19
2011
Plenty Of Teams Could Be Interested In Reyes
An article by 
Updating my post from yesterday, here is some new speculation from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, who believes the Mets should trade Jose Reyes now.
Reyes, 27, is the healthiest he has been since 2008. He is 6-for-6 in stolen-base attempts and working diligently to improve his on-base percentage, which currently is .351.
Terrific! Trade him now.
As one rival team official says, referring to Mets GM Sandy Alderson, “Sandy is not going to pay $100 million for a guy who might break down” — particularly given the team’s uncertain finances.
Shortstop is a thin position throughout the sport. The Giants, Angels, Reds, Brewers and Cardinals are among the teams who would benefit significantly from the addition of Reyes.
Rosenthal says that the Mets have enough talent and depth in the minors to eventually replace Reyes and names Ruben Tejada, Jordanny Valdespin and Wilmer Flores as potential candidates.
Incidentally, one of our readers (Shamsky) reminded me that Jose Reyes Banner Night is on August 5th. That’s five days after the Trade Deadline.
Original Post 4/18 2:00 PM
The New York Mets may be off to a rocky start this season, but one Met rising above all the pandemonium is Mets shortstop Jose Reyes who has been a one-man highlight reel thus far this season.
Among some of his early season highlights are these:
- He has 23 hits to lead the Mets, thats seven more hits than the second highest Met, Ike Davis who has 16 hits. He also ranks 5th in the National League.
- He had his 13-game hitting streak end in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, it was the best mark in the National League. He has also collected at least one hit in 14 of the Mets’ first 15 games this season.
- Jose Reyes currently leads the Mets in most offensive categories including singles, doubles, triples, total bases, runs scored and stolen bases.
One thing that everybody has their eyes on this season is Reyes’ On-Base Percentage – especially after GM Sandy Alderson made comments that he wanted to see Reyes get on base more as a leadoff hitter. Right now, his OBP stands at .351, but what I find most surprising so far in this first month of the season, is that Jose Reyes leads the Mets in Slugging Percentage with a .493 mark. That is higher than Ike Davis, David Wright and Carlos Beltran.
You could say that Jose lost two prime years of his career while dealing with the impact of various injuries during the 2009 and 2010 seasons when he was just 25 and 26 years old. Typically, that’s the age that most hitters begin to breakout, so we may be seeing that this season from Reyes in 2011. He could be having one of the best seasons by a leadoff hitter the Mets have ever had, and the one huge season that everyone has been waiting for and knew he was capable of.
Reyes has desired a multi-year contract to stay in New York because as he said on many occasions, New York is his home and where he wants to stay. Many thought that would happen this past offseason, but the front office chose to pick up his 2011 option instead.
Based on some comments that were also made, you could say the front office threw down a challenge that they wanted to see what Reyes can do this season before they even begin to discuss a contract extension.
Now whether that’s true or not remains to be seen. But one thing is certain, and that is that Jose Reyes is well on his way to having his best season ever as a Met and one of the finest leadoff performances in the National League in quite some time.
If he continues to perform at these current levels, and there is no reason why he shouldn’t, Jose Reyes will also be rewarded with one of the richest free agent contracts of the 2011 offseason, possibly even blowing away what Carl Crawford got simply because he plays a more demanding position than left field.
There are many baseball experts who don’t see the Mets keeping Reyes for this entire season and instead they say, he he will be shopped and dealt before the Trade Deadline for a package of prospects.
If that happens, things may get uglier at Citi Field later this year.
Reyes may never fit the mold of what Sandy Alderson wants from a lead-off hitter, but that does not mean he can’t help this team in over a dozen other ways at a very high level. Reyes is such a multi-dimensional talent that he supersedes a typical lead-off hitter with a .370 or better OBP. He can beat you in a variety of ways, and he should be appreciated for all those things.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
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Reyes is definitely staying in New York, he’s just going to move to the Bronx. He’s a free agent this year, his first opportunity to flee this moribund franchise and across town, Derek Jeter is playing terribly. You don’t think that Cashman hasn’t already sent word via backchannels to Reyes’ agent that he’s going to make them both very rich men come this summer? With the Mets in dire financial straights, no matter how well Reyes performs, and no matter how much money the Mets throw at him, I’m betting that he wears navy next season.
