After the dust has settled a little from the Marlins dismantling their team, the guys on MLBN radio this morning were discussing whether other teams could pull off this type of deal without the general venom all over baseball that resulted from this trade. Example: how the Red Sox were able to cast off about $250 Million in payroll and it was considered a good move by the Sox.
I got to thinking what would be the reaction in Mets land and in baseball in general if we woke up tomorrow morning and Wright (Reyes), Dickey (Johnson), Johan (Mark Buehrle), Jordany (Emilio Bonifacio), and Frank Francisco (John Buck, yes this comparison works because they are both overpaid and worthless) were traded to the Angels for Mark Trumbo (Escobar), Bobby Wilson (Mathis) and 5 prospects?
The Mets instantly would have almost 60 Million off of this year’s payroll but what would the fan reaction and media reaction be in the media capital of the world?
I guess this one is just about as fun as a question my friend and I had the other day of what would happen if Texas actually did try to secede?
Have fun.
20 comments
Prismo
11/15/2012-10:34am at 10:34 am (UTC -4)
If the Mets were going to do this they should’ve done it 2 years ago. Sucking for several years and THEN doing a fire sale screams “long-term mediocrity” to me.
Also, I think Johan is un-tradeable unless the Mets pick up a substantial portion of his salary, which would defeat the entire purpose of the trade. I think Jordany’s value is pretty low.
Also, the free agent market sucks. What are the Mets going to do with $70MM to spend this offseason? Sign Hamilton to a contract worse than Wright’s will be? Overpay Greinke so he comes to a city he really doesn’t want to play in? Or just field a $40MM team in NY and expect more than 10,000 fans to show up per game.
Also, Texas has my permission to secede. Maybe something would actually get done in the government if there were less….ahhh nevermind. How ’bout them Mets.
TRS86
11/15/2012-10:42am at 10:42 am (UTC -4)
Prismo, I agree with most of what you said. I think my point though isn’t should they do it but what would the reaction be?
Stickguy
11/15/2012-11:04am at 11:04 am (UTC -4)
I think it would be OK for the mets actually. Considering they are coming off a stretch of sustained crapitude, with nothing but more in sight if they quadruple down on the same 2012 team, there will be a lot of people that come out in support of a radical makeover.
and in Miami, I still think a huge part of the uproar is not what they did, but the circumstances that led up to it.
Boston, I honestly forget what the hell they got back, but there were pieces in that deal that the fans wanted gone big time, as in bay level. Plus, they still have talent on board, and are obviously considered to be committed to reinvesting quickly (they already signed Ortiz, though that likely was a fan appeasement move as much as anything).
I look at it as they sacrificed A Gon to get rid of the rest of the trash, and the fans will live with it because they expect them to sign some other player to replace him.
Prismo
11/15/2012-11:13am at 11:13 am (UTC -4)
I agree Stick. The Boston trade was fine because they were actually attempting to reload the team and immediately compete again. The Marlins were just dumping payroll to dump it. The Red Sox are rumored for just about every big free agent this offseason. The Marlins are probably competing with the Mets for $1MM catchers.
Prismo
11/15/2012-11:16am at 11:16 am (UTC -4)
Not to mention the Red Sox payroll is still probably at least $75 or $80MM BEFORE signing any free agents.
Prismo
11/15/2012-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
Okay fair enough. I think the reaction would be extremely negative if it was an ACTUAL fire sale. So Niese would be gone too, maybe even Ike and/or Murphy and/or Tejada. That’s basically what the Marlins are attempting to do. I think game attendance would drop a TON until the Wilpons sold the team.
Mr North Jersey
11/15/2012-10:46am at 10:46 am (UTC -4)
Considering some of the reactions I have read when rumors of just trading a Niese or a Davis have come up in the past I would guess that a Marlins type trade now, 2 years ago or whenever regardless of who the GM is at the time would have the National Guard on alert around Citi Field for fears of an uprising.
Stickguy
11/15/2012-11:06am at 11:06 am (UTC -4)
considering where some of the more vocal whining comes from, that to me is a perfect reason to do it!
and of course, also the only real benefit of signing Wright to a lifetime deal, watching some of his biggest “fans” blow aneurysms.
Stickguy
11/15/2012-10:59am at 10:59 am (UTC -4)
well damned real, I should have worked faster. I have been formulating a post about where we would be right now if the Mets had done this back in 2009, when the shat was splattering the fan, and it was obvious that the near term financial future was a mess.
