Some fresh news to report that involves a few names that may be of interest to Mets fans. On Friday, the excursive window that teams have to negotiate with their own free agents comes to an end. You can expect things to really start reaching a frenzied peak after that.
Today, Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post had an exclusive interview with free agent starting pitcher Jason Marquis who considers himself a perfect fit with the New York Mets. He recalls when Jeff Francoeur told The Post this summer that free-agent right hander Jason Marquis badly wants to be a Met in 2010, and now it seems Marquis has backed it up.
“It would always be nice to come back home and represent your hometown [as a member of the Mets],” said Marquis, who grew up in Staten Island and still lives there. “This is where I’m from, so to come back here and play in front of friends and family would be an honor.”
The 31-year old Marquis was 15–13 with a 4.04 ERA an 1.38 WHIP last season for the Rockies. in 216 innings pitched he struck out 115 batters. He has had double digit wins for six straight seasons.
According to Jon Heyman of SI.com the Yankees recently called the Blue Jays to express interest in superstar pitcher Roy Halladay. And while the Yankees made the very same call last summer with no hope of acquiring Halladay, this time they have a real reason to believe they may actually have a legitimate chance to make a blockbuster trade.
Wow, imagine a 1-2-3 of Halladay, Sabathia and Burnett. Toronto’s new GM insists that he would trade Halladay to his division rivals if their offers helped the Blue Jays more in their opinion. Heyman writes,
Here is the most obvious reason the Yankees (or Red Sox) may now finally have a legit shot to trade for arguably baseball’s best pitcher: New Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos is making it clear he is genuinely willing to consider a deal with either the Yankees or Red Sox, a sharp contrast to Anthopoulos’ predecessor, J.P. Ricciardi, who had GMs convinced he’d never make a Halladay trade with either the Yankees or Red Sox.
A curveball to throw into this Halladay to Yanks/Red Sox drumbeat is the spin of ‘what if’ the Mets said ‘okay, we’ll takes V. Wells with Halladay…and give you Pelfrey, Martinez, Murphy, and Ollllllllllie Perez…?
It’s been ‘public knowledge’ for months that the Jays are desperate to get rid of Wells’ odious contract. Swallow hard, Met fans: would you do that? Wells’ contract + what’d take to sign Doc might poison the well for any other major FA signing this off-season.
As much as i’ve pined for Doc Halladay, i don’t think i’d do this trade. It would impinge our player flexibility for years (2014?!).
fuhgeddaboudit…Lackey, Marquis, Sheets…and Matt Holliday…trade Castillo for Casey to back up Murphy, and sign Chone Higgins to play 2b.
That’d make a sweet team.
Great job Bob L. I like the thought process. I fear though, that Omar will want to get rid of both of his mistakes (Perez and Castillo) at the expense of Vernon Wells. Here’s hoping Omar sees what you see!
BOB, I TOTALLY CONCUR ON A HALLADAY PASS; BUT I MUST ASK, BABKUP MURPHY? SINCE WHEN DOES A BENCHWARMER NEED AN ACTUAL BACKUP, BTW- ON AN ACTUAL CONTENDER, MURPHY IS A ONE DIMENSIONAL BENCH WARMER! I’M VERY CONCERNED ANYONE IS TALKING SHEETS SINCE BEFORE HIS SURGERY HE’D SEEN MORE VARIED INJURIES THAN A VILLAGE ER. IF NOT ONE THING IT WAS SOMETHING ELSE & UNLESS HE REC’D A FULL BODY TRANSPLANT HE’S NOT MY GUY. IF I WANTED TO TAKE THAT SORT OF RISK I’D LOOK AT CARPENTER AFTER LACKEY & MARQUIS. PINIERO I’D KICK TO THE CURB AS A DAVE DUNCAN “YO-YO” MARQUIS, WHEN U THINK OF IT HAS BEEN THE ONLY ATLANTA #4 NOT TO BUST.
If the Yankees get Halladay I hope the commissioner steps in and blocks the trade the way Bowie Kuhn (I believe) blocked the Yankees from getting Vida Blue for the good of the game and to preserve competitive balance in the division.
oh, but the commish should NOT step in if the Red Sox got him..c’mon…or if the Angels got him..? Halladay, under this rationale, could be blocked to going to a number of teams…Phillies (!), Mets (because with him and say Lackey & Marquis, we’d dominate the NL!!, the Giants, the Dodgers…this stuff could spin out of control…where to stop it?
Toronto doesn’t want to trade him in there division.I know they say they will,but do you really think they want to see him pitch against them? I don’t think so.They have already put out in the papers that the Mets have enough to get him.But they have already had discussions with Philly also.I believe they are using the Sox and Yanks to get Phils and Mets to make better offers.Anyways having 2 of the best pitchers at the top of the rotation is better than Santana and a lot of ??????Atleast you know what you would get with Halladay.35 starts 230 innings 18-22 wins 10 complete games.
You have a link to where they say the Mets have enough?
Gah! Vernon Wells + Halladay’s contract on the Mets? There’d be nothing left in the coffers for years to fill the other holes in the rotation. Why would Halladay want to come to such a hopeless team? He’d nix the trade before it would ever happen.
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