There’s serious reportage aplenty from the New York Post’s Joel Sherman this Sunday, and along with alluding to Russell Martin replacing Jason Varitek in Boston, the following Mets-centric info comes underneath the no-shit headline, “Dealing Castillo Will Be No Easy Task”.
The Post has learned that the Mets and Royals had discussions in July about swapping expensive malcontent outfielder Jose Guillen for Luis Castillo. An executive who was aware of those talks said he thought it was possible the clubs could revisit negotiations this offseason.
Guillen is owed $24 million for the next two seasons; Castillo $18 million for the next three. So the Royals essentially would be adding $6 million of maneuverability for the next two years, save $6 million overall, but add $6 million to their 2011 budget. The Mets would have the reverse financially. Both players wore out their welcome last year after signing multiyear deals.
The Royals are losing second baseman Mark Grudzielanek to free agency and Castillo does offer one item they need, on-base skills. The erratic Guillen is hardly ideal, but he does have right-handed power to put in left field for the Mets. Again, this would be headache-for-headache, and one Mets official said he just as soon prefer to keep Castillo than take on the combustible Guillen.
In a similar scenario, the Diamondbacks considered shipping diminished righty-hitting outfielder Eric Byrnes (two years left at $22 million) for Castillo, but determined they just don’t like Castillo at all.
While D-Rays Bay predicts “there’s something about this team that just feels like somehow tonight is going to end with a champagne bath for (Matt) Garza”, the Boston Herald’s Page 6-ish ‘Inside Track’ claims a prominent member of the Tampa squad wasn’t lacking for self-confidence after the Rays took a 3 games to 1 lead.
During a champagne-soaked time at District after Game 4, Evan Longoria was suffering from a sorry case of premature celebration.
Seems that after the Rays humiliated the Sox for the second night in a row, Evan was yelling to anyone who would listen: œIt™s over now, Boston!
upon exiting the rockin™ club with a star-struck blonde, a spywitness swears that Longoria poured himself into the back seat of a Boston Police cruiser and said to the cop: œTo my hotel!
Boston™s Finest, as you can imagine, told Evan and his companion – in the most colorful language possible – to remove themselves immediately from his cruiser. So they did.