Before the deadline, the Rockies seemingly took the Mets’ bid to acquire Troy Tulowitzki or Carlos Gonzalez at least somewhat seriously, with GM Dan O’Dowd and other top evaluators scouting the Mets’ minor leaguers in person, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes. The Rockies were especially interested in Noah Syndergaard, but they also considered Rafael Montero, Jacob deGrom, Matt den Dekker, Ruben Tejada and Matt Reynolds. Talks between the two teams didn’t get far, but they might lay the groundwork for future discussions. Here are more notes from the East divisions.
- Former Red Sox pitcher John Lackey is “happy where he is now,” guesses Sox GM Ben Cherington in an interview with Dennis & Callahan at WEEI. Cherington says that Lackey’s unusual contract, which allows his team to pay him the league minimum salary next year, enabled the Red Sox to get the value they did, picking up Allen Craig and Joe Kelly from the Cardinals. “[W]e wouldn’t have traded both [Jon] Lester and Lackey without getting a) major league talent back and b) at least one major league starter back,” says Cherington. “That was sort of the standard.”
- Closer David Robertson says he might have given the Yankees a discount last winter if they had signed him to an extension, George A. King of the New York Post reports. Now, he says, he’ll likely wait to become a free agent this offseason. “It would have to be a legit offer at this point of the year,” he says. Robertson has pitched brilliantly while replacing Mariano Rivera at closer, posting a 2.68 ERA in 43 2/3 innings this year, with 14.6 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. King notes that the Yankees will probably extend Robertson a qualifying offer this fall.
“The value they did.” Unless Joe Kelly can pitch like a number 2 or solid number three there’s not a whole lot of value there. I’d be surprised if Craig ever regains his form.
You’ve been ranting about the Johnny Gomes trades for a week now lol
This has nothing to do with Gomes! 😛 But your username is adorable so it’s okay.
lol its like the Nick Punto trade of 2012, this year we had the Johnny Gomes Trades of 2014
Jonny Gomes is actually a good piece 😛 He hits lefties better than Yoenis Cespedes hits anything.
The most surprising thing about 2013 was winning without Punto’s bat and veteran leadership in the line-up day in and day out.
Right but even if he pitches like a four and you have him reasonable priced until the end of 2018, that has to be worth more than one season of John Lackey at the ML minimum.
That said i don’t think we have enough evidence to prove that Craig is done.
Depends on how close we are to contention next year.
If it comes down to Joe Kelly being the linchpin that either propels us into the playoffs or prevents us from making the playoffs I will be concerned. Also from what I have seen of Kelly this year and in the past, I think he could be a servicable number 3. And you can’t base the success of this trade on next year, because Kelly will still be under team control for the following three years.
Kelly is your typical #5 starter. Only has one good pitch, throws up some good games and some terrible ones. There’s really not that much upside with Joe Kelly. He will not be in the rotation the next Red Sox playoff team.
He’s 26 years old and has never thrown 200 innings in a season. I think I’ll wait before writing him off completely. He was in your rotation in the World Series. He pitched pretty well as I recall.
That’s what I hate about Yankees management, they don’t like giving extensions to players before they hit free agency. Why not try and sign a guy who’s a Top 10 reliever in baseball the past couple of seasons to a discounted contract. He’s a proven set up who’s starting to show he’s an elite closer. I know people are gonna say they would let him go and let Betances be closer, but wouldn’t it be better to have both at the end of the game. Elite relief pitchers are a big commodity, as evidence by teams like the Angels and Tigers having to give up their top prospects to acquire one. Now instead of locking down an elite arm for a discount now they have to grossly overpay for him or even potentially lose him to free agency, and that is very frustrating as a Yankees fan.
Agreed, I was so happy when they gave Gardner an extension because it’s paying off. Hoping they end up bringing Robertson back because him and Betances have been lethal as their 8th and 9th
Chances are Robertson might be the highest paid reliever yet even if he accepts a qualifying offer which the Yankees should grant him.
Elite relievers also fall apart at alarming rates. Very few long term deals for relievers have worked out.
Robertson stopped throwing his 12-6 CB didnt he? It seems like he’s giving more hits and BBs than before when he was a set up.
No he didn’t stop throwing his curveball. Also, another Yankees set-up man’s hits and walks started going up his first year of closing, and his name is Mariano Rivera. Now I’m not comparing D-Rob to Mo, but Mo had a worse first year of closing than Robertson has, and he turned out great. Also, difference with Robertson and the K-Rod/Papelbon’s of the world is that he doesn’t really on his velocity, Robertson is all about his deception. He throws an above average cutter which looks faster because of his release and also has a knockout curve. I don’t expect him to be Mo, that’s not fair to Robertson, but he’s proven he’s the right man for the job and deserves to be paid.
Betances could probably handle closing if need be. It’s nice to have the pair of shutdown power arms back there but I don’t know if the Yankees want to go four years with Robertson.
Kelly got off to a nice start last night. Good stuff. I could easily see the Red Sox adding 2 new starters (trade/FA) and Kelly slotting in at #3
If the Mets and the Red Sox wanted to make a deal this offseason, which players match up best between Yoenis Cespedes, Allen Craig, Daniel Murphy, and David Wright? Is Cespedes for Wright or Craig for Murphy pretty even as a straight up trade or would the Mets or the Red Sox have to add something to sweeten the deal?
Does Bartolo Colon have any value for the Red Sox? Does Will Middlebrooks have any value for the Mets as a platoon partner for Lucas Duda? How about Shane Victorino? Considering Colon’s age and Victorino’s injury history, they seem to have just enough question marks on both sides to be a fair swap, which would make it less necessary for the Red Sox to trade either Cespedes or Craig, even though either Murphy or Wright would be a significant upgrade at 3B over Middlebrooks.
Assuming that the Red Sox sign James Shields this offseason to be their ace, Clay Buchholz is their #2, and Joe Kelly is their #3, the Red Sox could do worse than have Colon as a #4. Or is he better than Kelly? This leaves them a lot of options with the rest of their young pitchers.
mets would be dumb not to extend murphy or sign him as FA. and wright still has a few years left on his contract so he’s not getting traded
Rockies were interested in Ruben Tejada, why?
Unfortunately i think the Yankees are gonna let Robertson walk and i think that is a huge mistake. sign him to an extension now. he has definitely proved he can handle the role.
I’d give the Rockies every player mentioned except deGrom for Tulo
unless the Rockies eat A LOT of salary why would the Mets give up future stars for a $129 million liability?