On Saturday the Mets and Blue Jays put into place the framework of a deal that would send Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto. While the deal could still fall apart at any time – it looks like it will be in the following form:
Mets trade Dickey, Josh Thole and a minor leaguer (not elite)
Jays trade Travis d’Arnaud, John Buck, Noah Syndergaard and another minor leaguer (not elite)
Assuming the minor leaguers are both of the “C” level variety, how do you rate this trade?
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I voted that it was the exact trade the Mets needed, but that didn’t exclude that it was also fair to both teams. It would seem Dickey’s WAR over the next three years likely wouldn’t be less than 8, making his contract more than reasonable. On top of that, you’d be making a case to fans that 2013 wasn’t in the bag.
That contract has extreme value and it should have been worth a great prospect that can’t seem to stay healthy and a 19 year old pitcher in A league. It’s fair. But the Mets aren’t going anywhere with Dickey’s 8 WAR through 2015.
In a perfect world, the additional budgetary flexibility means that maybe the Mets can offer Bourn a contract and resign Harrison. In that world, there are parts in place where they can compete in 2014. Unless RA Dickey is Cy Good for the next two years this team would suck.
I still believe if the Mets would have a little more patience and get the Angels and the Rangers involved for R.A.(knowing each team would not want the other to get R.A.)that the bidding for his services would escalate into a better package.
You have to give Sandy his due here. He’s handling this exactly right. As much as we all want something done as fans he waited this out like the Beltran/Wheeler deal and we can trust that he wont do an “Omar move” as a knee-jerk reaction to another teams move. We all know he HAD to to the Wright deal and as much as I was on the fence with it it makes sense in the overall rebuild to Sandy’s team. We now have another $5 mil added to the Bay/Wright saving to add more pieces for this year. Although he’s not faired too well in his signings and trades so far the main issue is he hasn’t hurt us long term and for that we gotta give him credit…he’s staying with a plan.
It hurts to say it, b/c RA is such a source of light on this team, but in all likelihood he will no longer be at his best when this team turns it around. I’m just really upset that the team is trying to vilify him to ease the pain of sending him away.
You say Sandy hasn’t hurt us with his signings? What signings? If the Mets trade Dickey then their payroll for 2013 stands at about 57 million of which 6 million is set aside for Jason Bay. Since most of the free agents of any distinction are gone what does Sandy plan to do with the money? Yes, Omar made some terrible signings but where are going with his plan? This isn’t Tampa Bay Cleveland or Oakland. The Mets play in the number one market for revenue and act like beggars in the street corners looking for any left overs they can find. To say that they save five million for a pitcher who might very well win 15 games this coming season is just ridiculous. Can you name me a free agent out there right now who will sign for that amount and give you those potential numbers? I think not.
I just check with Cot’s and the Mets payroll minus Dickey’s 5 million puts them at 52 million.
I’m not sure where you’re getting that number. Cot’s shows the Mets current commitments at $69,175,000. Take away $5 million for Dickey and $3 million that Wright is deferring this year and we have $61,175,000. According to Heyman, they have deferred $15 million of Bay’s contract, bringing us to $46,175,000 for four players.
OK, I think I see where you’re getting $52 million – you’re adding Buck’s salary. But the Blue Jays might send money to cover that. But for sake of argument we’ll go with $52 million for five players.
MLB Trade Rumors projects $7.3 million for Murphy, Davis and Parnell through arbitration — let’s call it $60 million. But there’s still 17 players to fill out the roster.
Minimum wage is roughly $500,000 (a little less but go with this for easy math). So it’s $8.5 million if they fill out with all minimum wage guys – bringing us to $68.5 million. Last year’s payroll was around $95 million so you would think they have around $27 million to play with for this year’s roster.
But do you really think that they restructured contracts for the benefit of the 2013 roster? I think they did it for their own cash flow issues.
I guess we’ll see.
