30
2009
Did Javier Vasquez Just Become Expendable?
An article by 
Last month, a team source for the San Diego Padres told me he believed that the Atlanta Braves will try to trade Javier Vasquez in the off season according to some rumblings around the league. I really didn’t give it much thought at the time because I didn’t really see any reason why the Braves would move Vasquez who is arguably their best starting pitcher. I actually forgot about it until this morning when I learned that the Braves are on the verge of signing veteran starting pitcher Tim Hudson to a three year deal.
The Braves are by no means a low market when it comes to payroll, but they have always managed to keep it a tad below $100 million for the last five seasons. They have some big decisions to make regarding bringing back Adam La Roche, and going to arbitration with Rafael Soriano and few other key players who are expected to get big raises.
Currently, they have the following pitchers slated for their rotation, and I’m going to leave Vasquez out for the time being.
1. Tim Hudson (2 wins, 3.61 ERA)
2. Derek Lowe (15 wins, 4.67 ERA)
3. Jair Jurrjens (14 wins, 2.60 ERA)
4. Tommy Hanson (11 wins, 2.89 ERA)
Hudson and Lowe give the Braves a solid veteran presence, and Jurrjens and Hanson are two of baseballs best young pitchers with each being projected to be top of the rotation starters.
With Javier Vasquez entering his walk year and due to make $11.5 million dollars, maybe my source was right and Vasquez could really be on the trading block. His no trade clause only blocks teams from the AL and NL West. The Mets have already made a deal recently which would suggest that Frank Wren and Omar Minaya have a good working relationship.
The 33-year old righthander would certainly fill the bill as the number two starter the Mets desperately need to backup their ace, Johan Santana. Javier Vazquez went 15-10 with a 2.87 ERA and a 238/44 K/BB ratio over 219 1/3 innings in 2009. He is one of the games best workhorses, making 32 or more starts for ten straight seasons.
He may not cost as much in terms of prospects as the sought after Roy Halladay, and that might be a good thing for the Mets. Currently, the Braves could use help at first base, especially if La Roche departs for greener pastures in free agency. The Mets seem to have some depth at first base in Daniel Murphy, Ike Davis, Nick Evans and Chris Carter. Neither of them would be enough on their own to land Vasquez, but would be a significant piece of the puzzle.
It may be worth looking into.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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Minaya blew it last year when Williams offered him up as a buy-low. If it took top-prospect Tyler Flowers to get him coming off a bad year, who knows what the Braves will ask for.
I agree with you, there was time last year when I actually thought his coming to the Mets was a foregone conclusion because of Omar’s relationship with Vasquez. The one time when nepotism would have been okay and Omar fails to act. Instead he saddled us with Perez. We probably could have gotten Vasquez for Niese or less at the time.
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I would have been skeptical as well if someone told me the Braves would move Vasquez, but looking at their rotation without him, it seems very formidable. Jurrjens would be an ace on many teams right now, and Hanson is not too far behind him and may be better in the long run. You make some solid points and it certainly is worth investigating by Omar.
Vasquez would be a great addition to the rotation and cost much less than Halladay. The Mets might even be able to use their interest in Vasquez to get the Blue Jays to lower their price a little as they look to shed salary. I like the idea of going after Vasquez, but it might cost the Mets a top pitching prospect as well as one of the players you mention. Still it would be worth it. Where would the Phillies be without Lee? Sometimes you just have to roll the dice, and with Vasquez you can bank on 200+ quality innings.
Forget Vasquez,Why would the Braves want to help the Mets out??Go after Halladay use the propects to get him and only him.If you have to take Wells then so be it??Just dont trade Davis,Thole,Nieuwenhuis,or Meija.But if it costs Niese,Parnell,Tejada,Bowman.Id do it in a second.
why would the blue jays take a bunch of secondary prospects average prospects from the mets when they could go and get a package of a few elite prospects from someone else? If the Mets get Halladay they will have to part with a few of their star prospects
Only if the Mets took Vernon Wells’s contract, would the price for Halliday be a lot less from the Jays.
Exactly Anthony thats what i was getting at.I think the Jays need out from the Wells contract.They also want something serviceable from Losing Halladay.Bowman is from Canada Jays need a shortstop.Plus they would get a Starting pitcher and a potential closer.
Scoll down to the bottom, i listed some bad contracts from mlbtaderumors.com, might be able to come up with some problem for problem deals as well. Some interesting names there.
I would take vernon wells along with halladay, but the blue jays could find a better group of prospects in return elsewhere then with the Mets, and the mets already have a few bad contracts so it would be a risky move that would fill up a lot of our salary space. Vernon Wells has not been able to reach potential in Toronto, why would he be able to do it in the pressure cooker that is NY?
