Yesterday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post said Omar Minaya might be planning to trade mid-level prospects for other team’s overpriced commodities.
In a post for NY Baseball Digest, Mike Silva explains why, “That should send a chill down the spine of every Mets fan.”
Instead, Silva suggests the Mets buy low on young players who may be out of favor, and expensive, to their current team, such as Rays OF B.J. Upton.
Buster Olney of ESPN.com recently said the Rays might listen to offers for Upton, who Bob Nightingale of USA Today said teams feel might eventually be traded.
The 25–year-old Upton hit .300 with 24 HR in 2007, but hit just .241 with 11 HR this season.
…his numbers are strange… he had between 45 and 50 extra base hits each of his first three seasons, however most of them were home runs in 2007, when batting mostly from the middle of the order, while he had less home runs but more doubles in 2009, when he hit most often from the leadoff position… in either case, he is striking out more and walking less, but stealing more and hitting more doubles and triples… like i said, strange…
…anyway, he’s clearly an exciting, impressive young player, with a ton of talent and raw skills… and, at 25 and still under contract for the next three seasons, he is a player i bet most every team will consider…
Upton will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this off season, and is not able to be a free agent until 2013.
Upton grew up in coastal Virginia and played baseball in the same community as David Wright, Mark Reynolds and Ryan Zimmerman, all of whom played together on the same summer travel team while in high school.
By the way, though he played only center field this season and last, Upton played 48 games at second base for the Rays in 2007.
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“in either case, he is striking out more and walking less, but stealing more and hitting more doubles and triples…”
Sounds like he will fit in perfect on the Mets.
Best thing about Upton is that he did it on the big stage last year. I would not get any funny ideas about 2B (I’m sure there is a reason they moved him), but he’d look wonderful in LF and in the 2-hole.
I wonder if you could get him more cheaply by taking Burrell’s salary off their hands…then stick him on the bench, cut him, trade him for 50 cents on the dollar and eat half his contract, whatever. THAT is how you use the resources the Mets claim they have.
the primary reason they moved him was flexibity and kept him in the OF because Longoria arrived and Iwamura was moved to 2B.
If you’re making a move like that, F-Mart is expendable, and therefore the person you offer. We need to send more to TB, though – I wonder if we could do it with Ollie and some money? Or, maybe exercise Putz’s option & send him?
If that can be done, then you have a logjam in the OF. Does Upton have the arm for RF? If so, Francouer is more tradeable than Burrell…leaving a starting OF of Burrell-Beltran-Upton, with Pagan and Reed/Sullivan as #5.
I would bat Castillo-Upton-Reyes 1-3 as tablesetters, and I think that leaves us with enough power at 4-6 (Wright-Beltran-Burrell) to compete. Then there’s Murphy-Catcher as 7-8.
Burrell is $8mm (probably about $3-4mm more than Francouer will get), and Upton will probably get about $3-4mm in arb, so it’s $7mm to payroll (which is why I suggested sending Ollie and some money – maybe $3mm?) to make it a money-saver for TB and a minor hit on the Mets. If the $15mm “new spending” rumor is right, this leaves about $11-12mm, which is probably enough for Lackey.
Why would you even consider Burell, especially at the expense of Francoeur?
Let’s get real. Who on the Mets roster do you think the Rays would actually want?
Would you trade Davis and Mejia and another prospect to land Upton?
In other words, it won’t be cheap so let’s take that bus back to Reality-ville.
You don’t get to choose as the Devil Rays when you dont want to deal with a salary increase on a guy who had an OPS go from .890 to .780 to .680 from 2007 to this year.
The same way the Braves took a much older Ryan Church to platoon while dumping the pending arb case Jeff Francouer.
Another guy worth considering is Jay Bruce, who by season’s end in Cincinnati wasn’t even starting. He’s only one year removed from quite an impressive year. I think he may go as an undervalued young talent that is worth looking into.
Jay Bruce was not being benched he had a brutal wrist injury you might recall suffered at Citi Field.
The reds are not dumping him yet.
they arent trading bruce, they consider him and votto the cornerstones and he wasnt starting much cause he was coming back off his broken wrist and they were easing him back in, hes only 20 with loads of potential, i highly doubt hes going anywhere..
Upton actually played 48 games at 2nd in 2007, 63 games at 3rd between 2004 and 2006, 16 games at SS in 2004. Through all of these he had a -UZR/150 rating which meant he was pretty bad at 2nd base he was a -25.8, at SS a -28.5 at 3rd a -12.5. Meanwhile in CF he’s had a 9.1 rating combined the last 2 seasons.
For reference Beltran had about an 8.8 last season with the mets.
Upton would be a terrific player to be acquired. i don’t know if you can lock him in for his 2007 numbers and if he’s not at those numbers he doesn’t help the mets. The Mets did a BJ Upton type deal when they acquired Jeff Franceour from Altlanta.
You can only have so many of these “Up-Side” guys. If they don’t reach their upside then you have a whole lot of nothing!
you right “up-side” only matters if guys go up, but the thing about Upton is you can likely as you said make a Church for Francouer type deal for him vs. dropping a boat load of money into an older guy who might be breaking down and giving up better prospects.
Everyone is forgetting about Angel Pagan. If you ask me, he is a nice commodity on the trade market and proved he can hit/leadoff and play a high level center field. There has got to be some value in that.
If the Mets are making a trade this year, I would expect Pagan to be one of the conerstones of it
I mean would Pagan and Murphy land the Mets Carlos Pena?
Omar and the Mets inability to develop players wil likely result in Omar trying to sign/trade fir Marquis players in his attempt to build and All STar team-which does not work-I cant begin to explain my frustration
You mean your frustration over things that have yet to happen? Get off the ledge, sir. You have to wait through October and most of November and December, at least, until you’ll know what direction Omar is going in this offseason.
who are Marquis players.
Jason Marquee, obviously.
:)
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