After 18 months of teasing, the New York Mets have finally broken up with Ike Davis, sending him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for minor league reliever Zach Thornton and a player to be named later. According to CBS’s Jon Heyman, the PTBNL is “significant”, so there’s that.
Right now, this trade looks like nothing to celebrate but not necessarily a loss. The biggest part of this trade is that we never have to hear about the Davis/Lucas Duda drama at first base again (knock on wood).
There’s still many questions that remain to be answered: Why wait until now? Were better offers passed over? Who is the player to be named later? Will Davis flourish in the Steel City or has Valley Fever claimed another career?
What do you think?
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Best of luck in Pittsburgh, Ike…..I hope it worksout for you.
The word is that the player to be named later was in last years’s draft….Austin Meadows, perhaps? Wouldn’t that be superb?
If the PTBNL ends up being Meadows, I’ll personally fund a statue to Sandy Alderson outside of Citi Field (not really). But in all seriousness, I don’t think the Pirates are desparate enough to get Ike Davis to give up Meadows, likely someone lesser than that.
I couldn’t agree more.
Look, this relief pitcher was traded for someone that essentially would have been non-tendered … Chris Resop. And now, he’s been traded for someone else that might have been essentially non-tendered, in Ike Davis.
Davis has a significantly better pedigree, but if you get Meadows later on, it means that you really, really regret having traded the next Paul Goldschmidt for a side-arming, soft tossing minor league reliever.
???? Don’t understand
My point is this:
Ike Davis is roughly the equivilant of a Chris Resop; a player without value. This can be determined by the fact that they were both about to be non-tendered.
The pitcher for whom you just traded Ike Davis could have been had for nothing. And he was, in point of fact, only recently traded for Chris Resop.
There is no reason for Pittsburg to give up *substantially more* (ie: Meadows, a gold plated, 1000 OPS CFer right now in his second minor league year). Unless of course, Ike Davis returns to former glory. In which case, you would rue the trade anyways.
You said:
Davis has a significantly better pedigree, but if you get Meadows later on, it means that you really, really regret having traded the next Paul Goldschmidt for a side-arming, soft tossing minor league reliever.
Davis = Goldschmidt
You would regret acquiring meadows?
If Ike Davis becomes Goldschmidt, I’m pretty sure every Mets fan would look back on this trade with regret. Anyway, I sure would.
To put it a different way, is there anyone out there that believes Goldschmidt for Meadows and Thornton is a good trade? No, I don’t think so.
Meadows > Davis
So if anyone becomes Goldschmidt it would be meadows
Ike = mike jacobs
Hard to tell without seeing him pitch, but Thornton seems to be one of those guys who just gets it done, but b/c he is not labeled a “prospect” has been slowed down in the minors. His minor league numbers are outstanding with the exception of one bad season.
In fact, they seem to get better as he moved up in competition. He has tremendous splits against righties, and could be a useful guy in the middle innings to give Torres some rest.
He is reportedly a sidearmer, which would explain the platoon splits.
What am I going to do with my Mets hat I painted
#29 on? I think a young pitcher is a good deal.
Every great ballplayer had their bad moments
and even seasons during their twenties.
Best wishes to my slugger.
I have complete faith in Alderson’s ability to get excellent talent back in a trade. See Wheeler, Herrara, Syndergaard. I would think this is why it took so long to complete this trade and why trading Byrd took so long last year. He waits for the right deal.
Matt Joyce: career 251 BA 343/458/ 801, 121 OPS+
Ike Davis: career 241 BA 334/433/767, 112 OPS+
No matter how you spin it, this deal was there in November. Equal value and a player that would be helping in 2014.
Metsense, I’m a fan of that trade. Liked the idea of trading Davis to the AL (better for him, better for us). Joyce is a fine, inexpensive player.
But you are on record as being someone that doesn’t like to block young talent. There is a reason we moved forward with Chris Young, and I think that 1 year contract relates back specifically to payroll flexibility as much as anything.
Not a fan of the trade, not against it. It needed to be made, and with all his shortcomings I think Sandy gets rope when it comes to evaluating what he does in the trade market. I’ll bide my time pending that PTBNL (which I think is Jose Tabata, who becomes incredibly redundant with a 2013 minor leaguer performing to expectations) and what we get back for Chris Young.
JG: What minor league outfielder am I blocking? There is no one in AAA or AA outfield that is projected as a .800 OPS major league player. Matt Joyce is a free agent in 2016. A two year inexpensive commitment for a 20 HR 800 OPS guy seems reasonable to me. I have always been on record for the Joyce trade. Unfortunately it is water under the bridge, a black mark in my book for Sandy, and lets move on and get back over .500. It sounds like the PTBNL is the catcher the Pirates took as the second pick in the first round but hopefully it is Meadows.
From my perspective, I’d see Puello as that kind of guy and I’d definitely see him in the mix by July. I think Travis T might be that guy.
But it doesn’t really matter what you or I project to be a 2-4 WAR/800 OPS OFer from our minor leagues.
What matters is whether or not Sandy & Co. do; and if that’s the case, that’s reason enough to not pull the trigger on a two year commitment to Matt Joyce.
I can’t imagine the PTBNL as Meadows.
However, the Pirates did draft a couple of LHP high last year and they’ve got an intriguing guy in JaCoby Jones, a SS/CF guy who only played in a handful of games last year because he was hurt.