K-Rod Traded

[MFS62]

to Milwaukee.
Announced right after the game:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=14059043

Later

[metsmarathon]

Huzzah!

[Gwreck]

Ok, now we sign Reyes to an extension.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

So much for Scott Boras' proclamation!

[metirish]

A hell of a thing to wake up to....wow....the Brewers , didn't see that one.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Interesting!

So who's the closer now? Parnell? Or is it a "bullpen by committee"? (I hope it is.)

I wonder when we find out who the two players to be named are. Will it be during the season, or after? Or might they not even bother? (That's happened before, I think.)

[metirish]

A mixture of Izzy(for however long he's here) and Parnell to start I suppose.

[Ceetar]

Okay, quick, start naming Brewers.

2 PTBNL though, seems like we could've gotten more.

Guesses on the roster move? Igarashi? Thayer?

[metsmarathon]

we had no leverage. plus, we just got $17.5M for next year. that seems like plenty.

[soupcan]

metsmarathon wrote: we had no leverage. plus, we just got $17.5M for next year. that seems like plenty.

Agreed.

The biggest thing to me is that with Frankie gone and Beltran coming off the books, there is plenty o' do-re-mi to sign a really good shortstop.

No excuses now.

[Ceetar]

metsmarathon wrote: we had no leverage. plus, we just got $17.5M for next year. that seems like plenty.

no leverage? I don't know about that. Alderson's never seemed worried about it, and it's July 13th. Leverage is created by more than one team being interested, which wouldn't have been impossible.

I'm not upset that they traded him, obviously that 17.5 is helpful, especially without the buyout this way, but I'm not relishing Igarashi and wish 'named later' was 'named sooner'

[Frayed Knot]

We probably should have seen Milwaukee coming, or at least as a decent possibility. They're in the thick of a division chase, their GM has a history of making 'go-for-it-now/don't worry about the future' moves, their pen has been shaky at best this season, and Frankie can share save-opps/game-finishes with Axford so as to assure the vesting option doesn't kick in.

IIRC, PtBNLs need to be at a different level than those they're traded for - meaning that neither is a ML player at this moment.
The problem with the Brewers system is that it was gutted before we ever got there as pre-season trades for Grienke & Marcum took whatever decent prospects they had and shipped them to Toronto and/or KC.
So what this all probably means is that the NYM brass gets to take some additional time to see how a select group of lower/mid-level fare over the next few months before deciding which guys they want. I think the thing has to wrap up within six months.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if ultimately, neither of the PTBNL's ever played a big league game for the Mets.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't be at all surprised if ultimately, neither of the PTBNL's ever played a big league game for the Mets.

agreed , this is a vesting dump.....anything else would be a bonus, like PTBNL knocking in the winning run in his one moment of glory.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't be at all surprised if ultimately, neither of the PTBNL's ever played a big league game for the Mets.

I wonder how much money the Mets gave the Brewers? Figure if it's a lot they'd get something 'better' back. Although if they'd just released him they'd still have to pay the buyout I guess. (although get draft picks)

But much like Wagner, neither guy could end up being much. neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time.

[metirish]

I read numbers like $5 million sent over or the buyout money which is what $3.5?

[Edgy MD]

Ceetar wrote: neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time.

I sure would've liked to have seen more of Chris Carter, especially as Lucas Duda was hitting .050 last year.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Ceetar wrote: neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time. I sure would've liked to have seen more of Chris Carter, especially as Lucas Duda was hitting .050 last year.

I would've liked to see him earlier, and then when he failed to be good, not held onto all season and used in key pinch hitting opportunities. Duda didn't get brought up until the'd pretty much given up didn't he?

[Farmer Ted]

Never saw the Brewers as a player for K-Rod. I hope JP has a good time in Helena checking out the talent pool.

[metsmarathon]

Ceetar wrote: metsmarathon wrote: we had no leverage. plus, we just got $17.5M for next year. that seems like plenty. no leverage? I don't know about that. Alderson's never seemed worried about it, and it's July 13th. Leverage is created by more than one team being interested, which wouldn't have been impossible.

no leverage meaning we needed to get out from under htat contract, like, fast. we could ill afford to play coy and wait for a better haul while the market disappeared. we needed a win-now team with an established closer looking for a top setup man. how many were there? we couldn't play there 'well, we'll just keep the player' card because to do so would be ruinous. and its not like we could really play the 'we're keeping him around for the fans' card because nobody is coming out to see frankie close games. nobody. and he's not even making the team appreciably better.

there was no way we could keep him, no reason we would want to, and a thin market to trade him into. thus, no leverage.

typically, the worst thing that can happen for a team in looking to trade away a veteran is that they fail to trade a player, and lose him at season's end, getting nothing in return. in our case, the worst thing that could have happened is we keep the player and are forced to pay him. thus, no leverage.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Farmer Ted wrote: Never saw the Brewers as a player for K-Rod. I hope JP has a good time in Helena checking out the talent pool.

