Whither Walker?

[Frayed Knot]

Just a brief mention of it, but after being in on talks for, but ultimately not landing, LH bats Duda or Bruce, Jon Heyman says in his 'Fan Rag' (whatever that is) notes that the Yanx might be
interested in Neil Walker.

It would make sense that Walker would be the next domino to fall as the affordable Cabrera option makes him the more logical one to stick the rest of this season and maybe even next.
Problem is that the Yanx are suddenly getting penny conscious and seem to be insisting that trading partners pick up a good chunk of whatever remaining salaries come their way which
could certainly make a mess out of negotiations. Not that I'd expect a lot for him, but that would really be the move to clear the decks for not only Dom Smith but maybe some combo
of Cecchini and Matt Reynolds (who may or may not be on the current roster, I can never keep track).


Ronald Torreyes (the hushed-up bastard child of Joe Torre and Jose Reyes) has been playing most of the 2B in the Bronx lately, and while he runs and gets his bat on the ball he shows little
power and rarely walks. Plus Matt Holliday, the main DH, has been either injured and/or showing his age after a decent start to the season, so they'll have at least some use for Neil.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

Do the Yankees have any 40th-round draft picks that they can spare?

[smg58]

Starlin Castro has been out for a while, so it makes sense for the Yankees to look at a second baseman/spare infield bat.

One person to look at from the Yankees is Nestor Cortes. He's sort of the Yankees equivalent of P. J. Conlon, only more accomplished -- a lefty arm who keeps the ball in the park and has put up stellar numbers all the way up to AAA (24/4 K/BB, 0 HR, 1.17 ERA in 23 innings for Scranton) without drawing much notice. He is not on the 40, which means he doesn't have to clear waivers. He would probably immediately become our best reliever.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Guest

[seawolf17]

I'm sure, as Grimm noted, that the Wilpons would be happy to take nothing more than a 50% off coupon for a frappuccino in exchange for him.

[smg58]

A report just came out that the Mets and Yankees actually had a deal involving Walker in place at the deadline, but the Yankees balked after looking at his medical reports.

[Edgy MD]

Now each hit he gets feels like it's stolen from the Yankees.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Now each hit he gets feels like it's stolen from the Yankees.

And Walker has seen two pitches tonight and has five total bases on a day where the Yanx are so far getting shut-out by the Blue Jays ... so as far as I'm concerned the non-trade of Walker has been a win-win!

[Edgy MD]

Now 3-for-4.

[Edgy MD]

Fo'-fo'-Five.

[Frayed Knot]

smg58 wrote: A report just came out that the Mets and Yankees actually had a deal involving Walker in place at the deadline, but the Yankees balked after looking at his medical reports.

And now the teams start to throw some dirt each way over the failure of some of these rumored deals.

- On the Walker front, some un-named Mets suggests that the Yanx are using medicals as an excuse for backing out of a deal they didn't want to make for financial reasons. The Yanx have been
real good at suggesting in recent years how they want/need to get the payroll down but are reluctant to admit it when money might be an issue for nixing any particular deal or signing lest they
no longer seem like the big bad powerhouse of yesteryear.
- On Bruce, the Yanx are described as being "confounded" that their offer wasn't considered superior which in turn drew a retort from the Queens side about how “If they would give us something
of [bleeping] value [then] maybe we would have made a deal”. And of course the Yanx always want their trading partner to pay the freight for the incoming guy.


Nothing like a bit of anonymous sniping in advance of next week's series.

[smg58]

Given the Yankees' at least outward lack of interest in Lucas Duda (coupled with their lack of performance from 1B and DH this season), the story might be even longer than we know.

[bmfc1]

If the Mets were more interested in $ than prospects then the MFYs could have taken on all of Bruce's salary if they really wanted to make the deal (and keep Bruce away from another WC contender). It's possible that their prospects were better than Ryder Ryan but you need to know your trading partner. Maybe Steinbrenner, Jr. gave Cashman a $ limit or maybe Cashman didn't read Sandy properly.

(See, I'm not always on Sandy's case. Most of the time but not here.)

