise from his $6.25-million salary of 2007) and years (three or four). They don’t view free agents Michael Barrett and Jason Kendall as attractive options.
At the moment, the Mets view the asking prices for Hernandez and Laird as too high. One official familiar with the Mets’ thinking predicted that no moves will be made, for either a catcher or a starting pitcher, before the Dec. 3-6 winter meetings in Nashville.
The Mets have some interest in free-agent starting pitchers Livan Hernandez, Kyle Lohse and Carlos Silva but view that trio as innings-eaters more than staff leaders. So they will be in the mix for the likes of Minnesota’s Johan Santana, Baltimore’s Erik Bedard, Oakland’s Joe Blanton and Dan Haren and Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets should those clubs make those pitchers available.
Santana is going to be virtually impossible for the Mets to acquire unless they include Jose Reyes in the trade package. The others could be more attainable if the Mets include enough quality pieces.
Though Sheets would be a huge asset, he’s also likely to end up the DL as many times per year as El Duque. I also have a hard time envisioning the Orioles swapping Bedard for anything less than John Maine and Lastings Milledge, along with an agreement the Mets will take back Anna Benson, Gary Thorne and David Segui.
I really love these types of bullshit articles (and by ‘love,’ I mean ‘hate’) that employ creative fiction more than inside information or even an informed opinion. They don’t have what it takes to get Johan, Bedard’s not on the block last time I checked and Ben Sheets is fragile. The most obvious move would be to make Maine a starter instead of trading pitching for pitching (or god forbid they learn how to develop young pitching…they have a few good ones in the minors). As far as catching, I long for the day when teams just bring up their best defensive catcher from the minors and pay him the minimum and not care that he hits .200. BTW, the other name out there that never gets mentioned is Kelly Shoppach. He never plays and he’s a decent hitter and could probably be had for very little.
though I should know better than tangle with Rog this early in the day, it should stressed that a) Davidoff already implied Johan S. was gonna be too pricey and b) Sheets’ fragility was noted by yours truly.
Maine’s already starting — not badly, either, though I suspect you meant Heilman, Rog. re : Shoppach. Not sure if he’s available for “very little” given that Cleveland essentially acquired him for the price of Coco Crisp (who was valued a bit more highly at the time). But yeah, I’d much rather see Shoppach donning one of the Mets’ dozen or so uniform combinations next season than Gerald Laird.
I wrote all that stuff before my first cup of coffee. Sorry, I meant Heilman, not Maine. Davidoff just rattled off a bunch of potential names and that kind of ticks me off because it comes across as filling space. The Hot Stove talk comes off sounding like fantasy baseball trades most of the time unless it’s written by someone who ‘has knowledge of the situation’ or some such thing. I remember drunk Boston guys calling WEEI and proposing trades of Jose Offerman for Ken Griffey Jr. and columns like these remind me too much of that.