Reese Kaplan -- A Dark Night for the Dark Knight?

So the words coming out of con man Sandy Alderson’s mouth had better be a smokescreen because he’s already stated to the press that he is not going after starting pitching, not planning to be aggressive in obtaining relievers, doesn’t have any high value prospects to deal and is once again waiting for the market to come to him.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Apparently his marching orders from the owners are to put a product on the field and they will come...everyone talks about staying away and not fattening the Wilpons’ wallets but they still continue to draw.  When the current front office (and deposed field manager) took over in 2011 they drew 2.379 million fans.  Last year they drew 2.4 million.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

About the only interesting nugget to come out of the Winter Meetings press coverage was the rumor that the Mets already hurting for starting pitching are open to trading Matt Harvey to get one.  In fact, they would prefer to trade Harvey rather than Seth Lugo or Robert Gsellman.  Hmmn…on the surface that would hardly seem to make sense, but there are probably $6 million reasons why they expressed that inclination.  The younger duo makes close to major league minimum and Harvey earned $5.125 last year and despite his horrific performance is likely going to become the new $6 million man.

While I often (and justifiably) give both Alderson and the WIlpons a lot of grief for making decisions more about money than about winning, the more I thought about this one, the more I can see how it could make sense.  Hear me out.

Matt Harvey is an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2018. Given both his rocky relationship with the team and his representation by Steve Boras, the likelihood of him returning to the Mets is minimal (even if the Mets could/would pay for it).  Furthermore, after being burned by Neil Walker you’re not going to see many Qualified Offers made to free agents lest they accept them and put the team on the hook for potentially $17.6 million of salary in 2019.  So if you agree he’s a goner, hanging onto him makes little sense.

The question that arises is what’s the best case scenario?  Suppose Matt Harvey rediscovers his mojo and pitches like it was 2012 again.  You’re still in the same boat, facing him walking away for absolutely nothing at year end (without the draft pick compensation which only comes with a QO that the player has turned down).  No, your play here is to trade a Cy Young type of pitcher in July to a team that wants to win and try to restock your upper farm system with highly rated prospects (not middling relievers as was done in the great sell-off of 2017). 

The other option is to get a young, controllable reliever right now in exchange for a guy you’re going to lose anyway.  Furthermore, that hypothetical reliever (let’s call him Alex Colome for the sake of argument) is available at significantly less money and not set to hit free agency until 2021.  Now Tampa is not likely stupid enough to do that deal for Harvey alone (particularly coming off his past two years of ineffectiveness) but that’s the concept in play here.  Find a young bullpen arm who is healthy, productive and inexpensive and let someone else gamble on the final half to one year of Matt Harvey before Boras insists he test the free agency waters. 

As much as I hate to give credit to Sandy Alderson for anything, this one actually seems like a shrewd move assuming you are getting a major league pitcher with 3.50 or less ERA who don’t walk the ballpark, not guys with unsightly WHIPs and high ERAs (but “live arms”).  Colome is a pipe dream but what about a setup guy like Matt Bush of the Texas Rangers?  The Mets have recently turned a blind eye to people with off-the-field issues and the 31 year old Bush is not a free agent until 2023.  In his late start to his MLB career after jail time he has delivered on his promise with a 2-year record of 10-6, 3.08 ERA, 1.175 WHIP, 9.4 Ks per 9 IP and he’s done it over a total of 115 games.  If the Rangers (likely losing Yu Darvish) would bite on that deal I’d do it in a heartbeat. 

Thoughts?