Do Yourself Favor — Ignore Mets Trade Rumors

There is a report Wednesday that the Mets will absolutely, positively not acquire Ben Zobrist from the A’s. That comes on the same day that a story claims the Mets and A’s have discussed specific players to trade. Reading these contradictory trade rumors can drive you up a wall. Whom to believe? My advice — just ignore them all for the next week.

Every beat reporter has “sources” who tell them one thing or another. Sometimes these sources leak wrong information to suit their agenda, and it gets reported as fact. And now in the age of Twitter, these things get “reported” without any confirmation. Just get it out there before the next guy does. If the reporter is wrong, he or she is wrong. No big deal.

It used to be a big deal, though, Writers actually attempted to report the facts, to get confirmation on things people told them. Not any more. That’s why we get so much nonsense reported as fact.

And that’s why we get all of these conflicting reports. The Mets are getting Zobrist or they’re not. The Mets are in on Justin Upton or they’re out. Starlin Castro? Troy Tulowitzki? Do we really want to live through that again.

So just ignore all of the trade rumors leading up to the July non-waiver deadline and wait until trades are actually made. It will save you much heartache.