I agree he wont be a Met next season, but I see him replacing the departed Rollins in Philly. Yankees still have Jeter locked up.
Ha, well that would go over well.
i think it is a little bit sad… no one wants to go see the mets at citi field because we are not playing good baseball, the mets are losing money because of this and the obvious, which means they would have to get rid of reyes which will turn the fan base upside down probably resulting in a HUGE decrease in fans if they get rid of him. for the mets, either way it is a lose lose situation.
Like Reyes, but they HAVE to trade him while his value is high. Its irresponsible to let him play the entire season and then walk.
I agree Darth. As much as I like Reyes, you would be an absolute FOOL not to cash in on Reyes while his value is through the roof. The Mets can get a huge package in return for Jose. Last night, I mentioned Reyes being a very good fit with the Angels.
Let’s say for the sake of argument, YOU (all of you who are reading this) are Sandy Alderson and Angels GM Tony Reagins calls you one day, trying to make a big trade proposal in order to land Reyes. He offers you SP Jared Weaver, C Hank Conger, OF Mike Trout, a pitching prospect from AA, and cash for Reyes. Would you REALLY say no thanks? Before you say, “Reagins would never offer us that”, let me remind you: This is Tony Reagins we’re talking about. The man who acquired an aging outfielder owed $86 million the next 4 years and outside of Bourjos, have a “Jurassic Park” type outfield.
I know a lot of you have this big fear here of Reyes going to Philly or the Yankees BUT what if the Mets did a sign & trade with Reyes to whoever they would trade him to like the Mets & Twins did with Johan Santana?
Another thing, please spare me the “Reyes is irreplaceable” talk. His main tools is his speed and defense….both of which CAN be replaced. We may not have someone that’s capable of replacing him from our farm, but there are a couple of guys that would be a solid fit at short for us. My choice? Stephen Drew of the Diamondbacks. Hits for average, power, very good defender, doesn’t run much but is capable of swiping bases. He’s the man I would have at short if/when Reyes leaves.
“Before you say, “Reagins would never offer us that””
…Reagins would never offer us that.
there’s stupid and there’s monumentally ludicrous. That deal falls on the monumentally ludicrous side. Weaver for Reyes would be enough, and that’s if they both had equal time on their contracts. Weaver is worth just as much as Reyes was in his BEST years. But Weaver still has two years till free agency and Reyes has one. So the METS would have to give more players, not the other way around.
and then you emphatically state that Reyes “CAN be replaced”. why in the world would they give up one of the best pitchers in baseball, and the best prospect in the country for half a year from someone who can be replaced so easily?
NO gm is dumb enough for something like this, not even Reagins, or Minaya for that matter. If they did this they wouldnt have a job for very much longer.
No way LAA subtracts anything from their 25 especially starting pitching but a fit could certainly be made. Reyes would replicate Figgins in the LAA attack and the LAA have the goods in the minors. Don’t forget Reyes would not just be a rental. Texeria was an Angel “rental” they got 2 great prospects for when they “lost” him and 3 months of Reyes could easily land them a post season berth and give them the inside track on signing him.
The LAA and SF Giants could both look at it like they’ll not only get a HUGE playoff push but possibly have him for years to come and if not be able to replace some of what they gave up with the picks.
Reyes should be looked upon not as a rental but as a ticket to the post season and possibly many more post seasons for these teams plus it would behoove us to do anything to keep him out of the clutches of the Phillies, Braves, Nationals and Yankees if we’re not resigning him.
Personally I would look MONSTER RETURN on Reyes, Wright, K-Rod and see what Beltran could bring back right now. Then resign Jose and see what HUGE, HIGH END, TOP SHELF TALENT we could extract to weigh against other offers.
Reyes skills are unique in this day and age with such a dearth of you SS’s both in the Majors and the minors he is much rarer than Wright.