I would much rather see the mets use their trading chips for Prince Fielder….25 yrs old, has played over 155 games each of the past 4 seasons, tremendous power, is an average fielder ( better then Murph )
Use the trading chips on him, and bring in John lackey…you have a 2nd starter and an all star 1B who is still 2 yrs away from reaching his prime years
It is a long shot to get him, but would be worth the prospects to get him on the MEts
Sorry, but trading Francoeur to the Mets is one thing, they wanted to desperately get rid of him. Trading Vasquez to us is an entirely different matter. You’ve proven to me that he may indeed be expendable, but I dont see the Braves trading him to the Mets unless they absolutely blow them away with an offer. I dont see that happening.
If the Braves wanted to trade Vazquez to NY, they’d ask more from us than say the Rangers or somebody. I’d rather overpay for a guarantee than a shot in the dark like Vazquez.
33 year old Vazquez is bound to break down…especially after a career year.
Remind me, Vazquez’s worst year was when he played in which home town?
New York.
It is far better to have tried to do something and fail, than to do nothing and succeed. If Vasquez is truly on the block, what’s the harm in exploring it as the author suggests? The Braves would already be limited by a no trad clause that allows them only to speak with East and Central division teams. Of those teams, only 2-3 would be able to afford the 11.5 million, and most likely the Yankees wont go there again, so the Mets chances aren’t as slim as you would have everyone believe.
Wow, that would be a nice addition, but do we really want to trade a guys within our own division. If we give the Braves Murphy and maybe 2 others for a player in his walk year we will be regretting it later on.
What happened to giving these in house guys a chance. Maybe what we could do is:
Sign Bay to 5/75M
Sign Lackey to 5/90M
Sign Molina/ Barajas to 1 year 2 to 4M
The lineup would be:
Reyes
Castillo
Bay
Beltran
Wright
Francouer
Molina
Murhphy
P
this guy has already failed in the big city.
what I am saying is, I would not have isgned Ed Whitson after his stay with the yanks, whatever his major league record was. Once guys show yellow….you cannot trust him again.
did you mean kenny rogers????????
no I was talking about whitson, who came here, could not handle it, and peed on himself. the word on vazquez was that he could not handle NY when he was with the yanks.
Got a bad contract on your hands? Maybe you can swap it for another team’s problem. I’ll list the bad contracts, you connect the dots.
•Vernon Wells, Blue Jays – five years, $98.5MM
•Alfonso Soriano, Cubs – five years, $90MM
•Barry Zito, Giants – four years, $83MM
•Alex Rios, White Sox – five years, $59.7MM
•Travis Hafner, Indians – three years, $40.25MM
•Aaron Rowand, Giants – three years, $36MM
•Carlos Guillen, Tigers – two years, $26MM
•Carlos Silva, Mariners – two years, $25MM
•Francisco Cordero, Reds – two years, $25MM
•Oliver Perez, Mets – two years, $24MM
•Gary Matthews Jr., Angels – two years, $23MM
•Milton Bradley, Cubs – two years, $21MM
•Juan Pierre, Dodgers – two years, $18.5MM
•Jeff Suppan, Brewers – one year, $14.5MM
•David Ortiz, Red Sox – one year, $12.5MM
•Jeremy Bonderman, Tigers – one year, $12.5MM
•Jose Guillen, Royals – one year, $12MM
•Eric Chavez, Athletics – one year, $12MM
•Dontrelle Willis, Tigers – one year, $12MM
•Eric Byrnes, Diamondbacks – one year, $11MM
•Fausto Carmona, Indians – two years, $11MM
•Scott Linebrink, White Sox – two years, $10.5MM
•Nate Robertson, Tigers – one year, $10MM
•Edgar Renteria, Giants – one year, $9.5MM
•Pat Burrell, Rays – one year, $9MM
•Kei Igawa, Yankees – two years $8MM
•Jeff Francis, Rockies – one year, $5.75MM
•Kyle Farnsworth, Royals – one year, $5MM
•Willy Taveras, Reds – one year, $4MM
•Aaron Miles, Cubs – one year, $2.7MM
•Honorable mentions: Michael Young (4/64, some deferred), Carlos Lee (3/55.5), Derek Lowe (3/45), Todd Helton (2/40.3), Kyle Lohse (3/32.625), Magglio Ordonez (1/18, possible vesting option), Mike Lowell (1/12), Chris Snyder (2/11.25), Cristian Guzman (1/8), Jamie Moyer (1/7.5), Kaz Matsui (1/5)
Vazquez makes no sense. He is at best a solid #3. The Mets need a true #2. They need to go after someone of the caliber of Lackey or Halladay. I would explore the possibility of acquiring Gonzalez foe 1B. If there is no chance at this, then I would make a strong play for Halladay, as long as he would agree to negotiate an extension. If not, I would make a big push for Lackey unless someone of equal caliber becomes available via trade. If the Mets have the money to spend as they claim, I would go the free agent route to hold on to whatever prospects they have for further development or bargaining chips. However, if Halladay or Gonzalez are available, I would make any prospect available to trade. We are too infatuated with “potential.” In 40 years of watching the Mets, I can count on 1 hand the number of true stars they have developed in their farm system. I will be surprised if more than 1 of our “prized prospects” turn into anything more than average major league players. Right now we have Wright and Reyes. Who was the last 1? Doc? Before him? Seaver? Take the known quantity any day over potential.
