It should come as no surprise the San Diego Padres are interested in Noah Syndergaard. Really, all 30 teams, Mets included, should want Syndergaard on their team. He’s a 26 year old front line starter who has come up big in big situations. Looking at it, how many pitchers are there who could go toe-to-toe with Madison Bumgarner for 7 innings in a winner-take-all game?
If you are a team who wants to win-now or jump start their path to winning, you want Syndergaard. That includes the Padres who inquired about Syndergaard at the trade deadline, and there are rumors they are pursuing him this offseason.
With Syndergaard being Syndergaard and his being under team control for the next three years, any team interested in him is going to have to pay a big price for him. That price should be higher than usual because given his status as a front line pitcher, his being controlled for three years, and the Mets intentions to contend next season, any team who is interested in him is going to have to pry him away from the Mets.
The Padres are not trying to do that.
According to various reports, the Padres want Syndergaard, but they also don’t want to part with their best prospects. Recently, Jon Heyman of Fancred said the Padres are making Fernando Tatis, Jr., MacKenzie Gore, and Luis Urias untouchable. Basically, they want Syndergaard, but they want him to be on a team with their top prospects.
It just doesn’t work that way.
It does not matter how deep a system the Padres are, if you don’t part with the top prospects, you should not get Syndergaard. Yes, the Padres system is deep, much deeper than other systems. Their fifth best prospect may be even better than another team’s top prospect. That doesn’t mean that prospect is good enough to fetch Syndergaard.
Look at it from another perspective. If the Padres are willing to make Francisco Mejia available, he would headline the Syndergaard trade. Mejia is a very good prospect and widely regarded a top 25 prospect in the game. That meant he was good enough to fetch the Cleveland Indians Brad Hand and Adam Cimber.
Hand was the headliner of the return for the Indians. Hand is a 28 year old late inning reliever/closer who is under team control through the end of next season. Basically, Mejia was good enough for 2.5 seasons of a closer. If that is his value, how is he now worth three years of an ace level pitcher?
The answer is he’s not, and no, Austin Hedges who hit .231/.282/.429 last year is not nearly enough to put a Mejia package over the top. Same goes for Manuel Margot who hit .245/.292/.384 last year. Really, no matter how many bad hitters the Mets want to throw the Mets way, a package headlined by Mejia is insufficient to obtain Syndergaard.
So unless the Padres want to step up and make a real offer for Syndergaard, the Mets need to move on, and we all need to stop hearing about these idiot rumors.
There are prevalent rumors about how the Mets may be making a big trade with the Seattle Mariners. In the deal, the Mariners would send Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets in exchange for a package centering around Jay Bruce and Andres Gimenez. There are different iterations of the deal with the Mets possibly getting Mitch Haniger, and there is some issue about how much of Cano’s contract the Mariners will eat.
What is interesting here is Cano has a big contract. He is owed $120 million over the next five years. If the Mets were to take on this contract, he would rank just behind David Wright and Johan Santana for the most money the Mets have ever paid to one player on one contract.
Adding this type of an obligation could create the narrative the Mets are willing to go out and spend whatever it takes to win this year. From some corners, you will likely hear about how the Mets are spending money like a New York team and are now operating with a big payroll. You may even hear the Wilpons get praised for this.
Now, if this is a good trade, Brodie Van Wagenen should receive praise for executing a bold maneuver. He should be given credit for operating within the constraints of the budget to improve the team. And no, this is not the Wilpons expanding payroll.
Remember, part of this deal is the Mariners taking on Bruce’s contract. Also, the team will be collecting insurance money from Wright’s contract and presumably Yoenis Cespedes‘ contract. More than that, his is the cheap way out.
While Cano is owed $120 million, Diaz and/or Haniger are pre-arbitration. More than that, there are more expensive and frankly better options on the market.
Consider for a moment, MLB Trade Rumors projects Manny Machado to earn $30 million a year over the next 13 years. The site also predicts Bryce Harper will also earn $30 million a year but for 14 seasons. By the end of a 13 year deal, Machado will be 39, and at the end of a 14 year deal, Harper would be 40. Of course, both players are likely to receive opt outs.