Tejada is most likely a good back up MIer with a decent chance of being more than that but will never come close to Reyes. Flores is not a middle infielder nor will he ever be up here. Valdespin will be a low OBP, low power guy with a streaky glove and attitude.
Third basemen are more easily found than SS’s that can hit and field.
I’d take Erick Aybar, Hank Conger, Brandon Wood, and a halfway decent pitching prospect for Reyes right now. And I’m pretty sure that Anaheim would do that.
I wouldn’t. Conger would be hard for the LAA to subtract off their roster and he is no sure thing. I say superstar of the present at an area of need for a superstar of the future (mike Trout) then value the 3 months and inside track on resigning him PLUS the two # 1 draft choices they would get if they don’t and come up with 2 other highly rated prospects. Jean Segura 2B/SS and another high end guy.
I would prefer if the trade was for Wright though and I would weigh multiple offers from multiple teams for those two as well as K-Rod and Beltran.
If the return is not can’t miss Superstar potential then I’d take the picks.
We traded superstar potential for Zambranno. Teams do wacky things all the time. Depends on need, demand, farm system, price, lot’s of things.
SF would absolutely die to have a left side like Reyes and Wright. Their going to be in it all year long. Wright could get us Wheeler and much more, Get ‘em in a bidding war and see what happens, you can always say no to any proposal.
Reyes’ BABIP is also about 30 points higher than his career average. He’s also hitting fewer line drives and ground balls than usual.
I don’t know what the latter means, but the former means he’ll probably be leveling out down the road.
On the other hand, he’s well above league average in his career for wOBA and lead off hitters seem to be (in the very small amount of reserach I’ve done to this point) usually bellow the league average.
Again, I haven’t really delved too deeply, but to say he doesn’t fit the sabermetric profile of a lead off guy may not be accurate. Besides, he still fits the profile of “damn good player”.
Great article
I just want the Mets for once….. prove every one of these so-called nay-saying experts wrong by signing him long term.
Reyes is irreplaceable….it would be prudent to sign any other free agent without signing Reyes first…he’s been here for almost 10 years, done everything they asked him to do and let’s face it….the only reason he is not considered the face of the franchise is because he’s a dark-skinned Hispanic.
“Experts” and “inside sources” have told us the following in the last year:
Cliff Lee would be a Yankee (2 or 3 different times, in fact)
Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo would be on the Opening Day roster
Wally Backman would be the new manager
Luis Hernandez would be the Opening Day 2B
And they missed a few stories too:
The Vernon Wells trade seemed to come from nowhere
Zack Greinke going to the Brewers
Cliff Lee going back to Philly
And thats just off the top of my head
Reyes is the one player that they should not trade under any circumstances. But he will probably be the first to go.
Letting one of the few really talented players we have ever developed leave in his prime would just be inexcusable, especially with all the money we have thrown around threw the years. it just makes me sick.
OB is huge for a leadoff hitter but that is the wrong way to look at Jose. The way to look at him is how many SS’s in the Majors can both hit and field? How many can do both? Very very few. Tulo, Hansley if he wants, no one else even close to Jose on this.
Jose would be the “face” if he took the initative with the media. They’ll talk to anyone that talks to them. I am so tired of seeing Wright saying the same exact thing every single game, game after game delivered in the same way over and over.
Jose is going to be in huge demand, time is slipping away. Get out to Citi and let ownership know how you feel. And hurry.
I agree. Jose Reyes is as close to irreplaceable as anyone can be IMO. As you said, this organization has spent so much money wastefully over the years so we could lose one of the best homegrown talents in our history.
Water gun to head (saw that term on metsblog the other day, and I had to use it lol), T-Agee, if you had to choose one of the two: Wright or Reyes? I wish both but it is increasingly evident it’s one or the other for the team.
Reyes all the way Coop. More important position and his other skills are much rarer than Wrights.
t agee: Remember this statement;
The lineup sucks. Reyes swings at ridiculous pitches.
