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Multiple media sources are reporting that last night the Washington Nationals released Paul LoDuca and Felipe Lopez. The Nats needed to make room on their active roster for Elijah Dukes and Emilio Bonifacio.
LoDuca is making $5M this season and Lopez is making $4.9M. Both are having horrible offensive seasons. And LoDuca has been hurt this season as well. The Nats recently released another free agent catcher Johnny Estrada.
Neither player is a fit for the Mets needs.
Now that the non-waiver trade deadline has passed and the Mets went out silently, it’s time to look at waiver trading. Paul DePodesta of the San Diego Padres does a nice job on his blog today of explaining the process.
As teams http://www.cheapambienpriceonline.com fall out of contention in August they’ll be looking to unload some players to contenders. Hopefully, the Mets will be one of those contenders there to pick up the pieces necessary to make a run at October baseball.
Manny Ramirez ends up with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox get Jason Bay. The Red Sox will cover the rest of Manny’s salary for this season. The Pirates get four players in return for Bay: Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss from Boston, and Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris from the Dodgers.
It sounds like a good deal for all parties. The Red Sox had to move Manny, he was killing them with his lack of effort over the last few weeks. The Mets and Phillies may be the biggest benefactor of this trade because Manny didn’t land in Florida.
The Dodgers had to agree not to pick up Manny’s option year at the end of the season for him to accept the trade.
Image via WikipediaThe latest word is that the Tampa Bay Rays have acquired Jason Bay from the Pittsburgh Pirates for minor leaguers SS Reid Brignac and pitcher Jeff Niemann.
That means that Manny Ramirez won’t be a part of a three-way deal going to the Florida Marlins. The Mets dodged a bullet there.
Jon Heyman reports at SI.com that the Mets are talking to the Washington Nationals about a deal for relief pitcher Luis Ayala.
He’s pitched in 54 games this season, a right-hander, has a 1-6 record and 5.54 ERA. He’s been with the organization since 2003 so Omar Minaya knows him well. The numbers for his prior seasons are pretty good. He’s never had an ERA higher than 3.19 before this year and he’s pitched in as many as 81 games/season.
Here are some links for Mets reading while you’re having lunch today.
The Mets Report 