Mack’s Morning Report – 5-6-16 – Matt Harvey, Travis d’Arnaud, Blake Swihart

Good morning.

First of all, sorry about yesterday. My wife and I had to travel to Florida (where I am now) to spend the week with my 85-year old mother-in-law. We spent most of the day on I95 through heavy storms (I can speak first hand why St. Lucie was rained out) and it simply was impossible to put together a Morning Report for Thursday.

I also arrived in Florida to an unpleasant surprise… my mother-in-law’s WIFI is down, thus, I can’t get online unless I sit in a McDonalds somewhere in Daytona Beach.

I’ll work it out.

Mike Liguori emails -

I think it's safe to say we all know of the pitchers to be gone that Harvey is the most likely candidate.  Unfortunately, now I'm sure his trade value has decreased a little but I'm sure there's plenty of teams that would want him and can get him back on track.  I do hope that the Mets go the route of trading Harvey instead of letting him walk like they did to Reyes.  Whether it's at the deadline or next winter what do you think Harvey's value is and who realistically would be interested. My team in mind would be the Red Sox because they have hitting but need the pitching to complement.  They're currently 13th out of 15th in the American League in pitching and have some good prospects, in my opinion.  I would love for them to be able to get Yoan Moncada (2B) and/or Andrew Benintendi (OF).  I'd even take a shot at Trey Ball (LHP) and see if a change of scenery will help the highly drafted pitcher.  Let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Mike

          Mack – Thanks Mike for the email.

I go back and forth on Harvey. He’s only 27, I still consider him the SP1 of the staff, and, frankly, I really don’t see a tremendous amount of things wrong with his game this year. He is having mechanics problems and yes, his luck sucks, but many more Mets have to take blame on games like the last one when he pitched. I mean, the final score was 3-0 and doesn’t the Mets supposedly have all these active bats?

Regarding whether his trade value has decreased, I don’t think it has. Trust me, there are plenty of pitching coaches that would love to get their mitts on him.

What would I want for a return?

Well, multiple players to start that definitely included a blue chip catcher… which leads into my next portion of this past.

 Fantasy Pros had their spin on Travis d’Arnaud -

Travis d'Arnaud is unlikely to come off the disabled list when he is eligible to return on May 11th. d'Arnaud, who injured his shoulder, has done nothing but strictly rest and has yet to resume baseball activities.

Fantasy Impact: The Mets are still getting almost no production from their catcher position. d'Arnaud was primed for a breakout season, but has shown a tendency to be consistently on the disabled list and is unable to stay on the field.

Mack – The failures/disappointments of d’Arnaud as both a defensive/offensive threat as well as a healthy player (did I cover everything?) plays right in any discussion to trade one of his battery mates.

If my trade would be with Boston, it would start with catching AAA either prospect,  Blake Swihart or Christian Velasquez.

I think the Mets have tremendous talent right now at all the other positions and have 5-8 prospects that could make an impact either in the 2017 or 2018 season, That being said, I continue to build this new dynasty by targeting my second choice in a Harvey trade for a super-prospect at the A+ or A level… like SP Anderson Espinoza.

I know this doesn’t sound like much of a deal but you guys can fill it in from here…

bgreg98180 asked -

Mack - I was just interested in your thoughts on how long will it be (if at all) before Alderson approaches Cespedes ' s agent to open up contract negotiations to lock Cespedes up for more years?

Is there anything more Cespedes would need to do to inspire Alderson?

          Mack – Hey bgreg –

We first have to assume that Cespedes won’t opt out at the end of this year and leave the Mets. I don’t think he will so let’s assume he will play through the 2018 season.

Juan Lagares will still be under contract and Michael Conforto should be regularly making all-star teams by then. Past that, Wuilmer Becerra should be ready to play regularly in Queens by 2019.

A lot can happen between now and then and I can’t see Alderson trying to work out an extension past 2018 until he’s sure Cespedes comes back next year. Remember, he is kind of a flake and we all know how much Alderson loves flakes.