Hey all, although nothing is officially confirmed yet, it's looking more and more likely Eric Bedard will be moving to Seattle and that a Johan Santana deal is most likely to be reached with the Mets. In the Bedard trade, Adam Jones (CF), the Mariners top prospect will go to the Orioles. There are a handful of other prospect's names being mentioned in various places but I've heard too many different reports to confirm any others. The Santana trade is looking more and more likely to be completed with the Mets due to the Mets willingness to trade a bulk of their top prospects. The other big suitors (Yankees, Red Sox) have all had major gripes with including more than 1 top prospect and have opted to preserve their farm system.
The Bedard trade.
The Santana update.
Once all is finalized, we'll discuss the implications (fantasy and otherwise) that these trades have on their respective players and teams.
Peace,
Paul
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6 comments:
Thanks for the update, Paul.
Here's my take on the Santana situation. If the Mets don't get him, they've had a horrendous offseason. I don't know why they didn't try to package Aaron Heilman (who is likely to be capable of starting but is being completely wasted as a set-up man) and Lastings Milledge with another decent caliber prospect for this deal. As it is, if they are lucky, they are going to end up trading Mike Pelfrey, Phil Humber and another quality prospect for Santana.
They also should have let Castillo walk and picked up the draft picks there, which would have at least let them put some sort of life into their heavily depleted farm system.
As far as the Yankees are concerned, it is absurd that they don't already have Santana. I don't care how good Joba Chamberlain was last year and I don't care how good Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy project to be. Not to mention Austin Jackson. Hughes will probably be great (but not definitely) and Chamberlain, despite a fantastic run last Fall is still largely unproven. Also, do not forget that the durability of young pitchers is not exactly well-known. I would be surprised if one of those three pitch 200 Innings this year and I'd be almost shocked if two of them do. It's not like the Yankees don't have the money to sign Santana long-term.
The Red Sox, in my opinion, should have been in the market for him as well. If it were last year, I could see where they'd be hesitant (after being seemingly burned on the Hanley Ramirez - Josh Beckett deal). I know people think that their rotation is solid, but when does a team ever have enough good starting pitching? Again, the Red Sox have the money to sign Santana, so it does not make sense (to me) that they are not in the running for him.
All good feedback Jesse. I guess it doesn't matter as much now that the trade is completed, but I feel the Mets trade of Milledge was short sighted. A year or so ago, the guy was untouchable and now he gets dealt for adequate but average players in Brian Schneider and Ryan Church. Big deal if he had conduct issues and released a rap track that degraded women (the Mets didn't get rid of Keith Hernandez did they?). However, more so than the Yankees or the Red Sox, the Mets needed a big pitcher and that is exactly what they got. Kudos to Omar and the Mets for acquiring the exact piece they sorely needed without losing their best hitting and pitching prospects.
Now I like the Milledge deal, yes it is rather short-sighted but it's becoming clear Minaya wants to assemble a team chemistry with no egos. So getting rid of Milledge for two players who will probably perform better then him next season (though in 2009 I doubt it), to help develop team chemistry was a good move now that the Santana move was completed.
In acquiring Santana, the Mets prove that they intend to go all the way this season, just the way they structured the move was very risky (perhaps pulling the trigger on the Milledge deal after acquiring Santana would have left less question marks).
Also remember 2006, when the Mets first acquired Pedro Martinez, a move that to me made no sense until Carlos Beltran was signed.
Many argue that acquiring Pedro Martinez was the reason Beltran went to the Mets, as Beltran wanted to go to a contender. That's a load of crap, as long as the Mets gave him the money he wanted, he would have came either way.
I mean, it has worked out in the end but if Minaya tends to try something like this again (doing secondary short-sighted moves before the big move) his luck might just run out...
I liked what the Red Sox have done this offseason (i.e. nothing). They are a solid team and had no reason to trade one of their best up-and-coming players (Ellsbury/Lester/Bucholz) for Santana. I think their rotation is close to dominant already.
I also don't think the Red Sox got burned on the Beckett deal. Beckett has been money in the postseason. Hanley has proven that he might just be a perrenial MVP candidate. Both teams got exactly what they wanted out of the deal, the Sox a World Championship, the Marlins, a star to build their team around (before they have to trade him in five years because of payroll issues of course).
I agree on the Yankee front though, I thought there was a close to 100% chance that Santana would end up a Yankee. But you know as well as I how annoying it was to watch the Yankees buy stars and trade prospects contstantly, Hank Steinbrenner wants to see what's going to happen with the young prospects. Kudos to him, especially in a big NY market.
Yeah the Castillo signing never made sense to me either. Minaya knew he was going to make some sort of big move involving big money and big prospects, the draft picks would have been more valuable. I would have liked Eckstein at 2nd (then again he's probably a Type A free agent as well). Anyway, I'm sure a low-cost option could have been found at second base.
Anthony -- thanks for the feedback.
Just want to make it known that I was not implying the Red Sox got burned on the Beckett deal -- I was saying that before the 2007 season, they might have felt that way. And, true, they might not need Santana, but he certainly wouldn't hurt them.
I agree with you as far as the Milledge trade not seeming quite so bad now that Minaya has acquired Santana, but if he had not been able to land the ace -- or if the Mets had traded Fernando Martinez instead of Carlos Gomez -- I think it would look much worse.
-wal
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