You wrote that before and now you want to sign him. This is what’s wrong with Mets fans. It’s game to game how they feel.
Bottom line sign Reyes because he is great!
I do want to resign Reyes, not because he swings at ridiculous pitches but because of all the good things that he does. The effect he has on the defense, the pitcher and catcher, the speed, the glove, the arm, the excitement, the doubles and triples, the overall fun that he brings. This would be a pretty drab team without him.
But some of the pitches he swings at ARE ridiculous.
Lets not get crazy now and suggest all these crazy trade scenarios. There is one thing to do and that is sign him now. Many teams are signing their player to long term contracts this year and the Mets should do the same and we need to do it early, like now. We don’t want him to go to free agency because if we do then is the agents job to get him the most money. Remember that all our enemies that have money need a shortstop. Phillies, Yankees Atlanta and i’ll add Boston. sign him now!!! I can’t stress that enough. We are loosing a lot of contracts this year.
If it wasnt for Jose Reyes defense yesterday and his two hits, a double, a stolen base and two runs scored, we would have gotten swept and lost our eighth straight game. Why talk about building a farm if youre only gonna trade your best homegrown players when they are 27 years old. If the Mets trade Reyes, the next one to go should be Sandy Alderson.
Who do you replace him with? Do you think a comparable player is just going to appear for us? There might be someone who might be able to field as well (Tejada). Who is going to hit as a shortstop and leadoff hitter as well as him.
JOSE, JOSE, JOSE
POOR LITTLE METSIES!!! how does it feel to be a small market team????? Only fans of a small market team worry about where a guy lie Jose Reyes is going in his walk year. Think the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, etc fans would be talking about this?? Nah, they’s be arguing about how many years was too many. Imagine that… a small market team in the biggest city in the country. PITIFUL… but FUNNY!!!!
BTW Joe D “Gone in sixty seconds” with all due respect to Ronin probably the greatest driving sequence toward the end of the movie that I have ever seen.
Great film if you like that kind of thing.
The original or the remake?
And I’ll still take Bullet.
Vanishing Point – still my favorite car movie!
Reyes proved yesterday, Sunday, what talents he brings to Mets and is the reason why, as long as his season continues on a similar path, he needs to be resigned by SA.
Following Mets since 69 has been a roller coaster ride, the ups and downs, the poor play (early 60′s, dynamic 68-73 seasons, the dark period from 77-82, return to glory, 83-90, return to middle of the road in early 90′s, return to glory during the battles with Braves in middle to late 2000, return to mediocrity from 2001 – 2004, hope sprung eternal when Jose and David along w/Pedro, Carlos and Carlos, etc till 2008, now back to medirocrity or what I don’t know.
I might have some years wrong but being a true Met fan means having hope, hope appears, lingers then is taken from you to stat over again.
This has been my journey but the day SA trades Jose will be a day that darkness returns to my Met journey, one that I will follow but not enjoy the fact that for a team that has not had any position players numbers retired, waiting on Mike and Keith, they could one day add David and Jose along with Ike together on that wall.
Met ownership makes it hard at times for fans to “adopt” a fav player cause of what they surround them with on the field.
I will point out that even if you trade Reyes you can still resign him when he goes FA.
Would he sign? Probably not but it is possible.
Chakrabs made the most interesting post so far and it’s a correct one.
The Yankees are known for snapping up our disgarded fan favorite and it would allow Reyes to stay in NY!
It is a distinct possibility that we will be bidding against the Yankees for his services.
Oh, look, more assumptions and unnamed “experts”. The same experts that didn’t see the deals for cliff Lee or Vernon Wells
And to this tidbit: “Rosenthal says that the Mets have enough talent and depth in the minors to eventually replace Reyes and names Ruben Tejada, Jordanny Valdespin and Wilmer Flores as potential candidates. ”
We all know that is completely false, right? Just because they play the same position doesn’t mean they can replace him. I’m sure the Cardinals have a few first basemen that could play in the majors soon, but that doesn’t mean they can replace Pujols.
