Interesting line from Lisa Kennelly of the Newark Star-Ledger today:
The Mets, however, prefer Baltimore’s Erik Bedard over Santana, since he wouldn’t require the same lucrative extension as part of the deal.
The Mets have an option the Red Sox and Yankees probably don’t – they might be able to acquire Erik Bedard for a price similar to what it would take to get Johan Santana. It makes complete sense that Bedard would be more attractive – it’s two years of him versus one of Santana. Even if Santana is a slightly better/more durable pitcher, two years easily outweighs that. Jon Heyman said on December 3rd that the Mets had offered Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, and Aaron Heilman for Bedard, which "barely drew a response from Baltimore."
The Mets’ interest in Bedard goes back for at least a few months; it’s probably just been on the backburner. The Red Sox and Yankees have expressed interest, but it was said that Peter Angelos didn’t want to trade Bedard within the division.