It's possible that one or both players have already been determined, but the Brewers want to hang on to them for the rest of the season, either because they don't want to leave one of their farm teams short, or because they want depth for the remainder of the playoff race.

[Edgy MD]

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time. I sure would've liked to have seen more of Chris Carter, especially as Lucas Duda was hitting .050 last year. I would've liked to see him earlier, and then when he failed to be good, not held onto all season and used in key pinch hitting opportunities. Duda didn't get brought up until the'd pretty much given up didn't he?

Jerry may have given up on the season, but I hadn't given up on Carter. Jerry, I'd given up on.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Also, regarding leverage, remember that Rodriguez said a few weeks ago that he'd be okay being traded to a contending team that already had a closer. Now, the other day, his new agent Boras said that that's no longer the case.

Which means that the market for Frankie was reduced to teams that needed a closer, or teams that wanted him to set up and were not on his 10-team no-trade list.

For all we know, the Brewers may have been the only viable team that fit that criteria.

[TransMonk]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't be at all surprised if ultimately, neither of the PTBNL's ever played a big league game for the Mets.

This.

The Brewers mL system is pretty bare, and they may have to shave it even thinner to go completely all-in this year. They need another quality lefty bat to go along with Fielder, IMO.

[Frayed Knot]

Mets apparently kicking in $5mil - essentially the remainder of this year's contract - so what they'll save is the buyout fee ($3.5mil) and, of course, the possibility of being on the hook for next year's nut.

Here was one pre-season look at some Brewers minor leaguers.
Rogers, Scarpetta, Rivas & Peralta are currently on their 40-man and so (as far as I understand anyway) are NOT eligible for this deal.
Of course things will have changed somewhat in the half-season since that list was published and new players were added in last month's draft (I believe drafted players can not be traded until six months after they sign). A quick glance at a Brewer forum had them fretting that Thornburg (11th on that list) would be one of the PtbNLs,

Edited July 13, 2011 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: IIRC, PtBNLs need to be at a different level than those they're traded for - meaning that neither is a ML player at this moment.

I'd like a confirmation on this, as I never knew such a thing. Obviously, it wasn't always true.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: IIRC, PtBNLs need to be at a different level than those they're traded for - meaning that neither is a ML player at this moment.

Except when a player is on the DL.
So, it is still possible at least one of the players may be a major leaguer.

Later

[Ceetar]

metsmarathon wrote: there was no way we could keep him, no reason we would want to, and a thin market to trade him into. thus, no leverage. typically, the worst thing that can happen for a team in looking to trade away a veteran is that they fail to trade a player, and lose him at season's end, getting nothing in return. in our case, the worst thing that could have happened is we keep the player and are forced to pay him. thus, no leverage.

This is pure speculation? Who knows how thin the market was? I mean, Milwaukee wasn't even 'rumored' for whatever that's worth. how many other suitors may have been out there? The leverage is the 2.5 weeks until the trading deadline, plus the waiver period possibilities.

Could've just released him too. Maybe paying 3.5 next year is worse than paying 5million this year (or really, paying nothing this year, since they were going to pay him that anyway) or maybe it's not.

And this is without getting into 'mucking with his playing time' issues, which would've been really easy if the Mets fell out of it. Then you're paying 3.5 for some draft picks.

I'm not unhappy with the move, I just expected to get more than two random minor leaguers sometime in the future. Something more than a pure salary dump in early July.

[TransMonk]

This was a good move.

I would have accepted Prince Fielder's game-used jock strap back in trade to be guaranteed earlier rather than later that there was no chance we would be paying a reliever $17.5M next season.

[bmfc1]

I think that Sandy's logic was similar to Transmonk's: he was afraid that Terry would use Rodriguez so often that the contract would vest thereby making him untradable and his contract a liability to the future of the Mets. I doubt that they'll get much in return and, as suggested, I don't think that Sandy is very concerned about it.