Still have to look up who was where wen, but this basically would have been, what if they had traded Wright, Reyes, kRod, Johan, Beltran for a boat load of younger guys (and of course cheaper), and hugely, never got into bed with Bay.
Can’t remember without looking who came when, but it would be a combination of trading high and not going for the big FA windfall.
hindsight is a beautiful thing of course.
srt
11/15/2012-11:49am at 11:49 am (UTC -4)
2009 or 2010 actually would have made sense.
But IMO, not 2013. We’ve finally got some young talent starting to be realized up here at the major league level. That and do we really have all that much talent to be shedding?
I agree with others that Johan is virtually untradeable.
That really only leaves Wright and Dickey.
I think it would be foolish to trade Ike and especially Niese – given Niese’s team friendly contract for the next 5 years.
Stickguy
11/15/2012-12:04pm at 12:04 pm (UTC -4)
wright and dickey are also in a different category than the marlins guys. They are both going into their last year before FA, so basically are 1 year rentals.
TRS86
11/15/2012-12:08pm at 12:08 pm (UTC -4)
So are Johnson and Buck and I think Escobar has options.
That was why I matched RA and Johnson. Wright and Reyes? OK Angels get a signing window. You happy now? lol
Stickguy
11/15/2012-12:10pm at 12:10 pm (UTC -4)
I would be happier if the Mets actually did it.
kingman 26
11/15/2012-11:17am at 11:17 am (UTC -4)
Interesting thought.
And if Texas secedes, I sure hope they take a few other states with them!
TX
11/15/2012-11:46am at 11:46 am (UTC -4)
If Texas did seceded, you best by land in New Orleans or Alabama, and those places would become the gateway to the central states for all large cargo. I also think you’d see a fence get put up on Mexico’s side ASAP. That’s how they think. Just sayin…
And they won’t secede. There is so much that woud need to go into itm like creating a military, etc. etc., though just about eveyone is already armed there, so that wouldn’t be TOO hard.
Anyway, on to the firesale… If it happened when the whole Madoff thing happened, there would be backlash, but nothing as severe as the Marlins.
If the firesale happened now, I think there would be even less backlash. Yes, the lunatic fringe would jump and scream, but the thought that this thing wasn’t working, let’s blow it up would be accepted. It would all depend on what is done with that 60 million in flexibility, where as we know FLA isn’t spending much if any of their flexibility.
TRS86
11/15/2012-12:10pm at 12:10 pm (UTC -4)
It’s funny, it seems as though the lunatic fringe is actually pro trading Wright and Dickey. More likely just because they are still angry about Reyes. Seems like Mets fans more and more are becoming divided by the stupidest of things.
TX
11/15/2012-2:10pm at 2:10 pm (UTC -4)
They are just angry in general. The players aren’t the nationality they want, the GM isn’t the old GM, the money shouldn’t be an issue, every trade/signing should be a home run, etc. etc. The only thing that really ticks me off is the race card, as that is just infuriating. I’d like to think this isn’t the 1940′s…
Stickguy
11/15/2012-2:20pm at 2:20 pm (UTC -4)
it is fun though to poke the bears isn’t it?
Stickguy
11/15/2012-2:19pm at 2:19 pm (UTC -4)
like Tex said, making everything about 1 GM vs. the other was ridiculous, and now elevating that to be nothing but a race riot is absurd. Many of the so-called sandy lovers actually loved Omar (for a while at least!) and were big supporters of many of the non-White players.
reality is not always a fun place to live, but sometimes, it just can’t be avoided.
funniest thing to me? I still can’t find any Sandy disciples. Other than 1 silly article early on (maybe by Pomes, someone you really don’t want to use as a measuring stick), I don’t think they exist. Hell, I was anointed (along with SRT) one of the leaders of the pack, even though I mostly rant and rave about Mai Tais!
srt
11/15/2012-8:39pm at 8:39 pm (UTC -4)
LOL…
The reason we’ve all been lumped in the ‘Sandy lovers’ camp by the lunatic fringe is b/c none of us came out from the get go and denounced Sandy as ‘the worst GM this franchise ever had’.
If you weren’t ranting about him daily, you’re automatically assumed to be in the camp of anointing him the Mets lord and savior.
Sometimes, I spend a good part of my reading day over at AA. It’s one of the few sites that presents content and arguments without the emotion. I guess that’s what you lean towards when you’re heavily into saber metrics. For the most part, they eschew intangibles and anything that can’t be quantified by numbers.
Sometimes though numbers cannot tell the whole story. Was there anyone out there that could have possibly predicted Dickey as the NL CY winner this past season based on numbers alone?