Imagine the following scenario:
‘Disgusted with his dismal performance in the playoffs and diminishing talents; the Yankees look to unload the contract of Alex Rodriguez so they can pursue a new direction. Unable to afford to offer him the contract he feels he deserves, the Mets are forced to pursue a trade for David Wright. The New York Teams swap players at their hot corners in an unprecedented move that angers, confuses and frustrates fans.’
Rodriguez is owed $28 Mil in 2013, $25 Mil in 2014, $21 Mil in 2015, $20 Mil in 2016 and $20 Mil in 2017. His health is a major hurdle to an NL team but is there a point where Alex Rodriguez becomes palette-able?
Let us imagine that the Yankees are willing to eat 60% of A-Rod’s Contract. (Averaging out to a total cost of $9.12 Mil a year for 5 years) Let us also say that the Yankees are willing to take the final year of Jason Bay’s contract off the Met’s hands. (Leaving the Mets an annual cost of $5.52 Mil for Mr. Rodriguez) Okay… but where do you play him?
The deal as I’ve outlined it so far: Clears the Metropolitans $6.8 Mil in 2013. That money helps, but it’s not enough money to bring in Shane Victorino or Michael Bourn. You also have a DH/3B with nowhere to play. That is… unless you trade David Wright. The question is, Who wants him? AND What could we get?
The name we’ve heard for a long time is Justin Upton. The Diamondbacks are looking to save money and the Mets would love a star outfielder who can hit righty but do the diamondbacks want an expensive player like Wright who is entering his walk year? No… But I’d bet the Yankees would. So a three way swap is organized with the Yankees paying Arizona in prospects, the Mets getting Upton and the Yankees getting Wright. It’s insanity.
It would feel awful and make so many people upset… but it might also REALLY help the team. With the additional savings between Wright and Upton’s salaries, the Mets might have enough money to sign that leadoff hitter they don’t have and they enter 2013 without losing any of their valuable young rotation pieces.
This is not a truly possible scenario. There are too many reasons why it couldn’t happen, but I like to explore the highly unlikely and nearly impossible.
|
Lineup: |
Rotation: |
|||
| 1. | Michael Bourn, CF [L] | #1 | R.A. Dickey [R] | |
| 2. | Ruben Tejada, SS [R] | #2 | Johan Santana [L] | |
| 3. | Justin Upton, RF [R] | #3 | Matt Harvey [R] | |
| 4. | Ike Davis, 1B [L] | #4 | Jon Niese [L] | |
| 5. | Alex Rodriguez, 3B [R] | #5 | Dillon Gee [R] | |
| 6. | Daniel Murphy, 2B [L] | |||
| 7. | Kelly Shoppach, C [R] | |||
| 8. | Kirk Nieuwenhuis, LF [L] |
Article is proof that not every individual is suited for responsible journalism.
why did I know that Groveman wrote this 🙂
Tommy2Cat I couldn’t agree with you more. Better to keep silent that way we can’t be sure. But to add a fading star like A-Rod at any salary is so ludicrous and asinine. Why bother to write?
Oh My God, please tell me this isn’t going to happen. This just dystroyed my “saturday morning”, even my cup of coffee sucks right now.
It is okay. Nothing to fear.
Cool it folks! David is just stirring the pot and trying to think outside the box. He’s not being serious.
I hope.
You get me.
A friend posed the question of A-Rod + money for Bay and I followed the line of reasoning. People need to understand that we aren’t journalists. We pose questions and analyze things but 9 times out of 10 we are stating opinion.
Here, I am just skewing the A-Rod story to center on the Mets. I knew people would be angry, but only those who take life too seriously. Norm and Charles have read me for a long enough time to know that I don’t want this trade and I think the Mets should re-up Wright. I just want people to read and comment and sometimes fear mongering and hyperbole are a good way to crank out ratings.
