smg58

As good a year as Stanton is having, the fact that he missed significant time in each of the past two seasons makes the size of that contract daunting.

The Yankees may still have a loaded farm system, but they're going to have to contend with Rafael Devers for a very long time.

But their training regimen is second to none.

A player to be named later might mean somebody on the 40 who didn't clear waivers. That would actually be an improvement.

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.

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.

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.

Both Fangraphs and the Fielding Bible put Bruce's glove on the good side of average this year. Not knowing what the Yankees offered, I can't really comment on the difference. I'd take $5M before I took two underwhelming prospects instead of one, for example. If they got zero takers in July, there was zero reason to expect much now. If Brantley got hurt, nobody would have offered the Mets anything for Bruce. I just don't get it, but nobody wants to give up any value for a rental. Somebody will miss the playoffs because of their stubbornness and the market will eventually re-correct itself, but that will do jack shit for the Mets. The only thing that Alderson could have done was anticipate how the market and the Mets' season would go well in advance of the deadline and act proactively, but hindsight is bionic and the complaints would have been even louder. Personally I'd have offered Bruce the QO, but I see the logic in going this route.

It may be a case of not building up a rhythm or enough stamina following an injury, in which case you just have to be patient with him. (Now granted, I'd feel a lot more confident saying that if I trusted the Mets' doctors more.)

I think you have to be in on Moustakas -- his low OBP and apparently declining defense may limit what I'm willing to spend, but our need at third is very large and he can mash. Any and all pitchers have to be considered as well. Greg Holland intrigues me, a lot. I've got no problem with spending to bring in an ace starter, either.

from Rotoworld: "Ike Davis struck out the side for the Dodgers' Arizona League team Sunday in his first inning as a full-time pitcher. Davis, 30, decided to make the switch to the mound earlier this season after getting off to a rough start as a hitter at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Pitching isn't totally new to him, though, as Davis was a reliever in college at Arizona State. Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs.com reports that Davis was sitting in the 88-92 mph range with his fastball Sunday in the rookie-level AZL. He's obviously not a great bet to make it to the majors as a pitcher, but it will be an interesting story to track." Did anybody else know about this?

d'Arnaud isn't killing us -- some better luck on balls in play, and his betting average would look a lot better (along with his OBP and SLG). Our outfield is crowded with a lot of players who aren't killing us. Our infield defense has not been good, but it hasn't killed us. And we've just massively upgraded shortstop, and first base will have at least a defensive upgrade soon. Three of our big five starters with ERAs over 5, on those occasions when they're healthy enough to pitch? Our bottom-of-the-barrel bullpen, now deprived of its best member? Quite deadly. What do we do about that?

I remember Stephen Drew refusing to take the QO, then refusing to take anything he thought was less than he was worth. He wound up sitting for more than half a season, and his career never recovered. The old system sorted out type A and type B by position, and was particularly brutal towards relief pitchers. The new system is an improvement, but it is still a long way from perfect. One thing I would do is give the player more than a week to accept or reject the offer. The more time you have to gauge the market, the easier the decision will be. And the easiest way to discourage GMs from offering the QO to borderline players is for some borderline players to take it.

I think I remember Greg Maddux accepting a QO (or whatever the equivalent was in the old system) when the Braves assumed that he wouldn't, and they wound up having to trade another pitcher to keep their payroll from getting bloated. So it has happened. I think more players are starting to realize that sometimes you're better off accepting the offer, though. My only gripe with Rivera and Flores is that they are basically the same player -- righthanded utility infielders who are more bat than glove, and can give you a decent average and power even if they don't walk as much as you'd like. They're very useful reserves, but they haven't given any indication of being more than that. I'm not sure the Mets really need both of them. Rivera's injury might render that moot, but I was under the impression it was similar in type and severity to Seth Lugo's injury, and Lugo (keep in mind he's a pitcher and Rivera isn't) was able to recover from the injury without needing surgery.

It's 6.5 big ones if you count the 2 for the buyout they're already paying for regardless. I don't think it would take that much of a bounceback to justify that cost, if he can settle in defensively at second or third. Again, if other teams aren't valuing a guy that has value, you might as well work with what you have rather than keep trying to fight against this market.

The radio said that Robles said he felt numbness in his fingers. So why did he keep pitching?

Edgy MD wrote: And then the team may get a redux of the Walker situation. A player who isn't part of the plan accepting the offer, not having a position, and taking up a big chunk of the salary. Or alternatively, they carry him for the rest of the season, let him take at-bats from young players, he gets the offer, he rejects it, and the Mets get a pick between rounds two and three, the upside is two more months of burying their real centerfielders in exchange for ad second/third sandwich draft pick, and again, the risk of the former situation, that he accepts it. Neither situation is a disaster, but neither is ideal. I understand why the team may still be looking to trade. Walker would have worked out fine if he didn't lose six weeks. The Mets didn't (and still don't) have a better option at second base. Cecchini, like Herrera last year, has given the Mets reasons to keep him in AAA. (Herrera, by the way, has yet to play an inning with the Reds and is out for the year. The bright side is that we might be able to claim him on waivers this offseason.) Maybe it prevented the Mets from making a long-term offer to a better second baseman, but there's no guarantee of that. I'll agree that the Bruce situation is less cut-and-dried. The Mets have enough outfield depth in house to justify moving on. But if other teams insist on not valuing players that have value, we might as well hold on to them. Walker's salary will be off the books, as will Granderson's. That leaves a fair amount of money to play with even if Bruce does come back.

30 HR and 100 RBI should mean that Bruce can afford to pass on a qualifying offer, and the draft pick would be worth more than anything he could get us back in August. And if he comes back that's OK too. So there's no point in dealing him right now.

* Matz, Wheeler, and Lugo showing signs of righting the ship. * Anybody from this year's bullpen making a convincing case to be part of next year's bullpen.

The Mets were in a bind in a market that was openly hostile to two-month rentals. The alternative to getting pennies on the dollar for Reed and Duda was holding on to them and giving them the qualifying offer. That would most likely have meant paying Reed an obscene amount of money for a reliever, although you would still have Reed and Merandy Gonzalez. In Duda's case, you would have to have been willing to try out Dominic Smith at third in order to go that route. Giving Bruce the QO makes sense at this point, especially since he might not clear waivers (or bring back much if he does). The others will clear waivers. Barring character issues that may or may not be overblown, there is no urgency in dealing Cabrera. It would basically cost the Mets $6.5M to pick up his option, which is not unreasonable.

After all the lack of demand for two-month rentals, the Rangers got a nice haul -- Willie Calhoun is the #4 second base prospect in baseball and he's ready to play in the show right now.

I've got no problem adding to next year's pen right now. For what it's worth, it means the Mets will still have one competent reliever when Reed gets dealt. And it cost two guys I hadn't heard of before this morning. Ramos does need to cut down on the walks, though.

He's in the White House with Scaramucci.

Pat Neshek just got the Phillies three prospects.

It's tough to gauge the market based on the deal the Yankees just made. They did just give up a top 30 overall prospect and three other players, but got two very good relievers they can control for a while in addition to Todd Frazier (who's hitting .201). The deal did displace some guys who could help next year's bullpen for the Mets (Gallegos, whom Sherman mentioned, and lefty Chasen Shreve, who was actually having a pretty good season in the Bronx), so those are guys you have to assume could be had. I'd also look into Miguel Andujar, their third baseman at AAA. That might take more than Duda, but the Starlin Castro injury has created an extra opening.