The question for the Mets is why wouldn’t you spend an extra $6 million to get either Machado or Harper in their prime years? With respect to Machado, we have heard the Mets have classified him as not their type of player. To be fair, we have heard the Mets have not ruled out Harper, and if that’s the case, we cannot prejudge them on that decision.
That said, trading for Cano over going after a Machado or Harper is the cheaper way out, and considering Cano’s age and recent PED suspension, it is one wrought with risk.
Now, it is possible the deal makes more baseball sense for the Mets. After all, trading Bruce helps on the budget front and also on a roster front. Bruce is an poor fit for this roster and moving him makes sense. If you can obtain Diaz, you are getting a player who would likely be the best available closer this offseason. If you can also get Haniger, well, that’s a huge improvement to this roster.
While we can’t prejudge a trade which has not transpired, it is interesting it at least seems the Mets are pursuing this angle instead of signing one of the two biggest free agents since Alex Rodriguez was a free agent after the 2000 season and adding a couple of other relievers in free agency.
Ultimately, Cano is definitely the cheaper option, but it does not make it a worse option. We won’t know that until we see what the final deal looks like (should a deal ever come to fruition) and also what the Mets would do with the money they save in a deal. Hopefully, for once, the cheaper option will prove to be the better option for the Mets.
We’ll see.
The Mets have a number of needs this offseason, and despite those needs, the team is of the belief they can contend in 2019. Two of those needs are a right-handed hitter and a bullpen arm. That’s an expensive item to add in free agency, especially with the team needing to rebuild their bullpen and possibly add a catcher.
The Mariners are rebuilding, and they have those pieces in Mitch Haniger and Edwin Diaz. The issue is the Mariners don’t want to trade those players as they see them as building blocks for the future.
Typically, this is just talk. Untouchable players, especially relievers, are almost always available. The trick is you need to be bowl a team over to get the player, or the player has to force their way out. Remember, Christian Yelich was not available until he became a Brewer. Craig Kimbrel was untouchable until he became a Padre.
The catch is you need to have the prospects to make one of the proverbial godfather offers to pry those players away. Looking at the Mets farm system, while it is improving, it is difficult to argue they have enough to pull off the feat. If the Mariners like Peter Alonso or Andres Gimenez, they could acquire one of Haniger or Diaz, but not both.
That is unless the Mets get creative.
If you create a list of the most untradeable contracts in baseball, you will see Albert Pujols, Chris Davis, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Robinson Cano. Moving Cano is made all the more difficult by his no-trade clause. Add his steroid suspension last year, and it would be completely and utterly shocking to see the Mariners trade Cano.
That doesn’t meant they’re not trying. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports the Mariners have contacted both the Mets and Yankees about taking on Cano’s contract. In the article, it was revealed the Mariners were not willing to take back Ellsbury in the deal.
Considering the Mets budget limitations and how they were burned by the David Wright and now Yoenis Cespedes contracts, it’d be shocking to see the team take on Cano’s contract, and that is before you consider all of his red flags. At 36, he still has five years $120 million on his deal. None of this should mean Cano should be off the table for the Mets.
The Mets do have some bad contracts of their own. For example, Jay Bruce is owed $28 million over the next two years. Jason Vargas is owed $8 million next year with a $2 million buy out should the Mets not pick up his $8 million option. You could certainly argue Cano would be much more productive than Bruce and Vargas combined. Still, that leaves you assuming four years and $96 million. The Mets would really have to be enticed to take that on from the Mariners.
Haniger and Diaz would be awfully enticing.
If you look at it through the prism of five years $120 million for Cano, you would not do that deal. However, five years and roughly $170 for Cano, Haniger, and Diaz doesn’t look too bad. That’s roughly $11 million per year per player. That’s certainly fair value for those players.
