Buzz: M’s Focused on Bedard
In a post to his blog for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, John 
Hickey breaks down the market for O’s LHP Erik Bedard, and writes…
“The competition for Bedard may come down to the Mariners and the New York Mets. But the Mets have not pushed hard for Bedard, and the Mariners, while willing to trade Adam Jones, haven’t been willing to meet all the Baltimore demands.”
…first off, hickey is not quoting a source, he’s simply stating his opinion…by the way, it’s a very logical opinion, considering that the Mets are the only other team besides the M’s who are aggressively pursuing an ace in the trade market…
Last week, there had been talk of a potential swap between Baltimore and the Cubs, involving Bedard and 2B Brian Roberts. For more, read MLB Trade Rumors.
During December, the Mets offered Aaron Heilman, Carlos Gomez and Philip Humber to the O’s for Bedard, according to old reports from ESPN.com and MLB.com, among others, but it was rejected.
…as such, i hear lots of fans suggest that the Mets should just add a player like Fernando Martinez to get it done, much like with Johan Santana…the thing is, as i wrote during the Winter Meetings, i believe the O’s have been shopping bedard in hopes of getting back a very specific set of talent, and will just as soon start the season with him now, allowing more time to try and work on a contract extension, than trade him just to trade him for parts and pieces…in other words, if the O’s can not snag a player like M’s OF Adam Jones, Reds OF Jay Bruce or Dodgers OF Matt Kemp, et al, bedard will not be traded, since he is still two seasons away from being a free agent…
…for the Mets, i still believe it is santana or bust, which i truly hope is not the case…i mean, it’s amazing to me that the Mets off-season may be perceived as a total failure if they do not manage to trade for the best pitcher in baseball…that’s a lot to live up to, to say the least…