[Frayed Knot]

Given the Yankees' at least outward lack of interest in Lucas Duda

Well supposedly they were in on discussions involving Duda too, although whether those chats progressed to the point of actual players in return as they did with Bruce & Walker is unclear.
But the gist of that liked article (and others) is that at least some sources seem to think the Yanx are more interested in making it look like they've tried to get guys while making sure that the
other team gets the blame in order to draw attention away from their reluctance to take on payroll.
I mean I'm sure they'd take them if the Mets would pay all the freight AND accept little in return (see: Minnesota re Jamie Garcia*) but until then it's coming off as appearance over substance.




* with Minnesota is 1/2 game out of the 2nd WC, WTF were they doing trading away pitching, especially one they had just traded FOR and to one of the other WC contenders?

[Edgy MD]

The Yankees are welcome to try again with a run at Granderson.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Granderson seems like a good guy. He doesn't deserve to serve a second term in the Bronx.

[Edgy MD]

The Yankees are welcome to try again with a run at Neil Walker.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'd be okay with that. But Castro appears to be nearing a rehab assignment, and whoever has been leaking trade info from the Yankee side appears to have pissed off our folks something fierce.

[bmfc1]

Rockin' Doc wrote: Granderson seems like a good guy. He doesn't deserve to serve a second term in the Bronx.

And the MFYs don't deserve him. Maybe a return to Chicago?

[Edgy MD]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'd be okay with that. But Castro appears to be nearing a rehab assignment, and whoever has been leaking trade info from the Yankee side appears to have pissed off our folks something fierce.

The Yankees are welcome to try again with a run at Tommy Milone.

[Frayed Knot]

The other thing about these leaked stories about concerns over Walker's medicals (almost certainly coming from the Yanx) is how unfair that is to Walker both now and going forward.
Even if those concerns are accurate -- questionable to begin with as medicals often aren't as cut and dried as folks like to think, too big a risk for one team might be quite acceptable to
another -- there are other teams who might consider dealing for him plus he's going to be a FA this winter, and now he has to do so with a team poisoning the waters via a whispering
campaign so as to cover their own asses.

It's not quite as bad as when ESPN decided that getting ahold of Jason Pierre Paul's X-rays and putting them on the internet was good journalistic practice, plus you're never going find
evidence of where these leaks came from anyway, but there's no way clubs should be permitted to allow info like that to get out, officially or otherwise.

[bmfc1]

Frayed Knot wrote: questionable to begin with as medicals often aren't as cut and dried as folks like to think, too big a risk for one team might be quite acceptable to another

Good point. Teams have trouble dealing with the Orioles because they say that Angelos wants pristine medicals. The MFYs might have used a mere blemish (literally or figuratively) to change their minds and are using the media to blame the Mets and hurt Walker.

[bmfc1]

[tweet:2ihnmrfr]

[/tweet:2ihnmrfr]

[Frayed Knot]

questionable to begin with as medicals often aren't as cut and dried as folks like to think, too big a risk for one team might be quite acceptable to another Good point. Teams have trouble dealing with the Orioles because they say that Angelos wants pristine medicals. The MFYs might have used a mere blemish (literally or figuratively) to change their minds and are using the media to blame the Mets and hurt Walker.

And it's not just differing versions of what one team deems acceptable or not; sometimes determining whether or not there even is an injury is subject to interpretation.
I think sometimes fans are under the impression that there's some kind of easy test where the litmus paper turns red if the player needs to be DL'd vs blue if the muscle/tendon/ligament is
still good - like one of those instant +/- style pregnancy sticks. Reading X-rays or MRIs is often as much art as science.




But at this point it's probably all moot as I'm guilty of burying the lead here ...
MetsBlog (from about 1/2 hour ago): Mets IF Neil Walker is on the verge of being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, reports Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
Although the trade is said to be "close," nothing has not yet been completed and Walker was participating in batting practice on Saturday. He is also in the lineup at second base and is slated
to hit second.

[Frayed Knot]

And now Jon Heyman says it's done ... no word yet on the return.


[crossesfingers]Maybe we'll get a minor league reliever!![/crossesfingers]




https://www.fanragsports.com/news/heyman-brewers-acquire-neil-walker-mets/

[bmfc1]

Good news for Neil: he gets another trip to Pittsburgh this year, September 18-20.

[ashie62]

Did we get anything?

[ashie62]

To the Brewers, return unknown.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/08/12/mets-brewers-neil-walker-trade

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Was Walker seen weeping over his pending trade to the Brewers?

[MFS62]

The announcement was supposed to happen after the game.
OK, so who did they get?

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Sounds like the always popular 'Player to be Named Later'