Dumping some contracts like Bruce and Vargas could make it more palatable. It could also reduce the perspective prospect cost. Right off the bat, you could offer Alonso, Gimenez, and Dominic Smith. That’s a pretty decent haul, and it could prevent the team from having to have to part with another big piece. If the Mets did this, they ultimately become World Series contenders next year with that lineup:
CF Brandon Nimmo
RF Mitch Haniger
LF Michael Conforto
1B Robinson Cano
3B Todd Frazier
2B Jeff McNeil
SS Amed Rosario
C Kevin Plawecki
Looking at that lineup, and the fact it would be cost neutral for a team potentially trading away Bruce and Vargas, you have to wonder why the Mets wouldn’t do the deal. And if the answer is Cespedes, you can make McNeil a utility player and move Cano to second. Really, if you think about it having a deep bench is not an excuse to make a deal which could win you a World Series.
This is the deal big market teams make to win a World Series. The Mets should start pretending to be one of those teams instead of trading Noah Syndergaard and heading towards another rebuild despite having a young talented core.
With the trade rumors from the Padres, the Mets may be looking to trade the last Mets pitcher to win a World Series game. In total, there have been 11 different Mets who have won a World Series game. Can you name them? Good luck!
Jerry Koosman Tom Seaver Gary Gentry Tug McGraw Ron Darling Bob Ojeda Rick Aguilera Roger McDowell John Franco Noah Syndergaard Jon Matlack
Last year, Mariners DH Edgar Martinez narrowly missed out on induction to the Hall of Fame. It was a narrow margin with him falling just 20 votes short. With him falling that short, people who support his induction into the Hall of Fame are going to find any argument they can to push him over the hump.
With him now appearing on the same ballot as Mariano Rivera, you will be naturally inclined to look at their head-to-head stats. In fact, it is popping up all over the place already:
You're going to see this stat a lot, but here goes: Edgar Martinez vs. first-time HOF candidate Mariano Rivera: 11-for-19, 3 doubles, 2 HR, .579/.652/1.053
— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) November 19, 2018
#Mariners Edgar Martinez faced Mariano Rivera 23 times in his career. He batted .579/.652/1.053.
"He had more than my number. He had my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He got everything from me." – Mariano Rivera (2003)
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) November 22, 2017
Do you know what Martinez’s stats against Rivera tell us? It tells us he hit Rivera really well. That’s it. Trying to garner any more information from that is just plain wrong. Really, hitting well against Rivera is not a barometer for Hall of Fame induction.
If it was, this means the Hall of Fame is going to have to really open it’s doors to include far more players.
Andruw Jones, who is also on this year’s ballot is 3-for-5 with a homer off Rivera. Since we are now looking at stats against Rivera, shouldn’t he now get enough votes to push him over the 75%? Shouldn’t the Veterans’ Committee also revisit the cases of Sandy Alomar (.462/.462/.846) and Aubrey Huff (.400/.429/.800)?
Looking forward, 2016 World Series MVP Ben Zobrist is 3-for-4 against Rivera with two doubles and a triple. Curtis Granderson is 2-for-5 with a homer off Rivera. Are these both now automatic inductions when they reach the ballot?
Let’s look at things from a different perspective. Martinez was 2-for-36 against Alex Fernandez. This is the same Fernandez who did not receive one Hall of Fame vote. Considering Fernandez did not garner even one Hall of Fame vote, and Martinez did not perform well against him, does this now mean Martinez should not receive any Hall of Fame votes?
Of course not because that is a vapid argument.
The success or failures against any particular pitcher does not define a career. What defines a career is what was done on the field for at least 10 years, or in Martinez’s case 18 years.
Personally, I do not see him as a Hall of Famer. He did not hit any of the proverbial magic marks like fellow DHs Frank Thomas (500 homers) or Paul Molitor (3,000 hits) reached. If you look at it, Frank Thomas is the standard bearer for inducting DHs into the Hall of Fame.
If you look at Thomas as the standard, Martinez falls short. Others feel differently, and they raise some valid arguments. That is what makes Edgar Martinez’s candidacy such an interesting debate. That debate gets less interesting when you raise his stats against one pitcher or another. That’s just raising interesting factoids which does not move the needle at all.
Because if it did, you wouldn’t give him one vote due to his numbers against Fernandez.
There are mixed rumors about whether the Mets are shopping Noah Syndergaard this offseason. Seemingly, trading Syndergaard would run counter-intuitive to the Mets statements they are trying to win now and in the future. However, if the Mets pull this off just right, they can actually compete going forward.
