10:34am: Sherman says Minaya is not high on Vazquez as he once was. He heard the Mets might require the White Sox take Castillo’s contract, which would probably be a dealbreaker.
TUESDAY, 8:16am: Joel Sherman and Mike Puma of the New York Post talked to a Mets official who called the Vazquez idea a "pipe dream." It’s difficult to see the White Sox taking Luis Castillo’s contract back in a trade; Vazquez’s value is not that low.
MONDAY: According to Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune, the Mets are interested in White Sox pitcher Javier Vazquez. Van Dyck implies that the Sox could move top prospect Aaron Poreda into the rotation to replace him.
Vazquez has a connection to Omar Minaya, who traded him to the Yankees in December of 2003 as the Expos’ GM. Vazquez is owed $23MM for 2009-10. He’d give the Mets a pretty deep rotation. Van Dyck doesn’t believe it’d take much if the Mets paid all of his salary. Aaron Heilman could be a start.
