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In a report for MLB.com, Jordan Bastian says the Blue Jays might consider trading ace Roy Halladay.
According to Bastian, new Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said that the Blue Jays still want to keep Halladay but said:
“…I think I have to be open-minded to anything that can make this ballclub better going forward and better for the long-term.”
With regards to Halladay, Anthopoulos told reports:
“…I think he stressed that his timeline for winning and ours may not mesh and may not match.”
…first off, i have to believe that Halladay is going to be traded this winter, as i think the Blue Jays can maximize their return on him now, rather than in July…second, i think the price for Halladay has come down since the Blue Jays failed to deal him this past summer…of course, i think that any deal would still cost a ton of prospects and a young, major league-ready pitcher, and while i think the Mets may have the prospects to deal, i am not so sure they have a major league pitcher that is attractive for the Blue Jays right now…
…another factor in play here is that Halladay has a full no-trade clause, so i have to wonder if, at this point in time, he would waive that no trade clause to come to the Mets…
Halladay is entering the final year of a three year $40 million deal, and is due $15,750,000 in 2010.
For more on the Halladay situation, check out Bastian’s article on MLB.com
I don’t think that the Mets need Halladay if Lackey is on the market. I don’t think that blowing up the Mets farm system any further than Omar has already. One thing I don’t get, is where F-mart will fit in next year if the Mets sign a left fielder. Why sign a left fielder when you have big prospect such as F-mart waiting in the wings?
This is why they sign a LF and forget about F Mart.
We have many prospects that never work out and if we can get a proven stud to play LF and not the what if or maybe that F Mart brings the team gets better right away with no ???
They also have other wholes to fill and signing a solid LF makes a big trade peice like F Mart available to use in a deal and go out and get a solid long term solution and not have to settle for a Tim Redding type of player.
It leaves F-Mart in AAA where the 21 year old should be. He showed he wasn’t 100% ready when he got called up and then he got hurt.
You can easily stash him down in AAA and keep Holliday(should he be signed) and Franceour. If you think F-Mart is ready at the end of this season, or an injury occurs during the season, you can go ahead and call him up.
This is what you call “organizational depth”. You keep your prospects and actually let them develop in AAA. You actually have a AAA team with PROSPECTS and not MLB hangers on.
The Mets should make an offer to the Jays for Halliday. They are looking for a major league ready arm and some prospects to go with it so here is what I think the Mets should do. They should offer John Maine, Reese Havens, Wilmar Flores and F-Mart for Halliday and Wells. In return we take on all of Wells contract. That would give us a major ace to for a one two punch with Santana and the answer in LF.
Than they should package Castillo(pay 4 of the 6 mill he is owed this year), Ike Davies, Pagan and Pelfrey to the Padres for Adrian Gonzalez.
So where would that leave the Mets after those moves:
They would have filled LF, 1st base and added the best one two SP combo in the league. Because the gave up Maine, Pelfrey and Castillo they will still need a 2nd baseman, a catcher upgrade and 2 SP’s to go with Santana, Halliday and Perez.
For 2nd Base I would go after Figgins or Hudson. Either one would be a tremendous upgrade to the lineup.
For the starting pitching they can go with many different options like Wolf, Garland, Harden, Bedard, Sheets, Penny, Marquis, Pinero, etc.
As for the catcher that would be the last spot I would worry about. Santos and Thole may not be superstars but they are just fine if they can fill those other spots. I would still try to upgrade one of them but if thats the one spot they fall short, I’m ok with that.
Some may say that these trades would never happen but if the Mets can take Wells off the Jays payroll, I think the Jays would do it. As for the Padres they would be very interested in a SP like Pelfrey who gets a lot of ground balls in a huge park as well as Davies who is tearing is up and Pagan and F Mart who can really patrol that OF and fill some gaps in their lineup.
The only thing that I think the Mets would have to do is make the Gonzo trade first. If they go for Halliday first he might use his no trade clause if he doesn’t think the Mets will be good enough to come here.
Santana
Halliday
???
???
Perez
Reyes
Figgins or Hudson
Wright
Gonzo
Beltran
Frenchy
Wells
Santos
SP
I would love that lineup and that starting rotation looks real good if they go out and get two more decent starters
I think your plan is too complicated, you made all those move and still we need 2 more SP, a 2B and a catcher while taking that horrible contract from wells.
Its sounds more complicated than it actually is. I know that adds more moves that they have to do to get things done but there are a ton of SP’s on the free agent market that will bring them a lot more than what they have gotten the past two years.
As for 2nd base there are a couple of really good options on the free agent market and they don’t have to get an upgrade at catcher that would just be nice.
To me all this is, is putting a little extra work in this offseason for Omar and the Wilpons. After a couple of straight seasons falling apart in Sept, than opening a new stadium and not only being one of the worst teams in the league but also watching Philly make it to the World Series for the 2nd straight year and this time losing to the Yankees of all teams, the Mets need to bust their buts this offseason to make sure that we have a very very good team and nothing short of that should be tolerated!
Lots of issues with that scenario. While it’s not a bad idea. I for one don’t think it’s feasible, or the best option.
1. Vernon wells has not been that good. He is getting paid 18 million a year. His defense has regressed horribly and offensively he’s been atrocious for his salary. His realtive value based on his WAR the last 3 years has been 3.5 million, 5.5 million and -.5 million. Meaning he’s vastly overpaid, and is getting that for 5 more years.
