213 Miles From Shea

After the free agent pitcher signings during the winter meetings, there were several teams without a new starting pitcher, that were really looking for one:
– Rangers
– Blue Jays
– Nationals
– Red Sox

As a direct consequence of that, plus some shopping by the Athletics, there have been a lot of rumors recently that Gio Gonzalez would be moved, and some of those rumors have involved the Mets trading Jon Niese. It has been mostly speculated that in this type of trade, the Mets would play the role of the third team and recieve a lot of prospects in return (as they have said they wouldn’t trade Niese unless it was for an impressive package). However recent events could make for an interesting few weeks involving trade rumors.

First, the Rangers won the rights to Yu Darvish. This will, as long as they sign him, take them out of the running for Gio Gonzalez. That leaves the race for Gio to be really down to the Nationals and Blue Jays (there have not been many reports yet of the Red Sox getting involved).

It was reported today that the Nationals are working really hard to get Gio Gonzalez in a 4 players for 1 type of deal with the Athletics (Ken Rosenthal). If this happens, then the Blue Jays become a lonely team.

The Jays then will be without Darvish, and without Gonzalez. Does this mean they would over trade for Niese? Honestly I have no idea. I’m not even sure I would be happy with any package for Niese because I see him as a critical member of this team down the road.

If Gonzalez is traded to the Nats though, you can basically guarentee that the Mets will be involved in trade rumors with the Jays.

(Side note: apparently the Mets are in talks about a few different trade possibilities with the Rockies, more to come)

This offseason has been crazy with large deals for players, and it included yesterday as the Texas Rangers won the bidding rights to negotiate with Yu Darvish. The Rangers submitted a bid of 51.7 million, the highest bid ever submitted (the second largest was 51.2 million for Daisuke that the Red Sox posted).

To put this in perspective, this isn’t 51.7 million for a player, rather just the money to negotiate a deal for the pitcher. CJ Wilson’s deal was about 25 million more, but that was for 6 years, this is just to negotiate.

That being said, Darvish is in an incredible player. His ERA is consistently below 2,  and he constantly has over 200 innings pitched. Even though Japan’s hitters are weaker than the MLB’s, the stadiums are more hitter friendly. The Rangers statement said that Darvish is a once in a lifetime player, and now we will see if he can stay that way with the Texas Rangers.

Personally, I’m just relieved that a team in the American League won the rights, not in the National League East, which is already overloaded with strong pitchers not wearing a Mets uniform.

Welcome to our new home!

Yes, it’s currently under construction.

-Elliot Teichman

Here's some news that stopped me in my tracks today:

“The Mets and the Mariners are now among teams interested in Gonzalez” – Dan Mennella on MLB Trade Rumors via Rosenthal.

Well this doesn't make much sense. I mean, I'm happy we are interested in Gonzalez, and he is a good pitcher who is under team control for the next four years. Under the guise of pure talent, going after Gonzalez makes sense. He consistently pitches over 200 innings and over 150 strikeouts.

The problem is he is the type of pitcher that will be able to demand a lot of money in arbitration. A lot of money the Mets supposedly don't have. This also doesn't jive with Sandy's policy on holding onto prospects. When we talk about “rebuilding” we need a lot of prospects and then to wait and see. Trading for Gonzalez only makes sense if the Mets were making a push to win now. Even without Reyes, the Mets offense is strong but I'm not sure the addition of Gonzalez would be enough “umph” to the rotation to make the Mets a contender.

Matt Cerrone of Metsblog has some good thoughts where he said that Rosenthal may have only heard the Mets because of Andrew Bailey or because of some form of a three way trade. That would make much more sense.

This is just bizarre.

In November, the Mets released Ryota Igarashi and he has now signed with a new team.

There are reports out saying that Igarashi signed a split contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you are like me, and were unsure what a split contract is, well here you go: A split contract is a contract that includes separate salary for time in the minor leagues vs time in the major leagues.

Igarashi with the Mets showed a lot of promise when he first started. At the time he looked like the set-up man of the future. However, after his first injury, when he came back, he was never quite the same. Overall with the Mets he posted an ERA of 5.74 (79 appearances).

The Mets signed him to a 2 year contract worth 3 million.

You know what you can still purchase from MLB.com?

Source

(Ok, I guess if you read the title of the article, you already knew the answer of that question)

Seriously though, WHY DO THEY STILL HAVE THESE?

When it comes to making fun of the Mets, both of New York's tabloid Sport Papers can agree on the best course of action to take:

Source

Source