I May Be Wrong, But… Trade Deadline, Relief Pitchers, Waivers, 40-Man, 2014

1.     The Mets participated in the trade deadline by trading minor league infielder Omar Quintanilla to the Baltimore Orioles for cash considerations. Probably nowhere near the monies needed to pay off The Teamsters, but, hell, a cash deal is a cash deal, right? Considering what he was paid while he was in the minors, and then adding a couple of minimal major league checks, this could be like a five figure check folks. Throw in what the Orioles will pay for the O-Man… well; rest assured there will be enough paint in the locker to keep those lines painted around Fred and Jeff’s parking space. 

     2.     Former LAD GM Dan Evans‏ explained it best when asked why teams trade for relief pitchers in July: “ Reason many contending clubs bolster their relief staff at the deadline is because bullpens are asked to record more outs in the post-season.” This could be the main reason we haven’t seen Sandy Alderson go nuts this week. No one has to speak about it. Everybody in the Mets organization knows their little dream is over this year, especially after all the teams that have stocked up on talent in the last 72-hours.

     3.     There still may be some more deals this season, but the player is going to have to clear waivers first. You may see players like Jason Bay, Manny Acosta, Ramon Ramirez, Mike Nickeas, Scott Hairston, Ronny Cedeno, and Andres Torres waived… what you won’t see is other names like Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, and Johan Santana. Most will be placed on waivers, but very quietly to avoid an embarrassing situation for both the team and the player. This is how many ‘throw-away’ players this team currently has. 

    4.     Me? Well, my ‘keepers’ on the 40-man are: Dickey, Edgin, Familia, Gee, Harvey, Mejia, Niese, Thole, Davis, Flores, Havens, Tejada, Valdespin, Wright, and Hairston. That’s 15 players. Sorry, I wish there were more, and it’s not that I want the rest to all leave, but frankly, I won’t lose any sleep if any of the other 25 isn’t around next year. 

5.       Which really leads to a whole new look at my projection that 2014 would be the year that the Mets win the World Series. I looked over the rosters of the minor league teams and I can add the following names: Wheeler, Mazzoni, Kolarek, Campbell, and Leathersich, but that still only adds up to 30 ballplayers. It’s a killer rotation on paper (Harvey, Wheeler, Dickey, Niese, Mazzoni) and the makings of a decent pen (Mejia, Familia, Edgin, Gee, Mazzoni, Kolarek, Leathersich). Your infield would be Davis, Havens, Tejada, Wright, and Thole, but you only have two outfielders (Valdespin and Hairston) and no second catcher. There simply isn’t enough bats in this lineup and, after watching the 100s of names of great players talked about today on the trading day deadline, you start to realize that even us writers may believe, for emotional reasons, that our mother’s chicken soup is the best in the word. No, it won’t happen in 2014 unless the Mets up the ante and get back in the FA game. There simply are too many better teams out there.