The winter meetings featured two main developments as far as I was concerned (not counting the David Wright news conference, which wasn't so much a development as it was a ceremony): Jason Bay signing with the Mariners (which the Mayans predicted) and Angel Pagan being given $40 million (which the Mayans responded with "WTF?") The convergence of these two events caused me to regress into a catatonic state which was treated with ground up potato chips injected straight into my veins. Needless to say, blogging wasn't an option.
Good thing I really didn't miss anything Mets-wise, as R.A. Dickey is still without a new contract, and Lucas Duda hasn't been exiled to outer space. But some interesting things have happened. First off, Zack Greinke has signed with the Dodgers, leaving the Texas Rangers very little viable option except to pursue a trade with R.A. Dickey. Next, the trade of Wil Myers and three other prospects to the Rays for James Shields and Wade Davis. This ends my dream of Myers coming to the Mets to join Zack Wheeler. But it also set off a firestorm wondering why Sandy Alderson couldn't pull off this deal. Hell, we knew that Dayton Moore could be enticed to give up Myers. We should have expected Moore to give up Myers, and Jake Odorizzi in the same deal. So why couldn't the Mets do this?
Well, because the Royals wanted Shields. And that's not Sandy Alderson's fault. The Royals obviously want to win this season, and Shields is under the Royals' control for two prime seasons. If the Mets were to, say, offer Dickey and Jon Niese, Moore would have been asked to take two leaps of faith: one being that Dickey could keep up his production at age 39, and that Niese would get to that next level. Big Game James is already at that next level, so if it was a choice between Moore choosing Dickey/Niese or Shields/Davis, I can't even argue Moore's decision. And I couldn't argue that the Mets just don't have the depth to trade two starting pitchers.
(Now if you're arguing that Moore shouldn't have made this trade at all, that's a different discussion. We all knew that Myers for Shields was a possibility. What Andrew Friedman basically did was add a seperate deal trading Davis for Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Patrick Leonard.It seems like an awful lot for a guy who while he had his best season in 2012, it was as a reliever.)
So what does this have to do with the Mets? It basically means that if the Mets are going to trade Dickey, their options are dwindling. It's either the Rangers for a package centering around Mike Olt, or to Toronto for catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud. I don't think the Jays would trade d'Arnaud. And I'm not sure getting Mike Olt and switching him to the outfield (where he has played six games in his life) is the prudent thing to do. So I'm not sure that trade involving Dickey is going to happen. And that's more than okay. But with the Mets being stingy in their negotiations with Dickey, it's a possibility that this isn't going to happen either … which means that the Mets could very well go into next season with Dickey in his walk year at the bargain rate of $5 million.
And you wonder why Mets fans are upset. If there's one thing that upsets me more than the multitude of things that upset me, it's when the Mets stick themselves in neutral. Say what you want about the trade the Royals just made (and I think they gave up a little too much), but at least it represents a direction. Say what you want about the Rays giving up more major league talent, they have a plan. The Mets? I'm sure Sandy Alderson is biding his time and waiting for the right deal to come along … as he absolutely should. But why does the Dickey situation preclude the Mets from doing anything else with the roster? They have no outfield. They're threatening to downgrade the catching position, something I didn't think was possible. The bullpen needs help. And yet they seem to be paralyzed, for whatever reason. It isn't time to panic yet, but recent history suggests that there isn't going to be the significant change that this team still needs.
It's like this organization is getting potato chips injected into its veins.
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