With right-hander Matt Harvey’s season over thanks to thoracic outlet syndrome, the reigning National League champion Mets are unsure if it makes sense to deal prospects for major league help at this year’s trade deadline, according to the New York Daily News’ John Harper. “There’s a lot of grey area right now,’’ a Mets source told Harper. Only two Mets prospects – shortstop Amed Rosario (No. 18) and first baseman Dominic Smith (No. 76) – cracked Baseball America’s just-released midseason top 100 prospects, notes Harper, who points out that the 47-40 team lacks blue-chip pipeline talent to trade. Harper’s also skeptical of the quality of starters set to move by the deadline, though he adds that the Wild Card-holding Mets might be willing to part with Smith for a capable rotation piece.
More on New York and four other NL cities:
- The Mets’ tough-it-out approach with injured young starters Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz is backfiring on them, while the Nationals are benefiting from a more guarded method, opines Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post. Harvey missed the entire 2014 season because of Tommy John surgery and then responded with a 238 2/3-inning workload last year, writes Boswell, who points out that Harvey and agent Scott Boras expected the Mets to shut him down late in the campaign. However, general manager Sandy Alderson had no such expectation and Harvey elected to keep pitching after dealing with backlash from fans and media. Meanwhile, the Nats have taken care of ace Stephen Strasburg, another Boras client, having shut him down early during their 98-win showing in 2012. They also sent Strasburg to the disabled list last month rather than take a chance with his upper back injury. Strasburg dominated before landing on the DL and has continued doing so since returning July 3. Moreover, while Strasburg might have been this year’s NL All-Star starter, he and the club made the “mutual decision” to keep him out of the game, per president and GM Mike Rizzo.
- Having won 12 of 15, the 46-42 Pirates now sit just 1.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. Thus, they’re approaching the trade deadline as buyers. “Our expectation is we are going to add,” GM Neal Huntington told Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Our mindset is we are going to add and put ourselves, for the first time in the franchise history, in position to make the postseason four consecutive years.” The Pirates’ resurgence has come without ace Gerrit Cole and catcher Francisco Cervelli, of which Huntington is cognizant. “We’ve gone through this toughest part of our schedule,” he said. “We’re going to get guys back healthy.”
- Cardinals GM John Mozeliak acknowledged that the idea of promoting Baseball America’s second-ranked prospect, Triple-A right-hander Alex Reyes, as a bullpen option is an enticing one. “So when you think about that type of tool set and putting it in the bullpen it’s certainly exciting,” Mozeliak told Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You’d be hard pressed to find that type of talent in the trade market and let alone (it would be a) zero acquisition cost.” On the other hand, the flame-throwing 21-year-old hasn’t totaled more than 116 1/3 frames in a season since joining the Cardinals organization in 2013, and they want him to accrue innings so he can help their rotation in 2017. “If all he ended up with is 75 innings what can we expect from him as a starter next year?” Mozeliak said. Reyes, who served a 50-game marijuana suspension to begin the season, has racked up 41 1/3 innings this year.
- Before the Diamondbacks traded Brad Ziegler to Boston on Saturday, they asked the pending free agent reliever if he’d be open to a contract extension. Ziegler said yes, but, “Next time I heard from them, they told me I was traded” (via ESPN’s Scott Lauber).
Great site. Been reading for years. Wanted to comment on this years trade deadline.
The Pirates have to get rid of the mid-range veterans blocking the young kids.
Go with youth and either win with it (like the Pittsburgh Penguins did this year) or more likely, lay the foundation to be legitimate contenders the next few years in the remaining months of this season.
Would the Giants want Vogelsong back in their bullpen after he gets healthy?
More relevant here….seems like the perfect fit for both teams is the Pirates trading Niese back to the Mets. I doubt Huntingdon would want much. Would the Mets have interest?
I agree Mets might be interested in Niese – it would be crazy if they traded him for Dilson Herrera
That won’t happen. They’re in love with that kid.
When are we gonna start hearing the “Terry Collins Ruins Pitchers” chatter? Or is that only for Dusty?
The Mets should have gone to the six man rotation last year when they were thinking about it. They over used their pitchers and are paying for it now. Harvey may never be the same again. He went from 0 inning in 14 to over 200 last year.
Is the injury he has now a result of the 200 innings he pitched last year? Did he injure his elbow again?
They did. Harvey didn’t pitch well with the extra rest and blamed the 6-man rotation.
How exactly did you come up with that?
Last year they went with a 6 man rotation for a bit and they skipped some pitchers’ starts.
But they also went all the way to the WS, which added to innings totals. What were they supposed to do, have Verrett, Colon, and Neise start over Harvey, Syndergaard, and Matz b/c of fears that their workloads might hurt them?
Gotta imagine that they kick the tires on Rich Hill pretty hard. They have a history of trades with the A’s
I doubt it. They need back-end rotation depth (unless something goes terribly wrong with Syndergaard and/or Matz). Hill is going to be expensive and heavily in demand.
Nope. Don’t have the prospects it will take. Other interested teams will outbid them easily
“Meanwhile, the Nats have taken care of ace Stephen Strasburg, another Boras client, having shut him down early during their 98-win showing in 2012.”
Shutting him down early also cost the Nats in the playoffs that year vs StL, and they haven’t been past the NLDS since. In the Mets case, they knew the risks, but felt a possible championship was in their grasps.