While we assume all of the other 29 teams in baseball would be interested, we do know the Padres are interested – very interested. They pursued him at the trade deadline, and they are apparently pursuing him again this offseason. While the Padres farm system is loaded, their major league team really isn’t.
In terms of their starting lineup, only Eric Hosmer, Hunter Renfroe, and Franmil Reyes had an OBP over .300. Renfore was the only player with over 20 homers. None of their starting pitchers had an ERA under 4.00, which is all the more troubling when you consider they play in Petco. This is a big reason why they want Syndergaard, or another top tier starting pitcher who is available like James Paxton.
The question is how much the Padres want Syndergaard. If they are willing to give up Fernando Tatis, Jr., there is the chance a deal can get done. MLB Pipeline has given him a 70 grade on the 20-80 scale. Baseball America is equally as high on him saying, “components of a middle-of-the-order shortstop, and even if he has to move to third base has more than enough bat to flourish. His mix of talent, personality and bilingualism sets him up to become the face of the Padres franchise.” Both outlets rate him as the second best prospect in the game.
Last year in Double-A, Tatis hit .286/.355/.507 with 22 doubles, four triples, 16 homers, and 43 RBI. He would also steal 16 bases. He should start the year in Triple-A, and realistically speaking, he will play in the majors next year.
Adding him to the roster would give you a huge prospect going forward. It also creates some flexibility. This could allow the Mets to trade Amed Rosario to improve other aspects of their club including a rotation which would have just lost Syndergaard. The Mets could also shift Rosario to another position like center field where the Mets have a hole.
If you moved Rosario to another position, you could trade Andres Gimenez for an upgrade elsewhere. You could also take one of the other big prospects you get in a proverbial swap to make an upgrade. Overall, if done properly, trading Syndergaard could truly create real roster flexibility.
Of course, the Mets will need it because they are going to need to fill in the rotation. By losing Syndergaard, you damage the strength of your team. You go from the best top 4 in baseball to a shaky rotation. After all, the Mets needed to upgrade the rotation anyway with Jason Vargas being their fifth starter. With Syndergaard gone, they would need to upgrade two spots.
You could do that by signing a Patrick Corbin, but that’s going to restrict the budget available to upgrade areas which really needed upgrading. Essentially, by making this trade, you are going to push competing for a World Series until 2020 at the earliest. Maybe by making this deal, you are passing on competing for the next five years.
Really, before even contemplating a trade like this, you have to have your ducks lined up. You have to know what the next five steps are, and they need to be secure. If not, you are gambling on this whole team and window blowing up.
Overall, trading players like Syndergaard makes and breaks careers. Getting him as part of the R.A. Dickey deal made the Mets contenders in 2015 and 2016. Trading him away could end any possibility of competing anytime soon, or it could open a whole new window. It’s a really difficult decision, and like it or not, the early stages of Brodie Van Wagenen’s tenure will be marked by the decision he makes.
With Jacob deGrom winning the Cy Young Award over Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola, he became the seventh pitcher in Major League history to win a Cy Young and a Rookie of the Year award. Can you name the other six? Good luck!
Don Newcombe Tom Seaver Fernando Valenzuela Rick Sutcliffe Justin Verlander Dwight Gooden
Yesterday, Jacob deGrom won the National League Cy Young Award, but it was not unanimous. No, there was one dissenting vote from John Maffei of the San Diego Tribune. As he has not written an article on why he voted the way he did, and he does not have a Twitter, no one is quite sure why he opted to vote for Max Scherzer over deGrom for the Cy Young Award.
While many may assume the reasons why Maffei made his vote the way he did, you cannot be sure his rationale. Maffei was going to get the chance to explain his reasons with Steve Somers:
Well, that ended badly. Very badly.
In New York, Steve Somers is an institution, and we get him and his tone. It sounded like typical tongue-in-cheek Somers, but Maffei was having none of hit. Most likely not knowing who Somers was, Maffei was not going to deal with it, and he understandably hung up the phone.
