213 Miles From Shea

The MLB offseason so far has been ridiculous. It felt like there were more rumors than normal during the GM meetings and last week there were a larger than normal amount of trades and free agent signings.

So far the Mets have made two moves signing Chris Young to a one year deal and the more significant move of signing Curtis Granderson to a four year deal. Chris Young on his own doesn’t do much to the outfield but with Granderson the outfield is now one of the best defensively in the league and the lineup has the chance for serious pop.

If we go back to the Mets offseason goals from the start, they wanted to get two outfielders. Next on their list would be a short stop and a starting pitcher.

Thanks to the flurry of free agents signings over the last week (Peralta, Beltran, Cano, Granderson, Morneau, etc) there is now a better understanding what the trade market looks like for corner OF and 1B. For the Mets this week, they will look to trade one of Ike Davis and Lucas Duda, possibly with Daniel Murphy (which doesn’t make too much sense to me personally) for another impact bat. The Mets could be looking for a SS, a second basemen if they trade Murphy (once again, which doesn’t make sense) or an OF who can also hit lead off.

Teams like the Yankees need a 2B, but I’m not sure what the Mets could get in return. The Mariners are trying to get David Price, so maybe the Mets can get involved in a three year trade.

Teams I’m looking at as possible partners for the Mets would be the Rays and the Orioles. The Rays could use a first basement and maybe the Mets could convince them to part with Yunel Escobar. The Orioles are under pressure to make a move, especially since they traded Jim Johnson for salary room and didn’t sign McLouth and missed out on Beltran.

Let’s see what happens! Its been a crazy week for trades, and there are always surprises during the Winter Meetings.

It looks like the Mets will not be able to complete one of the options on the table for a backup catcher if the rumors regarding Arecibia hold true.

Last week it looked like the Mets had the following options for backup catching role:

• Keep using Anthony Recker
• Try to reach a deal for Flowers if the White Sox didn’t tender him a contract
• Sign Arencibia if non-tendered

The White Sox reached a deal with Flowers, so that option went off the table, but the Blue Jays did not tender J.P. Arecibia a contract, which gave the Mets an opening.

The market took a surprisingly active turn on Saturday though, with the Yankees signing McCann. Suddenly, in addition to all of the other trades happening in baseball, catchers started flying off the board. With hindsight in mind, this probably predicted the end of the Mets run for Arencibia because the Mets did not need a back up catcher that badly.

Flowers and Arencibia were both appealing to the Mets because they would be backup catchers with pop on a team that is struggling to find pop (if they could find a starting pitcher with batting pop, I’m sure the Mets would be first in line to sign him up).

At least from the most recent news, it looks like Texas will be going after Arencibia, which makes sense since they tried to get him via trade and did not join in the catcher signing frenzy.

This leaves the Mets with Anthony Recker, who in 135 at bats last year, knocked 6 homeruns. This was the first time in his limited major league experience that he showed this power but in a small sample it was similar to Flowers and showed shades of Arencibia (the difference with JP being that he has shown power 3 seasons in a row). Personally, I feel alright with Recker as the backup catcher for the 2014 season if he can continue the power he has shown. It is a better situation than in previous years with Thole backed up by Nickeas. Now we have a back up who can hopefully hit. The Mets do lose out though on a veteran presence behind the plate though, which would help with d’Arnaud.

Yesterday was an incredibly unusual day as a large amount of trades and signings were made a week before the winter meetings and all on the same day. (And Billy Beane traded about 1938103940393 players in 43958201 trades)

Frustrating to Mets fans, the Mets didn’t do anything. Although we found out that the Mets bought Curtis Granderson a salmon over the weekend.

Some moves don’t impact the Mets, others do. I’m going to try to focus on only the ones that impact the Mets.

Ellsbury to the Yankees – Frustrating because the Yankees made yet another major move this off-season while the Mets remain quiet. For the most part, this is a good move for the Mets. Either Choo or Ellsbury needed to sign so Beltran, Cruz and Granderson would start to sign, the Mets being interested in the latter.

Fowler to the Astros via Trade – The Mets were interested in Fowler and he was traded for spare parts. This would make it harder for the Mets to work out a trade with the Rockies especially with…

Morneau to the Rockies – This is the killer to go with the above. With Morneau now on the Rockies, they have no reason to work out a trade with the Mets for Davis/Duda, knocking competition to get a better deal from either the Rockies or another team.

Pierzynski, Saltalamacchia, Wil Nieves, Ryan Hanigan, McCann, Navarro – Not all of these catchers signed yesterday but a ton of free agent catchers have been signed this off season (including Pena and Jose Molina not listed above) this could impact the Mets in two ways. First, if the Mets try to get Arencibia as a back up, they might have some competition because catchers are flying off the market. Second, if a team really needs a catcher, the Mets might have some interesting pieces via trade in either d’Arnaud or Plawecki. Maybe their value rises (I’m not too keen on this option).

The Mets surprised some, including myself, yesterday as they non-tendered a total of five players:

• Scott Atchison
• Omar Quintanilla
• Jordany Valdespin
• Jeremy Hefner
• Justin Turner

The first two names were not surprising, the third was borderline not surprising. The final two were. I’m not a Justin Turner fan, although he seems to perform well in the utility role. His non-tender was surprising because I thought the Mets really like him, maybe they bring him back on a smaller contract.

Jeremy Hefner was also surprising because he is still under team control in 2015. Even though he can’t contribute next year, the price of pitching right now is so high, I felt the Mets would try to hold onto as many as they could.

Other teams let go of players that may make sense for the bargain hunting Mets:

• JP Arencibia: The Mets have been linked to JP a lot over the last couple of seasons starting with the Dickey trade. He projects to be a back up catcher with some pop, and would be an improvement over Anthony Recker right now
• Chris Coghlan: Has not done much since his rookie season but may be a very cheap addition to add some outfield depth to a team that lacks it
• Sandy Rosario: Successful season last year, could make a good addition to the bullpen
• Tommy Hanson: Struggled last season, still has a career 3.80 ERA
• John Axford
• Andrew Bailey

If the Mets make a few major moves, one or two of the players above in addition could make a very different looking team.

Two weeks from now the Winter Meetings will be over.

The Mets have not been shy about wanting to move either Duda or Davis this offseason in an effort to improve offensive production at shortstop or the outfield next year. The Rays are in the market for someone to play first (Source).

The advantage the Mets have is they may have that magic combination of cheap via trade and ability once traded.  The other firstbasemen on the trade market include Moreland, Morrison and Trumb0. As long as the Rays want to do this via trade the Mets look like a winner. Davis in a trade will demand less in return than Moreland and Trumbo, may have a higher ceiling than Moreland and has more talent than Morrison (I’m biased on that one).

For the Mets, via cost and talent, they would be able demand either Escobar or Joyce in return. If the Mets trade more than Davis, maybe even a package for Jennings.

Or, another way to look at this is the Mets, who have been rumored over the last week to look for three way trades, could use the Rays in a trade that moves David Price to another team. David Price would go to that other team, whomever they may be, the Mets would move probably one of Davis/Duda and then either Montero (or someone of similar talent level) and receive either Escobar/Joyce/Jennings from the Rays and then somebody else from the other team. This is a little harder to imagine because it depends on who that other team is but the Mets matchup a need for the Rays and the Rays matchup a need for the Mets. A trade between the two makes sense and based on the larger pieces on the Rays (Price) and some of the minor league talent on the Mets, it is feasible to imagine them taking part in a three way trade.

I’m a combination of curious to see if this materializes and anxious to see the Mets do something positive.