Exactly. The Mets hadn’t been to the playoffs in ten years, and the World Series in fifteen. You go for it when you get a chance.
Having strasburg wouldn’t guarantee a win though. David price, and to a lesser degree, Clayton kershaw have both struggled in the playoffs
It would’ve given them a much better chance than they had otherwise, even without the benefit of hindsight.
Much better, huh? What percent better?
That’s impossible to answer but certainly enough to risk using him.
Why don’t you throw out a percentage instead of being a jerk with your reply? I realize this would be extremely difficult given your demonstrated low skill set in engaging in civil discussions. The more I think about it, please just do us all a favor and shut up. Or better yet, just leave.
Was this Lanidrac guy trolling hard in another thread or something? He is simply saying a team would have had a better chance of winning had it played, rather than rested, one of it’s best players. Or are one or more of you guys calling him out being facetious? I’m just really confused (maybe the comments section has changed, I haven’t been on here much the past couple of months..)
I’ll shed some light on this since I was the first one to post about the 2012 NLDS. I even “researched the series” to make sure I was referencing the right series.
The facts are these:
Strasburg probably pitches Game 1, a game which the Nats won 3-2 behind Gio Gonzalez. This would have pushed a dominant Gio into Game 2. Instead, Game 2 was started by Jordan Zimmermann, who only pitched into the 4th inning of the game. An anonymous National was quoted at the time as saying he felt the Nationals would have been up 2-0 in the series if Strasburg had pitched, with the series heading to Washington afterwards.
Strasburg and Gonzalez were a combined 36-14 (.720 winning %) in 2012, and while that may or may not carry over to the postseason, you had to feel the Nationals would be able to win BOTH games Strasburg started in the series (Games 1 and 4? 1 and 5?).
If the Nationals could do it again knowing what they know now, they might have used Strasburg in the series. But would they have used him in the NLCS? World Series? One could argue possibly that pitching him that deep in the playoffs could have affected him the way it looks like it has affected Mets pitchers this year.
So, chances of winning 2012 NLDS vs StL with Strasburg? Over 50%? 70%? They started Edwin Jackson in Game 3 for crying out loud. Storen also blew some games, including Game 5.
Harper is a fool. The only blue chipper the Mets traded last year in their four significant deals was Fullmer. They don’t need stars. They probably need a reliever and a 4/5 starter, and those don’t cost top 100 guys (see recent trades for Norris and Ziegler).
Thought they needed some hitting also?
I think the Mets would take Sandoval for Harvey straight up. Mets get a long term replacement for Wright at 3b and Boston takes risk on Harvey ever being effective again. win win for everyone
Wright is still signed through 2020, so who sits on the bench during the times when they both manage to stay healthy?
Hahahahah
That’s ridiculous.
So 4ever has been gone for a long time. Why do we need a 5ever now? Stop being a troll, there’s literally no reason to reference a user that long gone.
Mets are more concerned with their offense and with their pitching… This guy has no idea what he is talking about. and shutting down Strasburg was exactly the wrong decision for the nationals a few years ago… How many times have they won the World Series?
Then again, Reyes would only be the 6th starter next year anyway, since Lynn will be back alongside Wainwright, Martinez, Wacha, and Leake, so it may not matter if he doesn’t get a whole bunch of innings this year.
This is the Cardinals we are talking about here. In other words injuries injuries injuries. Are you going to go all in that those 5 pitchers will be healthy and stay healthy all next year? Let’s face it other than martinez no other starter this year has earned their paychecks. The carsinals lassed om cueto for leake like geniuses. Waino mid 4 era, leake over 4, garcia alao over 4 and wacha as well. Plus wacha has looked like a bottom feeders number 5 starter since his shoulder injury. I feel bad for him, but barring a Renaissance healthy or not he needs to be replaced in the rotation. At least waino and leake show flashes of dominance. Wacha just shows a shell of the 2013 wacha flaka flame. Basically there is room for reyes and improvement. Plus who’s to say how Lynn performs when he returns?
The rotation is better than the numbers say. Once they shook out the early season rust, they’ve all been good to great since the beginning of June, including Wacha (3.34 June ERA, 3.86 so far in July). Besides, an ERA in the early to mid 4’s is still decent and something Reyes may not be able to beat himself in his first exposure in the Majors.
As for injuries, yes it is likely that one or more of them goes down this year or next, which is why you use Reyes in the bullpen until an opening is available (or use Lyons for a spot start or two in the case of a short absence), which should save enough innings on his arm that it won’t matter that he doesn’t get a lot of innings this year.
Man I can’t wait to see Reyes in the bigs, bet he’ll be exciting to watch
The Pirates will do nothing! They will add a spare part or two and hope to catch lightning in a bottle like they did win happ. They need to trade assets to get a three starter!
Or they could just promote their two top pitching prospects, which i believe they plan to do. Probably better immediate and certainly better long-term play than trading a ton of assets for like Michael Pineda or i don’t know what pitcher you expect to be available.
No, they don’t need to trade assets. That’s ridiculous. Good thing Neal Huntington is smarter than all the Yinzers in Pittsburgh. They all wanted to trade Starling Marte for rental Hunter Pence 4 years ago, figuring eh he’s just a prospect.