The Mets offered one of Curtis Granderson or Jay Bruce to the Orioles in exchange for “a high-end reliever,” ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin reports, though talks didn’t go anywhere. Based on that description, one would think the Mets were asking about Brad Brach, Mychal Givens or maybe even ace closer Zach Britton. While the O’s are indeed looking for right field help, it’s understandable why they didn’t accept that offer. Here’s more from around the NL East…
- The Marlins will make a strong push for Aroldis Chapman, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports (Twitter links). Miami is also looking at Kenley Jansen (and is thought to be willing to make him a very big offer), though the team would prefer to keep the 14th overall pick in next year’s draft, whereas Chapman can be signed without draft compensation. The Marlins are open to a number of bullpen options, though they’re prioritizing signing a reliever over trading for relief help.
- Some in the Nationals organization question Joe Ross’ toughness, MASNsports.com’s Pete Kerzel writes, due to the amount of recovery time Ross needed to return from a shoulder injury last year. Ross was posting strong numbers in the Nats rotation before inflammation in his throwing shoulder sidelined him from July 2 to September 18. Ross also has his supporters in the front office and in general, the Nationals don’t want to trade him, though he is one of several potential trade chips who could be included as part of a package for one of Washington’s multiple high-end trade targets.
- The Braves have been linked to the likes of Chris Sale and Chris Archer in trade rumors, though while GM John Coppolella admits to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “we want to add an ace,” this desire is “a want, not a need. So if a great opportunity comes along, we’ll be ready to strike. But we don’t need to force the issue.” O’Brien speculates that Sale might be the only pitcher the Braves would be willing to give up a package of young players and prospects to land. Atlanta has already bolstered its rotation by adding Jaime Garcia, Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey this winter, and the team is also looking to add another veteran on a minor league deal to compete with Mike Foltynewicz, Josh Collmenter and others for the fifth spot.
- In other division news from earlier today on MLBTR, the Phillies are close to a deal with Joaquin Benoit and we collected more items from Citi Field in an edition of Mets Notes.
In other words, the braves will settle for less like they always do!
They have added 3 SP in an absurdly thin SP market via FA and trade… being that the rotation is being led by Teheran they should have a solid rotation with or without adding another ace. I can picture them being like the Marlins last year where they can surprise people and hang around in it, which would be saying a lot coming from where they were at last year. Not sure I’d pick the Braves approach to SP this offseason as something to call out is what I’m getting at.
I guarantee you as soon as a team trades for him he’s gonna need tommy john lol
So Joe Ross isn’t tough enough because he didn’t hurry back from a shoulder injury?
… and it goes the other way. Joe Ross rushed back and blew out his shoulder. Silly guy thought he was tough.
I wait till it’s good and ready. Most teams would like him in their system.
Good thing Baltimore has a shrewd GM in Duquette. he’s not about to pay the ancient granderson 15m to be no better than the just left Alverez, neither of which can hit lefties and both massive K machines. bruce needing to prove he can hit at all before giving up true value and pay 7 figures.
mets need to sign a FA reliever they want a setup guy, or try to get one from someone more gullable.. They are still around, but not any left in the AL East.
I’m sure Alderson didn’t think it would be easy. I hope he gets lucky in his efforts to dump Bruce.
According to BB-REF, Granderson was worth about 3 times as much as Alvarez last year. His .OPS against lefties was 50 points higher than Alvarez’s last year. He can still field a position, which Alvarez cannot.
I’m not saying Granderson is worth Britton (he certainly is not), but he’s still a valuable player, and is a lot better than Alvarez despite being older.
High end reliever for 1 year of Jay Bruce? I was thinking a quad A reliever would be fair just to take on the contract.
Wow, do the Mets really expect to get any real value out of any of those two outfielders. If they were any good the mets wouldn’t be trying to trade them. Duquette probably laughed soo hard then hung up in a heartbeat.
Yeah if I was Duquette, not sure if I would even return that email or voice mail.
GMs must love this, low balling a money ball man!
Thankfully as a Mets fan I can say that the Braves decided to go in the wrong direction and will be less of a threat in 2017..
Colon will show his age, Garcia was the odd man out in a so-so Cards rotation, and Dickey is washed up as proven by the fact he didn’t make the Jays 25 man post season roster.
Teheran is a good pitcher but the rest of the rotation is still weak.
If you haven’t watched the Mets religiously than you don’t know what granderson brings to the table. He gets on base while also hitting 30hr. His RBI total reflect an anemic Mets lineup on top of batting leadoff majority of his Mets tenure. He is a TOP human being and clubhouse leader too. Along with all of that, the Mets would surely pick up some of his contract in sure. I look at that trade possibility, and not watching the oriole’s religiously I feel that it’s not enough (minus Britton of course). It’s all perspective in a deal like this. It’s a conversation opener and I’m excited to see where it goes. And as for Mets trading him even though he is good. It’s because the Mets have five outfielders, two/three of which play right field. At least one has to go.
Frank, Like you I’m a mets fan and your spot on with your comment about Curtis Granderson! The Orioles are interested in him for the reasons you mentioned. You are a knowledgeable fan of our team!
Agreed. There are good reasons why multiple teams have inquired about Granderson. He is old, but he is in great shape and has put up solid numbers. 30HR guys are hard to come by and power will continue to play in MLB. His OBP is good enough (high walk total) to add some value. He plays decent defense…just don’t expect him to throw a guy out….from anywhere.
Braves are smart – taking the cubbie rebuild approach. Sign a bunch of short term veteran deals and flip them at the deadline for more prospects.
I wish we could continue to take the Cubbie approach and find a seasoned college hitter in the top part of the draft that becomes MVP in less than a half decade.
At least duquette didn’t accept that trade. An aging vet who can’t hit lefties, has lost a lot of speed and strike out a lot, for one of our top relievers. No thanks
would not be surprised to see the A’s give up Madison for Bruce or Granderson with the intention on flipping them at the deadline