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Last night, Ramon Castro to the White Sox for RHP Lance Broadway.
Broadway, who is 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in in games this season, will report to Triple-A Buffalo.
Omar Minaya, on the decision to trade Castro, speaking to reporters after the game:
“On a night like tonight, when Omir Santos plays the way he has, it makes the decision easy for us to keep him.”
Added to by Matthew Cerrone:
This is the right move, in that the Mets cannot remove Omir Santos from the current roster with the way he’s playing.
That said, they are making a big gamble in that, as Howard Megdal and Ted Berg pointed out to me, if Santos stops hitting, or either he or Brian Schneider get hurt again, then the Mets have very little to choose from in terms of minor-league catching and options to fill in on the bench.
In the end, Schneider is probably the guy who should have gone, in that he’s making more money and is the weakest hitter of the three. The team clearly tried to trade him in the off-season, speaking with the Red Sox and other teams, while hoping to sign Jason Varitek or Ivan Rodriguez to a short-term deal, according to previous reports, but it didn’t work out.
It appears Schneider is due more money than the Mets clearly want to eat, and so it’s him and Santos for the duration.
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Hey, how are ya? Lance Broadway here.
What a name!
Farewell Shrek, we will miss your enormous head and your great entrance music.
I don’t know much about Broadway (at least he’s got a good name for New York), but after tonight’s game Santos wasn’t going anywhere.
The way Santos has been playing, Castro had to go. Hopefully, Broadway has some value. Honestly, I have more confidence in Santos at the plate right now than Wright.
A bigger pull for a good hitting catcher would have been nice, but i guess the whole idea was to get rid of him so the trade works.
Well, adios Ramon. Some big hits over your Mets career but at the end of the day you never stepped up to take the starting role and you had several opportunities. Be it weight related, motivation, whatever.
Now the Mets need to find someone else to blow bubbles and leave them on people’s hats.
Not a fan of this move at all. I would have at least liked them to have waited until they knew whether or not Schneider was healthy. They said tonight that he did not play in any rehab games just extended spring training if I heard the broadcast correctly.
Metsgirl….., It’s true that they don’t quite know yet what they have in Scheinder, but the way Santos has played I gotta believe that at least for the time being that Santos will be the starting catcher. They can get by with Schneider as a backup even in his current condition. Not too mention that Castro made half of what Schneider does so from a financial standpoint it was a no brainer that Schneider wasn’t going anywhere. The good news is that this will likely be the last season we have to deal with Schneider .
I agree, this has the potiental to backfire really bad.
Let’s just hope that Schneider is a good platoon player.
This Broadway guy looks to be a decent prospect, he @ least has the right name.
Worse case we can package him in a deadline deal.
Between Putz and Broadway, the back pages are going to have a field day whenever these guys blow a lead.
I’m okay with this move.
Castro has clearly been in Jerry’s doghouse for quite some time, regardless of what Jerry says. He’s has some big hits for us over the years but he is a very replaceable kind of player and I’m pretty much convinced that Santos can contribute almost as much offensively and more defensively.
Broadway is a guy who’s worth a shot.
He was very highly regarded in the Sox system as recent as last year and he’s still only 26. He doesn’t have much of a fastball (88-91?), is working on his change and a has a decent curve which is his outpitch. I haven’t seen him but people do rave about his mound presence. From what I’ve read he seems to project as a number 4 or 5.
How about the fact that they just traded away a potential chip for a bigger name – even the Sox’s own Jermaine Dye? One less major league chip means more minor leaguers will be lost at the trade deadline. Omar must see something really special in this guy. If this is a John Maine – type pick up, I’m all for it, otherwise I’m not sure what the purpose of this trade is.
I’m not a Minaya hater (after all, he picked up Santana, Sheff, K-Rod, etc etc etc), but this does seem like a weird (or poor) time to trade Castro. Why not wait till schneider is back, like metsgirl said? Who’s going behind the dish tomorrow on a day game after a night game, Santos?
