Mets Don’t Want Castillo
Though he and others have suggested a good fit, today Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that the Mets are not interested in Pirate utility man Jose Castillo. Castillo recently requested a trade.
When you think about it, why would they be interested? Castillo hasn’t done anything in the Majors outside of May 2006, and he may have a bit of an attitude problem. Damion Easley, on the other hand, has five homers in 56 ABs. True, he won’t slug .571 all year, but he’s every bit as good as Castillo and he’s already on the team. The Mets don’t need a second baseman. They have the best offense in the National League. I’m not sure the Mets need much of anything.
Jose Castillo Requests Trade
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 26 year-old second baseman Jose Castillo had his agent ask the Pirates for a trade. Devan Kovacevic says Castillo was widely available this winter but generated little interest. He names the Mets as a possible suitor given Jose Valentin‘s injury.
As I mentioned in my Castillo Let’s Make A Deal post, outside of a single month (May ’06), Castillo hasn’t really done anything to justify a starting job. He skipped Triple A, and might benefit from playing every day at that level.
Mets Sign Brian Lawrence
UPDATE: Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post spoke to Lawrence’s agent, and he’s signed with the Mets. Omar is just stockpiling arms.
Is it just me, or has there been a ton of interest in Brian Lawrence, dating back to this offseason? He was admittedly a decent innings eater for the Padres for four years, but he missed all of ’06 and couldn’t crack the Rockies’ rotation.
Nonetheless, the Tigers have offered Lawrence a Triple A contract. I suppose there’s nothing to lose here except a million bucks or so. The Tigers have received excellent work from their front three starters, but are rightfully concerned about Chad Durbin and Mike Maroth eating up 40% of the starts until Kenny Rogers returns.
UPDATE: The Detroit Free Press says Lawrence likely won’t sign with the Tigesrs.
The Baltimore Sun says Lawrence’s name has come up within the Orioles’ front office; they’re currently running with both Jeremy Guthrie and Brian Burres in the rotation. That was not the plan. Lawrence might not be any better than those two, but it makes sense to stockpile some arms when Steve Trachsel is your third starter.
UPDATE: According to the Washington Post, the O’s contacted Lawrence’s agent on Saturday.
Also, the Denver Post lists the Padres, Mets, and Mariners as other possible suitors. Perhaps we can add the Cardinals to that list in the wake of the news about Chris Carpenter‘s surgery.
Mets Shopping For A Second Baseman?
According to Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune, the Mets are shopping for a second baseman with Jose Valentin expected to be out two months with a partially torn ACL. Valentin would like to return in four or five weeks for the sake of his contract incentives. However, Rick Wilton of Baseball Injury Report notes that the ligament can’t heal in six weeks and Valentin will likely play at less than 100% for the rest of the season. Who might be on the radar if the Mets are looking for more certainty?
With the Mets sporting at least a top-three NL offense (boy the NL East can really hit) Omar Minaya probably doesn’t need to make a major move here. He could try to pluck a struggling Tadahito Iguchi from the White Sox. Iguchi will reach free agency after this season and is sitting at .241/.351/.380. His power stroke should come around.
You may recall the Mets’ strong attraction to Luis Castillo. Should the Twins deem Alexi Casilla ready for full-time duty, they could shop Castillo in hopes of bringing in a good prospect before the veteran walks after this season. Additionally, the Mets considered signing Mark Grudzielanek in the winter of 2005-06. There’s no good reason for the Royals to hang onto him.
Baseball Prospectus’s John Perrotto lends another name to the discussion – he considers the Pirates’ Jose Castillo a possibility for Omar Minay. Perrotto would know; he’s the team’s beat writer for the Beaver County Times.
Mets Trolling For Pitching
Like many teams, the Mets could use another starting pitcher. I like the depth Omar Minaya came in with, but another rehab project or two wouldn’t hurt. You have to respect this approach to building a rotation as opposed to just signing Barry Zito.
David Lennon of Newsday says that Minaya is indeed working the phones, looking for a deal similar to last year’s Orlando Hernandez acquisition. A minor league contract for Brian Lawrence is one option. What other starters might Minaya gamble on?
The Indians are one club with an apparent surplus of starters, once the main guys are healthy at the same time. The price might be too high for Fausto Carmona, though Paul Byrd could be had if salaries can be worked out. Byrd has looked decent in the early going, but he’s earning $7MM. Byrd made 55 relief appearances for the Mets back in 1995-96.
If for nothing else than the confusion angle, MInaya could consider another O. Perez (Odalis of the Royals). The Dodgers are already paying a large chunk of Perez’s $7.75MM salary. A little Rick Peterson tutoring could do him some good.
It wouldn’t be a minor deal, but the White Sox could start offering up Jose Contreras, Jon Garland, and Mark Buehrle in coming months. Greg Couch of the Sun-Times thinks a fire sale is in order.
The Angels could spare a Dustin Moseley, but will probably hang on to Joe Saunders for depth. It seems like the A’s are willing to trade anyone in the right deal. The Brewers go seven-deep with starting pitchers. The Cubs are about ready to cast off Wade Miller. And the Rockies are still stuck with Josh Fogg and Byung-Hyun Kim.
I’m interested to see who Minaya comes up with here; he’s usually pretty clever when bargain-hunting.
The Salt of New York?
