Category: Trades

Roster Changes A Long, Difficult Road For Mets

For weeks I’ve been hoping that the Mets would settle on a direction to go for this season. There are two choices: change the manager or change the roster. The acquisition of Trot Nixon from the Arizona Diamond Backs may signal that Mets GM Omar Minaya is going to give the latter a try.

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Although I hope that Minaya has decided to pursue roster changes, there are a few problems that I have with the Mets organization. First, they shouldn’t leave Willie Randolph twisting in the wind for a variety of reasons. Second, the Mets roster is going to be difficult to make significant changes to, and it will take time to implement.

Minaya has offered tepid support for Randolph twice over the last two weeks. The lack of substance to this support has left the players, and certainly Randolph, wondering when the shoe is going to drop. The Mets need to eliminate this distraction and offer full support such as, “Willie is our manager for the rest of the year” or not talk about Randolph’s job security at all. Going half way with his support isn’t helping the situation. Minaya has to be smart enough to know that.

Continue reading “Roster Changes A Long, Difficult Road For Mets”

Mets Trade For Trot Nixon

The Mets acquired Trot Nixon from the Arizona D’Backs. Nixon has been playing for the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders this season. His line is .309/ .437/ .558 with 15 doubles, 10 home runs, and 31 RBI’s in 181 at-bat’s over 58 games.

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Mets GM Omar Minaya announced the trade immediately after tonight’s game against the Rangers. He expects Nixon to be at Shea tomorrow in time for the second game against the Rangers. The Mets traded cash or a player to be named later. Most likely Robinson Cancel will be headed right back to New Orleans.

Nixon is 34 years old. His major league career spans eleven years, most recently with the Cleveland Indians last season. Typically most telling is his 162 game average which is .275/ .364/ .466 with 20 home runs and 83 RBI’s.

He has a reputation as a hard-nosed, gritty player. That’s something that the Mets seem to be lacking this season. Nixon made $3 million last year with the Indians and signed a one year minor league deal with the D’Backs this season.

Report: Randolph Not Getting Fired

ESPN’s Jayson Stark is reporting today that a source that regularly speaks to Mets front office personnel told him that Mets manager Willie Randolph is not going to be fired. From the column:

Minaya "has made his decision," said the same baseball man. "And the decision is, this is Willie’s team. And he’s not going away."

Reading this column made me wonder: What does Randolph have to do to get fired? As I’ve said before, I know that all of the teams problems aren’t his fault. But he has to be held accountable for the overall on-field performance of the team.

It’s obvious that the Mets need to change something. If they’re not going to fire Randolph then they need to move some players. Something needs to change either way. This team is quickly becoming more difficult to watch.

Are The Mets Buyers Or Sellers This Season?

New York Mets

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New York Mets GM Omar Minaya only has three to four weeks to decide if the Mets will be buyers or sellers on the trade market. The non-waiver trading deadline ends on July 31 so the Mets need to give themselves two to three weeks to work out trades prior to the deadline.

I would imagine that Minaya has no idea what he’s going to do right now. Standing at 7.5 games back of the NL East leading Philadelphia Phillies and two games under .500 after the first 62 games makes their situation ambiguous at best. The Mets need to play 20 games over .500 for the rest of the season to win 90 games which is about what it will take to win the division. If the first two and a half months of the season are any indication, and they are, that is highly unlikely.

The wild card is a long shot right now as well. The St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins are in a much stronger position to make a run, especially the Cardinals playing in a weak division.

That leaves the Mets in the awkward position of potentially scrapping the 2008 season and selling off the team for parts. For a team that went into opening day with a payroll of $137,793,376 the proposition of selling prior to the deadline is a complete and utter embarrassment. Flushing a season down the toilet in New York is particularly difficult because the team’s revenue goals are tied to the tickets sales and television advertising revenue. Last season the Mets sold over 3.8 million tickets and the Mets jointly owned television station SNY generates plenty as long as people are watching. Watching this team becomes more difficult with each passing loss.

Possibly the most embarrassing situation of all would be for the Mets to limp into their new stadium Citi Field. I’m sure that the Mets will sell plenty of tickets despite the team that shows up to play every day. But it’s certainly not what the Wilpons had in mind when they broke ground on Citi Field, a team that’s a reclamation project. Continue reading “Are The Mets Buyers Or Sellers This Season?”

Sidney Ponson DFA’d By Rangers

Sidney Ponson

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The pitching challenged Texas Rangers designated Sidney Ponson for assignment this afternoon. Rangers GM Jon Daniels said that the move was due to several off the field problems that have arisen over the past few weeks. According to MLB.com:

“Based on recent events, I don’t think Sidney wants to be here or deserves to be here,” Daniels said.

This season Ponson is 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA. So whatever he did must have been pretty bad. Ponson was signed by the Rangers on March 9, 2008 to a one year minor league contract. The contract was purchased by the Rangers on April 26th. Continue reading “Sidney Ponson DFA’d By Rangers”

New York Mets Amateur Draft Strategy

The baseball amateur draft starts this Thursday and the Mets have plenty of needs in their farm system. Obtaining Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins this off season drained several of the Mets top prospects. That trade included the Mets numbers 2, 3, 4, and 7 prospects. I still like the trade and the contract for Santana. I think he’s got the right stuff and fluid motion to avoid long term injuries enough to be successful over the next seven years.

That said, the Mets need to re-stock young players. Bob Klapisch wrote a good column today on the Mets strategy for this draft. Continue reading “New York Mets Amateur Draft Strategy”

Report: Minaya Talking Trades

Aaron Heilman 03:45, 19 July 2007 . . Metsfan7 . . 700×680 (428,001 bytes)

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Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Omar Minaya has been talking trades for first basemen, left fielders, and right handed relievers. The names on his short list are: Kevin Millar, Jason Bay, and Xavier Nady.

All three would be helpful pieces for this team. Moises Alou is a great hitter, but doesn’t play enough to trust him to be on the active roster all season. He just breaks down too frequently.

Carlos Delgado is pretty much done in my opinion. So any help that we can get at first base would be a significant improvement.

Since the Mets don’t have too much left in the minors after the Johan Santana trade, the questions becomes: what do we have to give up? I don’t think that the Mets would consider moving Fernando Martinez. I would think that Aaron Heilman would have some good value, especially since he’s been getting himself together over this past week. He’d probably be the prime chip that the Mets would look to deal at the Major League level.

Thanks to MLB Trade Rumors for the tip.