Ask Fox News
Dave – in the amount of time you spent conjuring a bad thought and spouting it in cyberspace, you could have provided a cogent analysis on the best method for Sandy Alderson to (a) balance the line-up while not compromising team defense; (b) fortify the starting rotation; (c) re-tooling the bullpen. Wouldn’t you rather “crank out ratings” by virtue of your baseball acumen than a poor attempt at sensationalism? Very little is funny to a Met fan these days.
And, David, always remember…”Baseball is Life”.
Im no long timer here, but let me quickly support David’s article. I sort of feel that we are certainly in a hard part of the season watching other teams play while our beloved Mets have scattered to the four points on a compass. Here in purgatory, aka that time after the season is over and Hot Stove has yet to begin, Mets fans have little to pay attention to in a meaningful way, and so ideas float, minds drift, and anything is reasonable in this “Oz-like” world. Being that none of has the money or the capacity to change the outcome, some tom-foolery adds some light to what was a painful end to another tough year.
I agree Chris. I don’t know why people are getting so worked up over this. At the end of his article he states this is pure tomfoolery and will not happen.
This is the period in baseball where if your team is not in the playoffs, there is nothing to talk about because it is too early to talk about acquisitions/departures when teams are still playing.
The headline gave me the chills, but the laughter that ensued from the photo warmed me right up!
FWIW, that’s still probably an 80-win lineup…
I love the proposal!!! It’s creative, imaginative, unorthodox, holy smokes it’s a winner baby, a winner! Getting rid of that pretty boy with the chipmunk face and his Canadian Casper the ghost left fielder for the hot to trot A-Roid in one gigantic mega deal is money Groveman, money! I could see all the bikini babbies lining up in the third base section at Citifield, balls and phone numbers at the ready. I just love it. Here’s to another crappy five years at Citi, but oh those bikini broads will make it all worth it. It’s Gold Phlavy…Gold!!!
Wow. This would truly be a blockbuster deal with each team swapping a high profiled player. On paper this would seem to work for the Mets, with 35 million savings from Wright and Bay and adding Upton(10 million) and A-rod and Bourn can easily cost less than 25 million.
The D-backs would probably have no problem with this deal if they got the right prospects.
The potential for the biggest loser would obviously be the Yankees. Although we know them to be the reckless spenders, i’ve heard that there are going to be some serious penalities for going above the luxury tax threshold and that they want to get under the amount, and eating 60-80% of A-rod’s contract will mean that will be awfully hard for them to do while continuing to do the Yankees-way.
Don’t listen to those haters. Any idea is better than no idea. You clearly state on the bottom of your article this is just pure speculation, which is what this site is for. Keep them coming!
I would be intrigued by ARod if we could keep Wright and Alex could go back to shortstop (tejada to 2nd) or if Alex could play left field.
I know those are very big questions and they would have to be answered positively for atleast the next two or three years. It would be much easier to eat 4 million/year in worst case scenario to trade him (in addition to what Yankees would be paying him) in those last 2 or 3 years to another team.
Positives over the next two years though would be substantial: 1) subtracting Bay 2)ss/2nd base cumulative upgrade in power 3) right handed power at the 5 hole in the line up 4) an angy “super star” that can’t do any worse (remember he still hit 19 hrs in a shortened season) looking to “stick it” to the yankees (wouldn’t ALL Met fans absolutely LOVE that to actually happen?)
I think what all the different suppositions, like yours here David, illustrate to me just what a pickle the Mets are really in. Without blockbuster movement little excitement will result, and yet blockbuster moves end in a wash at best. We also know the small deals that are shuffling B-grade talent will also have little impact in terms of adding Ws. 80 Ws is 80Ws.
And so I wonder if we already accept, as I have, that next year is truly one of keeping the pans simmering, perhaps add something super cool like “pennant day” 😉 to the calendar so the restless still show up 20k at a time. Another 72-76 W season is in the works. The biggest blockbuster moves we can make are to drop Santana and Bay, and thats already fixed in the stars.