As far as Retrosheet and I can tell, the last time the Mets and Braves hooked up for a trade was November 25, 1996, when the Mets sent Paul Byrd and a PTBNL (the inestimable Andy Zwirchitz) to the Braves for Greg McMichael. Over the years John Schuerholz has preferred to trade with Milwaukee, Kansas City or Oakland over the Mets.
But with a friendly new GM in Omar Minaya and a player with all the promise and last name of Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Salt-uh-la-ma-chee-a) on the board, anything is possible. As was pointed out in this space a week ago, the young catcher is a good fit with the Detroit Tigers. But with the Braves’ obvious dilemma of having one good young catcher too many, combined with the recent freak double-injury of Brian McCann and Brayan Peña forcing the Braves to give the youngster a major league debut for his 22nd birthday, other catching-starved organizations are bound to stand up and take notice.
The Mets’ 2008 catching situation was the subject of this MLBTR post. Without repeating what was said there, I’ll add that the Mets committed a big blunder by keeping single-A catcher Jesús Flores off their 40-man roster, allowing him to be taken by the Washington Nationals in the Rule 5 draft. While he is seriously overmatched in the big leagues, he could still develop into a solid, power-hitting backstop.
What, then, would it take for the Mets to acquire Salty? A Mets/Braves trade wouldn’t happen this year, so we shouldn’t be talking about improving the Braves’ 2007 rotation, at least not in this context. But would Philip Humber be of interest? The Braves also lack a solid left fielder, and will likely be short a center fielder come 2008. The Mets have three great prospects for these positions in Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martínez. Finally, at first base the Mets could offer Mike Carp, who was so impressive this spring that he spent most of it with the big league Mets before being sent to AA-Binghamton.
If it took both Humber and Milledge to do it for the Mets, I think it would be worth it.
John Peterson writes for the Mets blog Blastings! Thrilledge.
The Eventually Expendable Julian Tavarez
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe speculates that when Jon Lester finishes a satisfactory stint at Tripe A Pawtucket, it will be necessary to move a Red Sox pitcher either through waivers or a trade. "The affected pitchers could be Julian Tavarez, Joel Piñeiro, J.C. Romero, or Kyle Snyder… Tavarez would have value to several teams, particularly National League clubs looking for a middle reliever or a starter. The Mets, Cardinals, Phillies, Rockies, Marlins, and Reds would all be candidates."
I am with Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com, who cites December 2005 pieces from the New York Daily News and the New Jersey Star-Ledger that discussed the Mets’ negotiations with Tavarez when he was a free agent. Just because the Mets were once interested, does not mean they still are.
However, with Aaron Heilman struggling, it’s likely that Omar Minaya (or some other GM) might dream of restoring the 34-year old Tavarez to his 1995, 2000 and 2003-2005 form. His biggest problem right now is that he has been starting, a role he is definitely not suited for.
By John Peterson
MetsBlog Talk Radio
Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog has started up a web/podcast called MetsBlog Talk Radio. Matthew’s already got some quality guests lined up, including Buster Olney. Check out the show tonight at 6:00 eastern/5:00 central. And if you miss it, you can download it from Itunes.
Also, some reading material: Kevin Alderman chats with John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle. Lopez seems Morgan Ensberg and Luke Scott as some trade candidates later this year.
And you have to check out Cole Hamels Facts (CHF). Sample fact: "Cole Hamels refers to himself in the fourth person."
Tim Brown’s Latest
I hadn’t really noticed the MLB Experts Blog from Tim Brown and Jeff Passan until recently. Yahoo’s main baseball guys have some quality rumors, and I’ve been missing out. Let’s catch up by digging through some recent posts:
- Seems like mostly educated speculation, but Brown named Shawn Green as a player the Angels might be able to acquire to fill the void with Howie Kendrick out. However, Lastings Milledge will miss most of May, so that Green may no longer be available.
- The Tigers, worried about their fourth and fifth starters, are already on the lookout for starting pitching help.
- The Indians are looking to acquire a closer, though I think they have some decent internal options. The Tribe isn’t looking to spend big bucks so it would have to be a bargain type guy.
- If Jeff Weaver continues to bomb, could the Mariners trade him back to St. Louis?
Who’s Catching For Mets In ’08?
Paul Lo Duca‘s contract is up after this season. As you may recall, Lo Duca’s reps brought up the idea of an extension at the Winter Meetings in January, but the Mets didn’t want to discuss it yet. Lo Duca, 35, makes $6.25MM this season.
We know catchers don’t age well; there’s a decent chance Lo Duca tanks in 2008 (if not this year). PECOTA might throw him another $5-6MM for ’08, but that’s about it. The Mets are right to hesitate.
Assuming they cut him loose, they could look internally for their new backstop. Ramon Castro might be able to start, or at least serve in a platoon. Castro, 31, has hit a respectable .247/.328/.440 with 15 HR as a Met in 352 ABs. But while Lo Duca has gotten a lot of grief in the New York papers, it’s Castro with the true blemish on his record. It didn’t stop the Mets from signing him initially though; such offenses are often ignored by teams.
Interestingly, Castro could back up Ivan Rodriguez for a second time if the Mets sign him this offseason. Castro was behind Pudge in ’03 for the Marlins. Earlier this week, though, I predicted that the Tigers will exercise Pudge’s $13MM option, if not extend him even further.
The two legitimate free agent options for the Mets appear to be Michael Barrett and Jorge Posada. Barrett is five years younger, and could post his best season in 2007. Plus, the Cubs haven’t really made any effort to extend his contract. Jason Kendall will be out there as well, and he’d probably take a shorter-term deal.