So there’s a replacement out there for Derek Jeter. His name is Didi Gregorius, who the Yankees traded for in a three way deal involving Shane Greene going to Detroit, and prospects Robbie Ray and Domingo Leyba. Gregorius is a good fit for the Yankees, as while he might not be a huge upgrade from the Derek Jeter of 2014, he’ll be a huge upgrade defensively. As for the Mets, well they were never in the running. Here’s why:
#Mets never really got involved in Gregorius derby. Told early that Syndergaard had to be in deal and that’s a non-starter for them.
— David Lennon (@DPLennon) December 5, 2014
I want you all to remember this tweet when you give Sandy Alderson shit about anything in life. Alderson, by no means, is perfect. But all the Mets really need is a general manager who isn’t quite stupid enough to trade his number one prospect for a defense first shortstop (on orders from the Chief Operating Officer). Alderson passes that test with flying colors. And quite frankly, it’s laughable that the Mets had to be in a deal for Gregorius, while all the Yankees had to give up was Shane Greene to get him. And these two prospects that Arizona got are good, but they’re not Syndergaard. This has been going on for years with the Mets. They get asked for the moon for mediocre players, then they get traded somewhere else for Ricky Ledee. It’s a regular riot.
Luckily, Alderson sees through the charade:
Was told the Mets weren’t interested enough in Gregorius to surrender even “lesser pitching” than Syndergaard.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) December 5, 2014
As the kids say: Oh, snap.
Hey, speaking of Alderson not being perfect comes the nugget that the Mets might pay some of Bartolo Colon’s salary to get him out of town and make room for Syndergaard. If the Mets do that, then the signing is a loss. Nothing to do with Colon’s performance, which was a pleasant surprise in stretches. But that two year contract was crafted, supposedly, to make it easier to trade him. Not even covering $2 million of that deal got a trade done back in July, and now the Mets will probably have to eat a lot more to trade Colon this winter, which I’m sure everyone surrounding the Mets thought would be easier. I thought so too at times … but teams don’t want to pay $11 million to a pitcher entering his age 42 season. Imagine that.
But in the grand scheme of things, I’ll take the trade off of rolling the dice for a slight nuisance of a contract for a GM that doesn’t trade his top prospect for Didi Gregorius. I’m a fair man in the end.
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