11-7-12 – David Wright, RA Dickey, Cesar Puello, Melky Cabrera, Lucas Duda

“A source” told Andy McCullough of the Newark Star Ledger that the David Wright and RA Dickey deals are “not close.”

Don’t read too much into this. Not ‘being close’ can mean a lot of things at this point and simply could represent the further limits of what either party want to either pay or receive. I’m sure the Mets which to pay no more than $100mil additional dollars to Wright, while the Levinson Brothers, at this point, wouldn’t even get on the phone for less than $130mil. Unfortunately, that’s how this shit works and, add to this the Mets almost cavalier approach to negotiations like this, we may wind up going into the 2013 season with one or more of these issues unresolved. It may seem like the Mets have control here since they exercises the 2013 option, but, trust me, this brings no good cheer to the negotiation table for 2014+.

The Mets have established a current value for these two players. Honestly, they don’t have to take it any further. It really doesn’t matter if Wright wanted $20mil per season and Dickey wanted $10mil if the Mets trade away one or both. That will be the problem of the new team that inherits the exercised option that was exercised.

What the Mets do know is they would receive a minimum of two players per deal that could immediately be added to the 25-man and help turn this team around.

Also… one more thing about this “face of the team” bullshit. Hey, Mr. Levinson… you keep not sitting down with the Mets and making a decent attempt to get this deal done and, trust me, the trading of Wright will become less of a fan issue every off-season day.

New York Mets Minor League Free Agents:

RHP: Fernando Cabrera (AAA), Drew Carpenter (AAA), Edgar Ramirez (AA), Jeff Stevens (AAA)

LHP: C.J. Nitkowski (AAA)

C: Jean Luc Blaquiere (AAA), Lucas May (AAA), Mike Nickeas (AAA), Juan Torres (LoA)

2B: Brad Emaus (AAA)

3B: Matt Tuiasosopo (AAA)

SS: Sean Kazmar (AA), Oswaldo Navarro (AAA), Luis Nieves (HiA), Josh Rodriguez (AAA)

OF: Rafael Fernandez (HiA), Adam Loewen (AAA), Dustin Martin (AA), Valentino Pascucci (AAA), Raul Reyes (AA), Corey Wimberly (AAA)

          (note…  many of these players could be back on one of the Mets rosters if they don’t sign with someone else. At the same time, there are 100s of players that were on other team’s rosters that are now available for the Mets to look over…

          The full list:  BA)

Here’s what the Las Vegas roster projects as after the free agent cuts:

          SP (5) – Zack Wheeler, Daren Gorski, Gonzalez Germen, Mark Cohoon, Chris Schwinden

          RP (9) – Elvin Ramirez. Brad Holt, Daniel Herrera, Craig Hansen, Ryan Fraser, Dylan Owen, Armondo Rodrigues, Greg Peavey, Chuck James, Tim Byrdak (IR)

          1B (3) – Eric Campbell, Josh Satin, Alan Dykstra

          2B (1) – Reese Havens

          SS (1) – Wilfredo Tovar

          3B (3) – Wilmer Flores, Zach Lutz, Jefry Marte

          C (1) – Juan Centeno

          OF (4) - Matt den Dekker, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Juan Lagares

OF Cesar Puello did hit a home run on Tuesday for Surprise in the Arizona Fall League, but he’s far from ready to be projected into a future Mets parent lineup. The Mets are well known for the lack of talent they have throughout the system in the outfield and they lost two of their better players, Jordany Valdespin (foot injury) and Lucas Duda (broken wrist) in the past 24 hours. We’re all writing about the same shit during this off-season and there’s been a bunch of pundits all point out the fact that Puello doesn’t seem to understand that his batting average is never going to go up if he keeps swinging at balls out of the strikezone. First, you never walk, but secondly, these balls never come off the bat with enough moxie to turn into hits. Your BA goes down, your BB/9 is for shit, and your OBP and OPS never develops.

I simply loved this guy when he was in Savannah and I have no idea what happened to him.

Three ex-Mets found new homes. OF Jeremy Reed signed a minor league contract with Arizona. He spent 2012 on the DL. P Garrett Olson signed with Oakland. He went 4-7, 4.63 with Buffalo lasy season. And lastly, OF Jason Pridie signed with Baltimore.

Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes that OF Melky Cabrera will eventually sign with the New York Mets for one-year, $4mil.It sounds like a good idea for me. First of all, Cabrera would not be a candidate for the 2014 Mets under any condition. The Mets wouldn’t want him if he flops in 2013 and, if he does well, he will get the kind of money he deserves elsewhere. No, 2013 will just be a year to prove he can play all-star baseball without PEDs.

Team wise, 2013 becomes an easier season to get through. You can stick Cabrera in centerfield, let Kirk Nieuwenhuis play the full year (in LF or RF) in Las Vegas where he needs to heal and learn how to professionally hit, and play with Matt den Dekker in centerfield. The rest of the Mets outfield (Lucas Duda, Jason Bay, Mike Baxter, Jordany Valdespin) can platoon the corners.

It’s getting more obvious every day that the Mets outfield problems are deeper than thought. Darrell Ceciliani isn’t eating up fall ball and Cesar Puello continues to be a plate maintenance nightmare.

Think Carlos Beltran. Sign Cabrera, give him the platform to shine, then trade him to someone trying to win the World Series in 2013. You’re not going to steal another Zack Wheeler, but there is someone out there that can help this team long range in a deal like this.

Oh… need any more reasons to sign Cabrera? How about Duda, the furniture mover? For now, you’re back to Bay in left and some combination of Valdespin (hurt foot), Baxter, and, I guess, Nieuwenhuis. Jesus, this just keeps getting worse.