Mets Turn Down Ian Desmond Deal
A report Sunday night claims the Mets turned down a three-way deal that would have netted them shortstop Ian Desmond because the Mets did not want to give up two of their top prospects.
According to Fox Sports, the Mets would have sent Noah Syndergaard and another top prospect to the Rays, who would have dealt Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar to the Nationals, who then would have traded Desmond to the Mets. But the deal fell apart because the Mets refused to part with the prospects. Zobrist and Escobar were then traded to the A’s.
Desmond could have been the missing link to the Mets lineup. He has hit more than 20 home runs for the past three seasons, with his RBIs increasing every year to 91 in 2014. He is only 29 years old and will make $11 million in 2015.
However, Desmond will be a free agent after the season and will likely command upwards of $15 million per season, possibly more if he has an incredible year. The Mets just will not pay that, so Sandy Alderson probably thought Syndergaard and the other prospect were too high a price to pay for a one-year rental.
It is hard to argue with that logic. However, it would have been a sign that the Mets are going for it this year. But as we all know, bold moves are not the forte of Sandy Alderson.
Instead, we are left with a faulty lineup with the hope that superior young pitching will make up for the lack of run scoring. That seems to have been Alderson’s plan all along. It will be interesting to see if it works.
Yeah, too bad we couldn’t have traded Gee, Murphy, Fulmer and Plawecki for one year of Desmond. I can see why Alderson wouldn’t give up Syndergaard and Nimmo or Herrera, and why the other teams wouldn’t go for a package like the first one I listed.
Thank God they turned down this trade. Too high a price. Sandy is not as dumb as you think. Perhaps too patient, too cautious but that’s better than previous GM’s we’ve had who would give away guys like Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. Having said that, we’ve gotta find a way to unearth a SS without giving away the future, i.e. Noah.
Over on the other site that I frequent there is a theory that Ol’ Stand Pat uses the Thor excuse for not getting anything done because he knows that someone will say exactly what Nick said. This is not the only deal that didn’t happen, according to MLB Trade Rumors. The Rays also offered up Zobrist and Escobar, which they then traded to the A’s for John Jaso and a pair of low minors prospects (though one was a 2012 1st round choice). The deal that would have landed us Desmond would have started with the Rays first swapping him to the Nats, then turning to the Mets.
What I don’t get is why does it seem that all conversations begin and end with Thor?
If the Rays accepted a catcher who will not be used as a catcher (Jaso), a highly rated 20 year old SS who has done well but nothing above A+ ball, and what appears to be a weak hitting outfielder with a cool name (BOOG!), why could ol’ Stand Pat not done something to match that? The Rays are cheapskates like the Coupons and want low paid guys they can control for a few years. Couldn’t we have traded them LJ Mazilli instead of Robertson, someone like Kirk or Puello instead of Jaso, and maybe Nimmo, someone to give them that long-controlled young guy they like to have (like seed futures – the Rays ownership are a bunch of investment bankers, after all)?
I am also beginning to think that Stand Pat comes away from a deal he couldn’t work out, maybe took too much time, maybe he wanted to get off the phone so he could watch Top Gear, whatever, and turns to us and says “They wanted Thor”, which might have been the first thing the Rays (or whoever said) but not the last. This way he is still telling us the truth, but he is not telling us why he couldn’t get a deal done.
Considering the Rays