Sorry for the double post, but I just thought of something. A lot of people knock the mets farm system for lack of prospects, but doesn’t it seem like Minaya goes prospecting with MLB veterans like he did with the Redding/LivanHernandez/Garcia pitch-off? Is this something that Minaya has increased in the last year or am i just noticing it more this year?
I am sorry to see Ramon go he’s been a good backup for several years. I was actually curious to see his Mets career numbers and they are interesting
622 AB 157 HITS 30 HR 108 RBI .252 AVG
That’s not bad, he’s given them good production, but his injury history and the emergence of Santos meant he was the odd man out. Although I wouldn’t have been upset if Schneider was the one to go. I think his defense hasn’t been what we expected and he can’t hit a lick. Oh well, hopefully Omir gets at least 50% of the playing time.
Respectfully disagree. Schneider is in fact ready, Santos is making big contributions and three catchers is a luxury we can’t afford. Plus, Castro has a history of getting hurt. This eliminates the traffic jam at C. Ramon got some nice hits for us and I will miss him, but tis was a needed move and kudos to Omar for getting it done so quickly.
I agree, what if Schneider is hurt, who would be next to come up? While I like Santos a lot, this seems a little rushed to me and I personally might have prefered Castro over Schneider anyway. I guess with Schneider and Santos we will always have a decent defensive catcher in there and a nice platoon. I hope they use both of them and don’t just give the job back to Schneider.
Any idea how much cash we had to throw in to make this happen?
If the White Sox are eating all of Castro’s salary, this works on a couple of levels. It allows them to avoid a 3 catcher roster bottle neck, since there was no way Santos was getting set down and no way ownership was going to eat the Castro contract. Additionally, it gives Omar payroll flexibly (which is always important with the Wilpons) for whatever moves he makes to sure up either the rotation or line-up.
The worked out of well as could be expected.
Could Castro have been sent to AAA? I just don’t like our security at C when Schneider inevitably goes back on the DL. Santos has played great but I still feel the sample size as been a little small for making a decision on him. Was there not something lovable about Castro as well? He always seemed to be able to hit. Unfortunately I’ll always remember his Mets career by the last game of the year in ‘07 against FL. Castro hit a bomb with the bases loaded that would have put them back in the game only to fall just on the warning track…then again, maybe Castro should go
I like the deal. Schneider was coming back from injury so he obviously wasn’t going any place and you can’t trade Santos with the way he has been playing. BTW he has also won us 2 games in a alittle over a week. This Broadway kid we got was their 3 best prospect in 2007.
Broadway was the Sox first-round pick in 2005 – 6 spots after Pelfrey and one before Chris Volstad. You have to think he’s got a ton of upside, even if he’s yet to put it all together. Nice return for a guy no one wanted…maybe a new organization will do the trick.
The fact that we got anything for Ramon was a good deal. He is injured more than he is active and is always hit or miss up at the plate. Omir brings a jubilant approach to the game, something this team can feed off of. I wonder what the clubs approach to someone like Eddie Kunz is though, has he fallen far that they feel they need another right handed bullpen guy in the minors?
The bottom line with Schneider is that he’s not a very good offensive player. We already know what we’re getting with him. While I suspect Schneider will get his fair share of starts in the near future, if Santos keeps producing, I think he will continue to get the bulk of the starts. And while I have no great love for Schneider, personally I soured on Castro big time over the last couple of years when he always seemed to be injured at the times we needed him to step it up the most.
Hopefully, Schneider is indeed healthy enough to contribute for the rest of the season, though I don’t really have much faith in the Mets’ medical staff.
This wasn’t so much a salary dump as it was a move to reward the best player available – Santos.
The White Sox got the better player, but the Mets got the best benefit – ridding themselves of Castro and his salary and rewarding the better player Santos.
Now, the question is – Who is the starter? Schneider or Santos?
I dont see this trade backfiring at all. Castro was lazy and preferred the bench to starting.
In Omir the Mets got younger and better. Castro’s lethargic attitude was replaced with a high energy guy who wants to play everyday.
I only hope that it wont be long before Omir is the starter and Schneider the backup.