I think it’s a good trade for the Mets. They get two good prospects for Dickey but I was hoping they would have gotten a major league OF also in the trade like Rasmus or Bonafacio. The Mets aren’t going anywhere in 2013 so trading Dickey when his stock was high was a good call be Sandy.
I thought it was a bad trade, not because of the actual trade, but because of the negativity that surrounded it. For a team that already had a fanbase who really disliked the ownership/management group because of money problems, the last thing they needed was to create a big stir over the most popular player on the team.
I understand Sandy had all the leverage, but the way he was flaunting that power was kind of disturbing. I could tolerate the way he was doing things for a few months, but i guess like Dickey, towards the last few weeks i was getting fed up with the way Alderson was handling things. I had been a somewhat neutral on Alderson, trying to play Devil’s advocate, but i am ready to turn on him after all of this (and because of the lack of action during the trading deadline)
I was not in favor of trading Dickey but can accept the Mets philosophy of trading him when his value is high. I would not do Dickey for d’Arnaud straight up so an OF had to be included. I don’t like Thole for Buck.If the Jays wanted Thole then Syndergard should have been brought into the discussion and Buck taken as a “favor” for the Jays. This trade will be more palatble if the saved money on Dickey gets reinvested into the team.
The Dickey/Thole money just goes to pay Buck,unless the Jays are covering some of it. And i think the Jays wanted Thole to keep Dickey comfortable. I don’t think Buck is merely a “favor” either. We needed more warm bodies for the C position, and he does have a little pop and can talk a walk. His average is unsightly though.
So it goes. Before we coronatate Alderson for his vision, remember he does have a Cy Young winner as a chip. Any of us could get a prospect with that in the pocket. RA is at the apex of value and we need help. The vision is clear. This is a full on rebuild, which still makes me question the Wright contract. I believe an all star 3B would have commanded a solid return. By the time this team is competitive Wright will be an ambassador. It’s hard to know what to think. His big gets have not thrown, caught, or hit anything at the MLB level. What if Wheeler can’t make it? d’Arnaud is a year off, wheeler gets a cup this year, Syndergaard 3 years…it’s a lot of waiting to know whether these worked out. I have mixed feelings. I would have preferred he stay. Right now the product the mets are going to throw out there for the next 2 maybe 3 seasons will be pretty poor. As principally an entertainment industry, I struggle to see how “wait” while the lousy things we will see out there will translate to filled seats. I guess Nimmo will be the outfield anchor by then.
Hello Brian,
What happens when all the money the Wilpons borrowed to finance Citifield comes due in 2013-2014? I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. If 15 million (out of 18 million) from Jason Bay’s contract is deferred that puts the Mets payroll at about 53 million which includes Dickeys salary. I cannot see 7.5 million dollars for Daniel Murphy. I would rather see them apply that money towards an every day center fielder who can lead off. Last I do believe the Mets do not have the cash to extend their payroll to last years numbers. So it becomes a vicious cycle with no end in sight. Very depressing.
that 7.5 number was for those 3 guys combined, not just for murphy
If the Mets were strapped for cash why couldn’t they male a deal like the Yankees did with Fox by Selling a portion of their regional network? That should bring in enough money to increase their payroll and start paying off their loans.
The Mets already only own 65% of SNY – if they sell much more they won’t be majority owners. Also, they have huge debts on SNY, which doesn’t make it more attractive for potential buyers. It’s simply not an option.
“I think Sandy, when d’Arnaud was on the table, he was probably on the table for 10 days. And it really didn’t move anywhere. There was no traction. There was no dialogue. It just was not enough from his standpoint, as much as we valued Travis. … Obviously Sandy had the player. He had the price. We had the ability to say no. But from our standpoint we looked at there’s very few opportunities to get players like this that tie in so well with our club, that fit so well with our payroll. It’s very, very rare.”
Perhaps I am over reading into this, but combined with Alderson’s comments regarding the increasing cost of pitching, my thought is that the offer had always been d’Arnaud and Gose. Eventually they had to sweeten the deal to drop Gose, and go after either of their top pitchers.