Early this morning news came down that the Mets and David Wright agreed on a contract extension. That’s good news in that the Mets can cross that off the “to do” list and move on to other matters. With the Winter Meetings right around the corner, hopefully that means Sandy Alderson can look to address the outfield problem, either by trade or free agent signing.

The old adage is that you can never have too much pitching. While the Mets do not have “too much,” they have more depth in pitching, specifically starting pitching, than anywhere else on the roster, both in the majors and the minors. Assuming Dillon Gee and Johan Santana come back healthy, the Mets have their five-man rotation set.

Recently, David Groveman did a post here where he laid out what levels he thought that Mets prospects would begin the year. He may have cheated a little bit, assigning six starters to each full-season league. So he found a home for 24 SP and had to leave out Yohan Almonte, Marcos Camarena, Angel Cuan, Gonzalez Germen, Jeremy Hefner, Julian Hilario, Chase Huchingson, Dylan Owen and Armando Rodriguez.

With the exception of Hefner, none of these guys may end up making a start in the majors. But the fact that Groveman could leave out nine guys who made a significant number of starts last year – after squeezing 24 pitchers onto full-season rosters – speaks to the depth of starting pitching that the system has.

He had Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia as starters in Triple-A but either or both of those could be relievers. He also had Chris Schwinden and Mark Cohoon in the Las Vegas rotation, but both of those guys could be lost in the Rule 5 Draft. The point is there’s still a lot of uncertainty, even before we get to the notion that the Mets could trade SP – either in the majors or minors – for hitting help.

We’ve heard rumors that R.A. Dickey and Jonathon Niese are potentially available in a trade. I think it’s a reasonable assumption that because the Mets re-signed Wright that they might be more willing to move Dickey now, not fearing the backlash from the fans if they parted ways with their two biggest stars from a season ago.

Yet trade options are not limited to just the major league club. It’s quite possible the Mets do a trade where they throw in a minor league pitcher, too. Key 2011 Draft picks Michael Fulmer, Cory Mazzoni and Logan Verrett have been in the organization for more than a year now and are eligible to be included in any deal. Perhaps another club would want to take a flyer on lefty Darin Gorski.

Since the end of the 2011 season, I thought Alderson needed to participate in the trade market to better reorganize the talent in the organization. With two full seasons in the GM seat under his belt now, plus the Wright extension finally taken care of, expect Alderson to make a big move at the upcoming Winter Meetings. And expect the Mets to part ways with at least one prominent starting pitcher.

26 comments on “David Wright’s coming back so which SP is going to go?

  • Dan Stack

    Can we possibly get Will Myers or Alex Gordon?

    • Brian Joura

      From MetsBlog:

      “According to Heyman’s sources, Kansas City is saying Alex Gordon is ‘untouchable,’ and they have no interest in trading C Salvador Perez or OF prospect Wil Myers. However, the way I understand it, that could change if the Mets decide to move Niese.”

      • Willis

        Obviously, at this point all of that is posturing. The media is a tool for baseball front offices.

  • Charles

    If the could get Myers from KC for Dickey I’m on board. Any young outfielder with that upside must be taken by the Mets if offered for Dickey. This team, with Dickey and no change in outfielders will still lose. So, Dickey must be the sacrifice. They can’t afford a free agent upgrade at these prices, trades are the only real route.

    • Willis

      I think Niese will net such a rich return that Sandy will feel he has no choice but to trade the nose for a combination of young prospects and a major league ready outfielder. Though I’d MUCH prefer if they could deal Dickey.

    • Pete

      Why sacrifice Dickey? He’s a drawing card for the Mets. I wonder how many people this year came out to see R.A. pitch? If the Mets know that an extra 5000 people filled their stadium I wonder if they would be so anxious to trade him. They see the declining numbers each year and the lost of revenue at the park.

  • David Groveman

    I think the names Travis D’Arnaud and Bryce Brentz are the ones we should be paying attention to.

  • Name

    I’m still not seeing how the Mets have enough major leage SP depth to deal any of it. It’s not like they have 6 MLB ready starters and only 5 available spots. Hefner, Schwinden, are fine as a backup insurance, but not someone who you can call a fine or even servicable 5th starter, which is what we will have to do if we trade one of our starting 5.

    It seems to me that the Mets have an abudnance of B/C prospects, and i think they could package 2-4 of them for a decent OF bat. Nori Aoki is someone i think that i think the Mets can get.

    I still think the bullpen is the part that needs most fixing. The offense was great in the first half, and bad in the second half, but if you average them out they are still a decent offense. And i still think the number of guys who underperformed outweighed the guys who overperformed and we could expect an increase on offense on just the guys we have now.