We’ve been crying for players with grit? Well here he is…
Metsgirl, of course Schneider is healthy. Or else he wouldn’t be up.
Ericloz, this deal can’t backfire. A catcher had to go from the roster and we would all be on here blasting Omar if it was anyone but Castro. Castro is great, but due to his experience, he would have to be released instead of being sent to AAA. So, no matter what Broadway does, at least the Mets got something!
I love the trade! Why bother having 3, possibly 4, major league catchers on the roster?
Castro in an injury waiting to happen… again.
At least Schneider can catch a game. And Santos has the best bat out of the 3 of them. Having Cancel as a #3 option isn’t the end of the world.
For anyone angry at Omar for not trading Schneider, there is an additional reason to keeping Schneider over Castro other than he’s a lefty bat.
According to Cot’s Baseball contracts, if Schneider is traded, he would be owed 500,000 by the new team. This, combined with his large contract, makes him very difficult to trade.
Even if you prefer Castro to Schneider, the fact that you can receive more in return for Castro explains more so why he was the one traded.
Schneider is supposedly a good defensive catcher, but I have not seen it at all. I like Omir’s quickness behind the plate and even though thereis not a “platoon” situation wi Omir and Castro, I prefer that combo to a Schneider/Santos platoon..
I agree that Schnieder has not proved himself healthy, but I am not sad to see Castro sent packing.
Broadway is a former first-round draft pick, IIRC. I will miss Castro, though–he can hit the ball hard. Guess that the FO might think that Josh Thole could move up in needed.
Josh Thole is tearing it up at Binghamton. He could be a viable option in case Schneider or Santos go down. Any reports on his defensive and game calling skills?
Yeah, I think Broadway has a little bit of value, could be a cheap 5th guy on the rotation for a lot of clubs. I can only assume that Schnieder is healthy if they made this move, extended ST or rehab games, they should be able to tell if he can play or not.
Overall I was not a gigantic Castro fan, so I think we made the right move. I just hope Brian can be a defensive force behind the plate now that he is healthy.
Broadway was a 1st round pick in 2005, so at the very least he should have some raw talent. I would have rather traded Schneider but what can you do? Nobody would take that contract.
I like the move as of right now. Broadway gives us another high-end (at least on paper) arm that we could turn into something else later on.
I don’t get the huge outcry about keeping Schneider. When you look at the offense vs. Castro, the difference is not as great as some would make it. At best he’s only going to see action against lefties anyway, the job appears to belong to Santos at this point.
Castro in 2008 had a batting average of .245, OBP of .312 and slugged .441. Schneider had a batting average of .257 an OBP of .339 and slugged .367. If anything, aside from slugging percentage, Schneider had a better offensive season than Castro. Given the fact that Ramon is a butcher behind the plate, Schneider is clearly the choice to keep at this point.
Santos should get a majority of the starts… he has earned it IMO.
And since when did keeping a career .237 hitter count as “insurance” against an offensive slump by another player? Answer me that one Mr. Berg.
And to say Schneider should have gone because he is the weakest of the 3 in terms of hitting is sheer ignorance. Look at the stats, they don’t lie. Somewhere, Ramon Castro got the undeserved repuation as a legitimate offensive threat and as a power hitter. Aside from a slightly larger slugging percentage in comparison to his OBP and average, he’s nothing special. Heck, he hasn’t even been able to play more than 52 games in any of the past 3 seasons because you can’t keep him healthy enough to play anymore than that.
I’m not a fan of the trade either. I thought they would give a little more time to make the decision. I think Santos solidified a spot on the roster last night if he hadn’t already. I thought they might unload Schneider. A lot of Mets fans I’ve talked, myself included, aren’t too big on Schneider. We could have included the departing catcher whoever it be, along with maybe Church in a big trade for a pitcher down the line.
I agree that I would have rather seen a healthy Schneider first. Seems we’ve put in some bottom of the barrel Cs in the past few years. But I guess they would know if he is healthy enough to take the risk.
Who is the new number three C in the system?