2. Your team still has to find 2 more starting pitchers. You have added about 32 million in salary with the 2 trades not including your 2nd base solution. I don’t know if the mets are cleared or have the ability to add more then 40 million in contracts which in your scenario you can easily do. With 2 SP’s and the 2 2nd baseman you mentioned your easily adding another 24 million in contracts.
3. The Farm system would be non-existent for another 3 years in regards to position players. You didn’t trade any top pitching prospects so you would still have those.
4. I don’t think there is any feasible way that the padres would accept a 29 Yo Pagan, Castillo, Pelfrey when he’s about to enter arbitration for Gonzo. Davis they would accept with other top prospects.
5. The package for Halladay is awful. Havens hasn’t done anything to be regarded a solid prospect. Wilmer flores is still 4 years away from being close to the majors. And you didn’t give them exactly what they want. Young MLB ready pitching. Unless you consider a 28 year old John Maine who’s been injured for the last 2 years young, Oh he’s also not under their control for 5+ years like teams trading top prospects would want.
You could just spend money on Holliday and Lackey, even over paying and your in a better position then your scneario. 34 million would cover 18 million for Holliday and 16.
I like Maine and Pelfrey but I would trade one of them but not both, you are leaving two holes open in the rotation and trading away cheap under contract pitchers. If you want to offer Pelfrey for Halladay that might make more sense but I’d like to keep him maybe Neise, Parnell, Fmart for Halladay. I am not sure but I agree the plan is a little too complicated but props for thinking outside the box
I think we need to get Halladay to stop the Phillies from getting him.
They still have most of the prospects they were going to deal for him.
I think that it makes sense for Halliday to come to the Mets since he is made for the park, wants to be in a bigger market and has enough sense to know that if he marries up to # 2 behind Johan that it will be a 1-2 punch that is very hard to beat.
To get this move done I believe that the Mets will need to part with Pelfrey, F-Mart and Flores.
I do believe that we will also fit into’s Toronto’s need to take on the bad contract of Vernon Wells. Omar should use this to his advantage since most other teams can’t afford both.
Instead of adding Vernan wells at 18 million per season for the next 5 years i’d rather sign Matt Holliday to the same contract. Halladay would have to be renegotiated with and would require 18-23 million. For that you could just sign Lackey and probably another guy.
If you were to acquire Halladay I’d rather send more prospects if possible to get him. I don’t want to touch that Wells contract. It’s an abomination.
But to me i’d rather just spend money and let the farm system be. No trades. You can solve all the off season problems with Money, and the Mets had plenty come off the books.
Here is why it is highly unlikely that the Mets will acquire Halladay. Any team that acquires Halladay is going to want to sign to an extension. That means Halladay will be not a FA after the 2010 season.
I don’t think we’ll need to give up Pelfrey but we’ll have to give up one of Ike/F-mart and maybe Parnell, Neise? One of the pitching prospects. I think he has to looked into and I agree I don’t want the phillies getting him, i really want halladay but not if the price is too high but it has to be looked into, i know we all hate the yankees but after they didn’t make the playoffs the organization went out and made a point that they weren’t going to let that happen again and that’s what has to happen here
I would try to sign Lackey and Harden. I seriously doubt that Halladay gets moved until July.
Also I wouldn’t mind if Castillo stayed and if he does he needs to go to Reyes and teach him how to bunt for a hit b/c Luis is kind of the infield single and Reyes needs to work on that a bit more
that should read “king of the infield single”
We have to get a great number 2 starter. LAckey is the only one out there and the MEts should get him. Then we will sign MAtt Holliday. So far all of this can happen. Agree?
next we sign a catcher. Molina/Olivo or BArajas to a 2 year contract. Agree? Next we sign Wolf or MArquis to be our number 3 starter. IT CAN HAPPEN SO FAR! Next, we upgrade our bullpen and bench a little bit. Again, it can happen. Now, MAYBE, we could trade CAstillo and sign Hudson. There is only one maybe throughout the MEts off-season. MAybe Omar will get the idea.
Lackey and Harden would be nice. Not sold on a trade for Halladay. The Mets would be paying twice, players and then to sign him. Also the amount of innings Halladay has pitched in the last two years is a lot. It is hard not to wonder if he is an injury waiting to happen. If the Mets are willing to trade their top prospects I would like to see it done on a younger star that is under a cheap contract. A-Gonz!
Since people keep bringing up Wells, I think it’s worth noting that taking him on would not cost us only 18 mil a year. That’s the average of his contract as a whole, which is very heavily back-loaded. At this point, he’s owed 124 million dollars over the next five seasons. That averages out to almost 25 million a season. Any team who seriously wants to take that on, if you’re adding a Halladay extension on on top of that, would be adding at least 45 mil per year for at least the next five years to their payroll. That’s insane….
For pitchers:
Lackey should be option 1, since we can just sign him … and he doesn’t have a lot of miles – even at his age.
Halladay should be option 2, but we can’t even consider Wells … i’m pretty sure we can match up with some of Toronto’s needs.
Beckett would be option 3, and i know we can match up with the Sox …. but that opens the Beltran or Reyes can of worms …
Oswalt would be option 4 …. i just worry about his durability at his age and frame …. a bit like Petey, and he’s been a horse for so long.
Marquis is option 5 …. but not sure he is the qualiity we are looking for …. if we have the $$$$, we should sign him no matter which of the above options we take.
Why would we give up the core. There are other people the Sox would want for Beckett
another option is Zack Duke, have to look it up, but don’t think he had a good year, and PIT might let him go on the cheap ….
maybe we could swap Maine for Duke … and find someone to trade Perez to — of course, we’d have to eat some of his salary …. but its dead $$$ anyway