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In a recent report for ESPN.com, Keith Law breaks down 10 players, out of favor or out of room with their organizations, who are possible trade candidates at a reasonable price.
One of the 10 players listed that now could become of interest to the Mets is Rangers C Gerald Laird.
Law sees him as a player out of room in Texas, who is an outstanding throwing catcher with a good swing and average raw power.
In 120 games last season, the 29-year-old Laird hit .224 with nine HR and 47 RBI, while throwing out 39% of base stealers.
…at this point, what other choices do the Mets have at catcher…following the Yorvit Torrealba debacle, Omar Minaya may only be left with entering the trade market for a catcher…if omar does enter the market, i wouldn’t mind going after a guy like laird who is a better defensive catcher than yorvit and has a higher ceiling at the plate…
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What if Minaya pulls off a deal with the Pirates for Paulino and Snell. That would help us in the starting pitching department and behind the plate.
I would love to be in the market for an ace but I don’t know if we have the chips for it.
what about Rod Barajas?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4207&context=fielding
32 YO,
career .992(!) FP asa C, 7.01 Range Factor, .979 Zone Rating
Better than Torrealba and Castro…
.239/.288/.408/.696 (avg/obp/slg/ops) 1743 career Ab, 62 HR, 235 RBI
In 3 yrs as a platoon starter (like Yorvit would have been here, Rod went for an average of 15.6 HR, 53 RBI in 370 AB.
Good enough for me, especially if the alternative is to deal top prospects that should be used for an ace for a C instead…
Why would the Phillies want to trade anyone to fill a need for their new arch nemesis?
Good defensive specialist/backup nos.
I’d be much more comfortable with Castro starting and Laird as a backup than Torrealba / Castro.
Who really cares. Worse case scenario is that we have Castro and a Difelice type guy for a year until better options present.
The offseason is all about getting better in the pitching area. Better starting pitching and moving Duque to the pen will improve both spots but requires the addition of at least 2 starters.
One ace….one innings guy to secure the back end of the rotation
Francisco Cordero would be nice for the pen also.
Use Heilman Humber and Gomez to procure an ace (Santana perhaps)
Sign one of the FA guys like Colon, Jennings, Silva or Livan for the #5 spot in the rotation.
Move Duque to the pen, add FCordero as 8th inning replacement for Heilman. Pray Dirty Sanchez comes back true to his form.
Use Milledge in RF and sign some meddling backup catcher type.
Also, tag Castillo, LoDuca and Glavine for the picks they produce
Oh yeah….Play a platoon of Gotay and EAsly as 2nd
But but but…WE need to make a SPLASH! A BIG BIG SPLASH!
Brandon- I thought Id read that TEX wants a lot for Laird, just as BAL wants a lot for Ramon
trading players is like looking at used cars.
You can ask $10,000 for you 2001 Cavalier, but no one is going to give it to you.
So, you can either take the $4,000 it is worth, or keep it and make a lawn ornament out of it.
Same with a guy like Laird. They can want, say, Gomez and Pelfrey, but that ain’t happening.
SO, if the Market (the rest of the teams) values him as worth the equivalent of say Carp, and offer accordingly, then the Rangers have to decide if they would rather have the player offered, or just keep someone they don’t seem to need.
That’s also why you hear names like Peavy and Bedard mentioned as being “available”. They are the equivelant of the 10K Cavalier. If some team wants to come along and pay the asking price, they just might do it, but if sanity prevails and no team will, then they keep him (which is what they really intend to do anyway).
Miguel Montero from Arizona would be perfect. He is only 24 and showed tremendous potential last year. He would be the perfect backup to Castro as he is LH as well and he should not cost a top prospect. He was also the personal catcher of Livan.
But Montero batted better against lefties anyway, and most pitchers are right handed, so Castro would have to get a lot of time against righties regardless.
Maybe we can unload a guy like Sosa or Mota and a prospect? I do not know how high the rangers look at this guys ceiling or if they just want him out of town.
What kind of skeletons could there possibly be in Paulie’s closet that could lead any clowns in the Mets organization to advocate getting any of these scrubs let alone trading even a minor player for them over Paul Lo Duca at this point. This is the most botched operation I’ve seen in a long time. Not on the level of a Kazmir situation obviously, but lets just see if they’ll eat some crap and get Paulie or make things worse. As a true Met fan (unlike Omar), I will not abide by him (not that I have any choice really) trading away prospects for a mediocre Hernandez or worse when we need pitching or signing/trading for a .220 defensive “specialist”. As I’ve written, there are only two ways to go here. One is to sign Paul Lo Duca and the other is to trade for a guy like Hernandez where you are getting Bedard with him, which would cost basically our whole boat of prospects – man overboard.
what about Miguel Olivo?
Even though he got in a fight with Reyes — they both admitted they’re good old friends.
He’s an above average defensive catcher and if HOJO can beat it into his head to be more selective he’s got a decent swing..
FOr one year at a low price may be a decent cheap backup to RC until the O’s lighten up on Ramon’s price.
If I am remembering correctly, Barajas was released by the Phils, so he would only cost money to obtain. He definitely wouldn’t qualify as a Type A free agent. And picking up Miguel Olivo for only money is also an option worth exploring if Mets brass was not interested in Barajas. There should be no reason we part with anything higher than a mid-level prospect for the likes of a Laird or Hernandez at this point. The prospects should be saved to trade for pitching. At least Minaya is savvy enough to realize that.
lots of options, and hopefully Omar is exploring all of them (fitting with my hope he goes back to being the “creative genius” that got him his own T Shirt slogan!)
Laird, Olivio, etc. are all viable options. And shouldn’t cost prospects of any particular note.
Signing Castro was actually a good move. It at least gives them a base to work with, so they have the flexibility to get a true starter, or a platoon guy. Basically, what they can find out in the market.
Assuming he doesn’t break down entirely, I could see Castro catching anywhere from 40 – 100 games next year (most likely not more than 80). Just can’t see him going into FT (120+ for a catcher) terrritory, so the other guy better be decent.
Laird could actually blossom in the right situation, he does seem to have offenzive potential. Might even be like Castro in that way.
Just get someone that can play the position and has some potential to not be an offensive black hole, and can reasonably be expected to stay healthy and get it done and move on.
Jaome Burke and Rob Johnson of the Mariners are some good options I would say. Johnson has upside and is young, and Burke, though 36, has hit well in limited at bats for his career. The Mariners have both Clement and Johjima to deal with, so they would love to get something of medium value for those guys.
Whatever the case, I do hope that we figure this situation out soon because only having Castro going into the season scares me. One tipped over twinkie truck on the L.I.E. and Castro will be putting on another twenty pounds and that arthritis will flare up again. Its a shame too because we have all seen that Castro can actually pull his weight in the lineup when he is healthy, and thats no small feat. Find a defensive catcher who can really call a game though and we should be ok,because dont forget that two pitchers we are counting on next year dont exactly have the most solid mental skills and need the guidance(Maine, Perez). If he hits .225 fine because if he does his job with the staff and our former great hitting first baseman returns to form, we got plenty of bats one through six.