Category: Latest News

Mets Trade K-Rod to Brewers

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 05: Francisco Rodriguez #7...
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We’ve been speculating about it for months and it finally happened. The Mets were able to find a team to dump trade K-Rod to. He was quickly closing in on his $17.5 million vesting option for 2012 if he finished 55 games this season. The Mets couldn’t take a chance that the option would vest and they would be stuck with K-Rod at that price next season.

We also have to assume that the Brewers were not on K-Rod’s 10 team no trade list in his contract. The Brewers, in all likelihood, won’t use K-Rod to close games and chance that option vesting.

The Mets included cash ($5 million) in the deal to help defray K-Rod’s current $12 million salary for this season and the Mets will receive two players to be named later.

K-Rod spent two and a half years with the Mets but will be remembered for the ugly incident at Citi Field last year when he assaulted his girlfriend’s father in the stadium after a game. He was arrested and charged with assault and ended up suspended for the rest of the 2010 season.

I’m assuming that the Mets will use a closer by committee role for a while until someone in the bullpen establishes themselves. Most likely Bobby Parnell, Jason Isringhausen, and Pedro Beato will get a shot at closing.

This is also likely the start of a sale on high-priced players that the Mets will be doing over the next couple of weeks including Carlos Beltran and, possibly, Jose Reyes.

Video: Mets may Trade K-Rod to the Yankees

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 05: Francisco Rodriguez #7...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Here’s some video from Ken Rosethal of Fox Sports. In his weekly video review of the trade rumors around the league, he leads with a rumor about K-Rod to the Yankees. The Yankees are concerned that Mariano Rivera’s triceps injury is more serious than has been publicized and that Rafael Soriano won’t be able to come back from elbow problems after the All-Star break.

Rosenthal says that the Mets have already called the Yankees to gauge their interest in K-Rod. But the Yankees aren’t currently interested in pulling the trigger on a deal. They want to wait until the deadline and would only be interested in a deal that returns next to nothing to the Mets.

K-Rod’s going to be a tough sell to any team because of his vesting option next season for $17.5 million. MLB.com reported yesterday that K-Rod agreed to leave his agent Paul Kinzer and hired Scott Boras after meeting with Boras while the team was in LA this week.

The Mets have to dump K-Rod on somebody this season. But they don’t have to do it before the non-waiver trading deadline in July. K-Rod would certainly get through waivers in August, so they could do a trade then to move K-Rod somewhere else. But the closer K-Rod gets to finishing 55 games this season and vesting his option for next year, the more difficult a trade will be.

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Video: Reyes, Alderson on In-Season Contract Negotiations

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: RY 24: Jos...
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Yesterday Jose Reyes announced that he wouldn’t negotiate a new contract with the Mets until the 2011 season was over. He said that he wants to focus on baseball and not have the distraction of negotiating what is likely going to be the biggest contract of his career in the middle of this season.

I believe that’s also code for “I’m going to test free agency at the end of the season”. The SNY crew addressed this last night during the broadcast by painting a rosy picture of the situation. They talked about how it doesn’t sound like Alderson is going to trade Reyes during the season. They also stressed the exclusive five day window that the Mets have after the World Series ends if they don’t trade him this season. Keep in mind that SNY is majority owned by the Mets. SNY’s motivation is to keep people motivated to buying game tickets and watching on TV. In other words… Don’t believe the hype.

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Jose Reyes the Yankees and Mets Fans

NEW YORK - MAY 21: Derek Jeter #2 of the New ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I had been reading up on the many different teams that Jose Reyes may be a good fit for joining in August and also in 2012. But the only one that got my interest was anĀ article in the NY Daily News anointing Reyes the next Yankee shortstop.

So I’m thinking ahead to the worst case scenario and wondering what would happen here in NY if Reyes took over for Derek Jeter at shortstop either this year or next? It’s a logical “baseball” move but you could be damaging two franchises at the same time. This isn’t Darryl Strawberry or Dwight Gooden playing in the twilight of their careers being given one last shot by the Yankees. This is one of the best shortstops in the game, in his prime, crossing over to the dark side!

What Would Yankee Fans Think?

Yankee fans will not be happy if their beloved captain is benched in favor of Jose Reyes. Ok, Jose is clearly better right now but Jeter has meant so much more than Reyes ever will mean to the Mets in the last 10 years. At a very early age Jeter played with professionalism, class, and poise while keeping his head and his teammates heads in every game. It’s this discipline at an early age that allowed Jeter to be one of the greats of baseball who can show off 4 World Series rings. It’s this same discipline I wish Jose had.

At 28 years old and with only 10 weeks of prime Jose Reyes baseball to judge him by this year, Jose is clearly playing for a contract. He may be playing up the fact that he has finally matured but we won’t know until he plays at this level for a full year and not in a contract year.

Can the Yankees afford him? Yes, most definitely. Would they want him though? Yankee fans would murder Reyes for a typical Reyes boneheaded bobble or for watching the ball roll under his glove or even getting picked off of first base because he was working on seeing his reflection in one of his gold chains.

Yankee fans would boo him incessantly for every little mistake, he would never live down Jeter’s legacy, even if he won a ring or two and he would have to get a haircut. Odds are if the Yankees were to get Reyes it would do more harm than good with their fans but would that be enough to stop them from pulling the trigger on such a trade? Continue reading “Jose Reyes the Yankees and Mets Fans”

Video: Weekly Mets Report – Murphy, Tejada, Turner

NEW YORK - JULY 08: Daniel Murphy #28 of the ...
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In the week’s Weekly Mets Report video with Kerel Cooper of On The Black we talk about last night’s game against the Pirates. The disappointing loss led to a discussion of Daniel Murphy and where, if anywhere, he fits in to the Mets defensively.

We also talk about the curious lineup that Terry Collins ran out there with Lucas Duda at first base and Justin Turner on the bench. The discussion is about where we see the Mets lineup going in the long-term.

We also talk about Ruben Tejada’s offense and how we could be seeing a lot more of him at shortstop in the second half of the season.

Mets Trading David Wright Not Jose Reyes?

David Wright
Image via Wikipedia

David Wright Traded?

This weeks rumors that David Wright could be traded instead of Jose Reyes came as a little shock to me. David Wright has been the face of the franchise and has endured years of being in the media spotlight under some of the worst conditions imaginable because no one else could deal with the media. This alone makes him the natural leader of the club. Not to mention David also has better numbers and a better work ethic than Reyes. But let’s mention them anyway.

Here are your numbers…

Video: Mets Weekly Report- Bullpen, Offense, Reyes

Jason Bay
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In this week’s episode of the Mets Weekly Report, Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I discuss this week in Mets baseball. Specifically, we get into the Phillies series and the bullpen blowing leads in the first two games. The bullpen has been great all year, overachieving actually, until this week.

Kerel also brings up the Jason Bay situation and how he’s been an automatic out for more than a season now. I’m not sure what to do with the guy other than to wait it out. He’s completely untradeable (if that’s a word) and there’s nothing the Mets can do other than try to get him hitting again.

We also talk about the only consistent offense this season is coming from Jose Reyes and, more recently, Justin Turner.