i think vasquez will pee on him self he cant handle new york! hes awaste of time! i say if wilpon means what he says break the bank! sign lackey sign holliday !! phil umber and mike pelfrey need to go the hell with building in look at out track history jason bay was a met let him go scott kazmir a met traded him for i dont even want to say his name disgrace! we had jacobs were is he he had pop in his bat?? fre wilpon will have to spend not ridiculous but alot the yankeethey took the chance and look were they are at? after they said no spending for 2 years they did! the mets i love them but we cant make great major league prospects except wright reyes !! wells anint bad holliday too make that deal we need at least 2 great starters and a bat that aint scared of new york im ot going to sit a see a curve ball pass over beltran the phils win again rollins talking crap and the yankees being number one when we can play better and are better we have heart !!!
Vasquez may be allergic to NY…how else to explain his bomb-out with the Yankees? i’d rather sign Lackey…he can do it, anywhere. Keep Ike Davis for the future, the kid’s got potential. Keep Mejia, Moviel, Holt…power arms. And Niese might be a very serviceable lefty to have in the rotation. It’d be a nightmare to see any of them blossom as an Atlanta Brave!
I’D READ SOMEWHERE, THEY HAD CONSIDERED DEALING VASQUEZ; BUT DECIDED DEALING LOWE WAS THE BETTER OPTION WHICH CERTAINLY MAKES SENSE CONSIDERING LOWE’S DECLINING ACCOMPLISHMENTS LATE LAST SEASON, HIS AGE 37 NEXT SEASON, 3 YRS @ 45M STILL TO GO!
CONSIDER, OMAR WOULD’VE HAD TO OUTBID 4/60 TO HAVE INKED HIM AS MANY OF U CLAMORED FOR.
IS PEREZ 2/24 WORSE MONEY THAN LOWE’S 3/45+?
I TELL YOU, MILWALKEE’S GM STATED HIS MISSION IS THE ADDITION OF 2 ESTABLISHED SP,& A WILLINGNESS TO DEAL HIS TOP PROSPECT TO DO SO. OMAR SHOULD CHALLENGE HIM WITH WHAT 2 DO U WANT FOR PRINCE? WE KNOW THEY’D NEVER PICK JOHAN; IF THEY WERE INCLINED TO PAY THAT MUCH FOR THAT LONG THEY’D HAVE BEEN MUCH MORE COMPETITIVE ON CC. IF NOTHING ELSE, IT GETS CONVERSATION STARTED & HE COULD KEEP HIS PROSPECT. ASSUMING HE’D OPT FOR PETERSONITES PELFREY & MAINE AS (10 MIN OR LESS FIXES) INK BOTH LACKEY & MARQUIS TO TOP OFF THE ROTATION, THEN INK BENGIE. MAINE & PELF NOT GOOD ENOUGH? JUST BASED ON LAST YR, THEY’D AUTOMATICALLY BE #2 & #3 BEST AMONG THEIR EXISTING ROTATION! THROW IN MURPH IF NECESSARY! WE NEED AT LEAST 40 HR FROM SOMEWHERE & PRINCE & BENGIE’LL BE GOOD FOR 50+, U THEN CAN GO FOR CHARACTER OVER POWER IN LF. CONSIDERING THEIR BEST SP, LOOPER, FROM ’09 HAS A TEAM OPTION(6M) HE’S PROJECTED TO DECLINE LEAVING THEM -1 INSTEAD OF +2 IN SPing! SINCE PRINCE IS @ 10.5M FOR ’10 FACING ARBITRATION Vs BORAS TO PLAY ’11, IT’S LIKELY ONLY A RENTAL 1Y ACQUISITION, PERFECT FOR DAVIS TO TAKE OVER. IT MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE NOT TO PURSUE VIGOROUSLY.