Roundtable: Which prospects are the Mets most likely to trade?

I reached out to friends in the Mets blogosphere recently to ask the following question:

What three prospects are the Mets most likely to trade before the end of the 2012 season?

These guys all do great work and their names are hyperlinked to their blogs so please go ahead and click on them to check out their real stuff.

Mack Ade – World Famous Sandlapper Trainer
Wow…

Trading “prospects” are done for one of three reasons:

1.A team is too deep positionally with prospects and someone doesn’t show the ability to excel at another position (a good example would be a ‘healthy’ Zach Lutz).

2. A team can immediately get a time-tested major league player to fill in one of the slots in the parent team’s lineup card (example: Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler).

3. You want to get rid of someone who has ‘issues’ as well as talent before the other team figures out they made a bad deal (example: trading Jordany Valdespin a year ago).

My guess… Jeurys Familia… Josh Edgin… Jefry Marte

John Coppinger – Dinner Theatre Connoisseur
I’m not sure any prospects are likely to be traded. It goes against the grain of everything Sandy Alderson and the rest of the Superfriends have been doing, and were brought in to do. There are some relievers out there that can help them, like Brandon League of the Mariners. But if the price is too high, the Superfriends aren’t going to budge

Jon Springer – Holder of three different marks in the Guinness Book of World Records
Not sure about what’s likely, but I could see moving one of Kirk Nieuwenhuis or Matt Den Dekker in a deal for a righthanded hitting outfielder. You know, an upgrade on Jason Bay, who’d have to be released or something. I dont believe in coughing up anything too valuable for a relief pitcher so maybe a lower ceiling starting pitcher (Darin Gorski? That guy with the funny Twitter feed, Collin McHugh?) goes for that. In general I’d prefer sinking or swimming with the guys we have, the shaky defense and the depth of pitching talent aren’t the kinds of flaws you can necessarily fix by trading prospects.

Eric Stashin – Diaper changing machine
The Mets are going to be a team built around pitching, but they suddenly have a bulk of pitching prospects that have the potential to produce in the rotation. The top tier guys, like Zack Wheeler or Matt Harvey, aren’t going to go anywhere but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a few of the next tier guys dealt to fortify the bullpen and the bench. I think one name would be Bradley Holt who once showed tremendous promise, but has fallen on hard times of late. The truth is, you can almost fill this blank with numerous names, like Darin Gorski or Cory Mazzoni. Any of them could go to help now and not hurt the team’s future.

With Daniel Murphy (who I still believe in trading) acclimating himself the second base and Jordany Valdespin arriving, Reese Havens could be a valuable trade chip. If he stays healthy he has a ton of talent and that should appeal to others.
Finally, Matt Den Dekker is expendable. Unless they want to trade Kirk Nieuwenhuis, the last thing they need is another lefthanded-hitting outfielder. Cash in on his strong start to 2012.

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My take is that this year is going to be really different than previous years in deadline deals because of new rules in the CBA. No longer can a club pick up a veteran rental and acquire draft picks when the player leaves as a free agent. I think we’re mostly going to see deadline deals that are all about how much salary relief a team can get. The prospects that go in these deals are likely to be window dressing.

Can the Mets add a bunch of salary at the deadline? Sandy Alderson has been clear that he can add payroll but has not given any indication if he can add $1 million or $10 million. How much flexibility he has will go a long way in determining which prospects he has to give up to get a reliever or a RH bat.

If the Mets are limited in salary relief they have to offer, then I see Den Dekker, Familia or Valdespin going. If they can add payroll, then someone like T.J. Chism or Darrell Ceciliani, guys who are not widely-heralded but who still offer a bit of promise. This is much like last year when the Mets got Adrian Rosario in the Francisco Rodriguez salary dump.

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Thanks to Eric, John, Jon and Mack for contributing during the holiday!