    • Metsense

      Like Name, I am opposed to trading starting pitching. I want to keep Niese, Dickey, Harvey and Santana who has lttle value and can’t be moved because of salary. Gee is also trending nice but he would be the only one I am comfortable dealing, and then only in a Travis D’Arnaud package because catching is so valuable and scarce in MLB. Since 2013 is going to be a challenge,(and money should free up in 2014 along with another year of evaluating the minor league pitching talent) I’m more for improving the outfield and 2b defense, riding the starting pitching and balancing the runs for/runs against ratio and compete in that way. Maybe not the best solution but without capital, maybe the most practical.

  • Stephen Basile

    If I was Sandy I’d offer Dickey and Aderlin Rodriguez for Wil Meyers and B prospects and see where the conversation goes from there.

    • Willis

      Dickey and Flores?

    • Pete

      And who will replace Dickey’s 20 wins? Even if he wins 15 games which is not unreasonable to expect. I mean he won 20 with a limited offense from the Mets. I would like to know if anyone has information for when R.A. pitched at Citifield this year if attendance went up.If yes by how much?

      • Metsense

        about a month ago I checked and he really didn’t bring in extra fans. I was surprised.

        • Name

          No particular player brings in extra fans. But RA does give them a better chance to win, and winnning does bring in fans.

  • Gregg

    I live in KC, and I think the Royals would trade Gordon. But not for Dickey. If it landed them someone like Price (although, that doesn’t make sense, since he’s due for a nice contract soon)

    Same with Myers. We’re not getting him. KC will only deal him for a top of the line, young, starting pitcher. And that’s smart.

    We could probably get Mike Montgomery and Jake Odorizzi, and I think that’d be a good deal for the Mets.

    • Metsfan

      Odorizzi and Montgomery wouldn’t be a better deal for the Mets than just keeping Dickey. Montgomery is hardly a prospect anymore and Odorizzi is a #3 at best.

    • Brian Joura

      The Mets need offense so trading Dickey for two pitching prospects doesn’t make sense, especially Montgomery – whose prospect ship has sailed.

  • Pete

    I agree the Mets should deal from strength but with so many questions with their starting rotation I think it might be prudent to have 6 starters at the major league level.I would try to give Johan time off every 5 or 6 starts to build his arm strength,I would not count on Mike Pelfrey to be here. So why not try putting some of these kids in the bullpen? If they throw as hard as they say and only have to face several batters at a time it would do well for their confidence and experience. Why keep spending so much money on a bullpen that keeps imploding year in and year out.I would like to see the Mets try to get Chris Perez from the Indians and maybe Shin-Soo who can play right field and lead off. I know, two problems with Shin-Soo. He’s a free agent in 2014 and Scott Boras is his agent.

    • Metsense

      I could easily see Familia and Mejia in the 2013 bullpen because neither stepped up as a starter in 2012 at AAA. Before too long other starting pitching prospects are going to pass them in the depth chart.The Mets might as well put them in the bullpen where their “live” arms might help the ML team.

      • Brian Joura

        Not all of Mejia’s action last year came as a SP. At Triple-A, he made 10 starts, threw 52.1 IP and allowed 16 ER for a 2.75 ERA. It’s not a very big sample but certainly I see no reason to make a relief pitcher out of him just yet.

        • Metsense

          I stand corrected. Of course Mejia should continue to develope as a starter, as your stats prove. My thinking was very Manualesque.

          • Pete

            If the Mets filled their starting rotation without Mejia would they send him down to AAA? Or use him in the bullpen and as a spot starter?

  • Pete

    Thanks for the information.I just read where the Mets payroll for next year was going to be in the 105-110 million dollar range. Do the Mets use part of this “extra” money to sign an outfielder who can lead off? I was thinking maybe a trade with the Indians for their right fielder Shin-Soo and their closer Carlos Perez. I know they would probably want youngsters who they can control since they don’t very often sign free agents. I would rather see Familia and Mejia in the bullpen as well rather than the Mets spending more money on what is basically a crap shot. Shore up the defense and a solid closer and the Mets can compete for a wild card.

    • Name

      There are actually a lot of players, especially bullpen arms, that were non-tendered that would be good fits with the Mets. Plus Flores and Soto on the catching side. Not that many OF though.

      BTW. It’s Chris Perez, not Carlos Perez, and he was non-tendered.

      • Pete

        My Mistake.Thank you for the correction.I still believe he would be a good fit as closer for the Mets(probably cheaper than Francisco)

  • steevy

    I don’t believe any number Alderson gives us as next years payroll.I expect more of the same.

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