Of note, Somers did ask his producer to reach back out to Maffei and explain the shtick. Unfortunately, Maffei would not come back on the show to have that discussion.
To some extent, it is a real shame because Maffei had one of the worst Cy Young ballots you could possibly have. In addition to having Scherzer over deGrom, which is an arguably defensible position, he did not have Aaron Nola third.
Now, Maffei was not the only one to have Freeland over Nola. One of the other two was Thomas Harding, who is the MLB beat reporter for the Colorado Rockies. It’s not unusual to see a local beat writer hold a player they cover and watch everyday to a higher esteem than others. We don’t know why Andrew Wagner did the same thing.
While Harding and Wagner had their own reasons to put Freeland over Nola, Maffei was the only writer to put Miles Mikolas third. He would be the only writer to have Mikolas over Nola, and he would be the only one to have Mikolas in the top three. In fact, there were just two writers who gave Mikolas a vote in the top four.
With respect to Maffei, or really any writer, you would hope there were be some article or explanation for the vote. After all, the Cy Young Award winner is going to be reported in the paper. Speaking of the paper, it is important to note Maffei has been covering high school sports for the San Diego Tribune.
While it did not truly matter in the end, the BBWAA gave a vote to one of the most prestiguous awards to a high school sports writer. So while Maffei may have to explain the thinking behind his ballot, the BBWAA should have to explain why they are letting people who no longer cover the sport have a vote on these awards.
Chances are neither will be on with Steve Somers to provide that explanation.
The New York Mets have had a number of down seasons with 2018 being one of them. There were some bright spots this past season with Jacob deGrom emerging as the best pitcher in baseball being one of them. This is reminiscent of how many times we have seen different Mets players have great seasons in what has been an otherwise lost season for the franchise.
The last time we saw anything like deGrom’s season happen was R.A. Dickey‘s 2012 season. While the knuckleballer had been better than expected for a few years, no one could see him winning 20 games let alone beating out Clayton Kershaw, who was still in his prime, for the Cy Young Award.
While it was Dickey who won the Cy Young Award, it was Johan Santana who captured the hearts of Mets fans by pitching the first no-hitter in Mets history. Special mention needs to go here for Mike Baxter‘s catch.
In 2004, Mike Piazza passed a significant career milestone by hitting his 352nd career homer as a catcher. With the home run, he passed Carlton Fisk, and he all but cemented his Hall of Fame case by hitting the most home runs as a catcher.
Another Mets catcher who set a home run record was Todd Hundley. In 1996, his 41 homers would not just match a Mets single season record, but it would also pass Roy Campanella‘s single season record for most homers by a catcher. That season saw a number of feats including Bernard Gilkey setting the Mets single-season record for doubles and Lance Johnson setting the record for most triples in a season. Remarkably, all three of these Mets records stand to this day.
On the final game of the 1991 season, which was the Mets first losing season since 1983, David Cone tied the then National League record with 19 strikeouts in a game. It was a feat which had only been previously met by Mets legend Tom Seaver.
Speaking of that 1983 season, Darryl Strawberry would become the first and to this date only Mets position player to ever win the Rookie of the Year Award. The 1983 season was also notable because after the Midnight Massacre, Seaver would finally come home to the Mets.
Really, it was that 1983 season which was the beginning of something special with the Mets. In addition to Strawberry and Seaver, the Mets called-up rookie starter Ron Darling. Much like how he is joined in the SNY booth now by Keith Hernandez, he was teammates with Hernandez that season because the Mets would make a franchise altering trade to acquire the former MVP.
Really, when you look at 1983, you can see how even a bad year is the building block towards a team building a World Series winning club. Hopefully, that is what the 2018 season was for the Mets.
You can argue it was the case with deGrom emerging as the best pitcher in baseball, and Zack Wheeler matching him big start for big start in the second half. Brandon Nimmo had the second highest wRC+ among National League outfielders, and Michael Conforto returned to being Michael Conforto in the second half. More than that, Amed Rosario seemed to turn the corner while his new double play partner, Jeff McNeil, burst onto the scene.
In the end, when you look at losing seasons like 2018, you can see great things. More than that, you can see how great things will soon be in store for the Mets.