But imagine a Wright v Pay-rod deal. We look to overpay DW for his player value after 7 years is my guess (much like Pujols, Fielder, A-rod and the endless list), but even at the end, when Wright transfers upstairs as a career Mets, the replacement to Seaver and looking at a long career helping us sign draft picks and free agents, he will be about the same age A-rod is the day he signs on. The logarithmic decay of competitive skill in ARs last 5 years will make him look like Bay now (and hes already close). Have we not seen enough of that? He wont have any capacity to play on the left side on the IF at 40. Any injury could be a season ender. And we will have lost the face of the Mets. The person with all the records. We look back at Seaver’s departure with a still palpable agony. Again? No thanks.
Patience Mets fans, patience. Good times, or at least new-look times, are not too far off.
Good business moves have many looks. I expect DW to have 4 more very solid years and with his revived fielding more gold gloves. He will be racking up numbers towards consideration for the Hall. He will be driving up attendance. He will be a reason to make the Mets a destination for players, especially once we shed the terrible contracts. His will be the teams soul, and sole long-term deal, and worth every penny. So why not come up with 120+M$ for 6-7 years? I would. I would do it quickly. And I would let him know he IS the Mets.
As for Pay-rod. The guy is a bust. His declining skills will mean the news he creates will all be negative. All the negativity will be a boat anchor between and outside the lines. You cant teach an old dog new tricks, but in his case, we wont be able to even keep the old dog’s old tricks. Let him remain a Yankee. Thats the best deal the Mets could have! After this last series, its nice to see the other baseball team in NY have the most embarrassing stats.
Chris
Guys:
This site seems to have traded everyone on this team this month and now it’s trading for A-Rod.
This is frankly everything I hate about Mets blogs. Waste of time posts for children who want to fight about things that hever will happpen. Jesus David, you’re so much better than this.
I’m reopening http://www.macksmets.blogspot.com to serve my own needs. I will never be able to keep up the volumne I used to put out, but I can at least serve the adult portion of the fans that want to discuss what really has happened.
I hope someone reads it. I don’t care if they do or not. I will at least be happy with the direction of the content.
Thanks Brian. Please don’t paste my Sunday post or my 2007 draft analysis.
Mack
Life is too short to be unhappy.
Good-bye and good luck.
Our beloved team is in the position where us as fans will be entering the second consecutive year where we have little hope to sniff the .500 mark let alone make it to the postseason dance. These delirious articles are just a product of a neglected need for winning baseball. Hell, we might even take watchable baseball at this point.
watchable baseball…surely you jest Metsense!
That isn’t me Chris!
Good grief, I JUST caught that. Yikes. Overworked and underpaid, and missing the hook just like all the rest of the team.
Apologies to you and Metsfan!
Chris
With the Swingin’ A’s already makin moves, looks like Jonny Gomes is gonna be the odd man out in the A’s OF…He could be a cheapish pick up to play CF (2012 salary 1M$) in Flushing. Improvement all around over Torres. Crazy?
My favorite quote:
“I hope someone reads it. I don’t care if they do or not.”
🙂
My second favorite: “As for Pay-rod. The guy is a bust. His declining skills will mean the news he creates will all be negative.”
A-rod inevitably ends up in those polls of “most hated by teammates” from ESPN. His declining skills factor not only aging, but improved drug testing (or at least awareness) so he cannot dip into the magic of HGH and Testosterone as the anti-aging factors as he approaches 40. The Yankees are going to have to pay someone to take him off their hands. His behavior was as bad as his performance in the playoffs and the Post made sure fans got a double dosage of it.
As for the article: look how much dialog it created!
There’s no hockey, and if you are a Jets fan, little football, so we are talking Mets.
It boggles my mind how a blog post can upset so many people so greatly. I was asked a question by a friend and thought it was interesting enough to share.