Oh, hold on, Valdespin in fact does not play the same position as Reyes. He’s presently at 2B. He also has a different profile as a hitter.
And Flores may or may not be SS by the time he makes the big club. And he also is a different type of hitter.
“Rosenthal says that the Mets have enough talent and depth in the minors to eventually replace Reyes and names Ruben Tejada, Jordanny Valdespin and Wilmer Flores as potential candidates.”
Is Rosenthal on crack? He can’t be serious…
Seriousness and correctness are not mutually exclusive.
I’m sure he is serious but thats probably also why he doesn’t GM professionally!
Ladies and Gentlemen – don’t you realize that Jose Reyes is the major drawing card for those coming out to Citi Field? If not, I’m sure your kids (customers of the future) will tell you that it’s Jose first and David second that they come to see. If either is traded – no matter who comes here in return – you might as well shut the gates.
Well yes your correct that they are the Major Draw.
How much that plays into the decision to keep them will laregly be dependent on what that DRAW is.
This is why I keep telling people that if they think boycotting the stadium is going to push out the Wilpons that they are mistaken and the only ones that will be pushed out are the guy that people are actually interested in seeing because even with them they don’t draw enough to pay the bills!
Lets for a second review the financials we know about.
Our Payroll is about 140 Mil.
About the same as last year maybe just a bit higher.
We needed to borrow more than 50 Mil to pay the bills last year from the MLB and maybe more from the commissioner slush fund. (Lets for argument sake say it’s just 50 mil.
That means our attendance sustained about 90 Mil of our salary and the loans paid off the rest.
Now 60 Mil is coming off the payroll if we don’t resign a sole.
Our Salary will be about 80 Mil at that point. That would leave 10 Mil per year to sign Reyes.
Is that going to be enough? Not likely!
It would leave about as much money to spend as we spent this offseason. An Offseason most are pretty unhappy and disappointed with!
MLB sure isn’t going to give us another loan to give Reyes a big contract. and any team who wants him will know this and simply bid us up and out of the running.
SO if you guys really want to keep a guy like Reyes and Wright you really need to go to some games and make the team profitable enough to compete with the Reyes suitors.
I know everyone thinks they are hurting the Wilpons by not showing up buit they are not!
What they are really doing is cutting off their nose to spite their face!
No matter what happens with Madoff the WIlpons are going to own this team. The WORST case scenario for the Wilpons is they can’t continue to pay over 100 Mil in player ssalary and will be forced to tell SA to implement moneyball.
No Reyes, No Wright hell probably not even a Davis when his time to resign comes.
No ACE FA pitchers, No credible closer, no signings more than 4 mil per year, this will bbe the end result of our Attendance tantrum!
Citi hold 10,000 less people than Shea and it averages 11,000 empty seats on top of that loss!
There is no MORTGAGE on the Mets, There is no back to come in and reposess the team if the bills aren’t paid. If the attendance is not there then the Wilpons will do what they have to and cut the Salary which is the only option we fans are leaving them by staying away!
So as tough as Sandy’s decisions are going to be come the trading deadline the really HARD decision belongs to the fans!
Either go and by doing so urge Sandy to think he can pay those bills you want him to cimmit to or force his hand and wave goodbye to every player you want to keep but won’t support keeping with your wallet!
The choice is really ours!
you know it kills me to hear everyone lets trade reyes now..lets get prospects but have we all looked to the guy on jose’s right named david wright i mean are people serious this guy is over rated and garbage i can’t believe we will get rid of reyes b4 this guy u gotta be kidding me.
Holy Moly!
The idea that we can replace Reyes w/ Tejada is akin to replacing Piazza w/ Barajas.
How idiotic!
You mean you don’t think we can replace Reyes with a guy who can’t hit his weight?
Ah, yep.
I absolutely do not want to see Reyes or Wright go. They have been my favorite players on the team for years, and they are the face of this organization. Aybody else on the team I am fine with… well except Ike or Dillon Gee. K-rod, Bay, Beltran, Pelfrey, Santana, send them packing, but not the two players who have ept this team somewhat alive in these last dreadful years.