The New York Mets may still be in the market for a big bat, but it wont be Ben Zobrist who many said Sandy Alderson coveted.
The Oakland A’s dealt the versatile Zobrist to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for two pitching prospects according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. Jon Heyman reports that the A’s will get back RHP Aaron Brooks and the Royals’ second best prospect LHP Sean Manaea.
The Royals are making a huge push to bolster the team, having already landed Johnny Cueto from the Reds a day ago.
July 25
According to Kristie Ackert and Andy Martino of the Daily News, multiple sources told them that the Mets have discussed trading Zack Wheeler with other teams in their search for an outfielder.
Sandy Alderson has made it clear several times including Friday, that Matt Harvey, Stephen Matz, Noah Syndergaard, and Jacob degrom are off-limits and not available for trade. He’s never included Zack Wheeler in that group.
The Mets were pushing to deal for Brewers outfielder Gerardo Parra up until last night, according to Marc Carig of Newsday.
It was when talks broke down, that the Mets made the decision to call up highly regarded prospect Michael Conforto from AA Binghamton.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson did tell reporters that adding Conforto does not necessarily change the team’s plans leading up to the trade deadline.
“This is not indicative of how aggressive or less aggressive we’re going to be,” Alderson said. “This is somewhat independent.”
Some of the names that were being circulated regarding Wheeler were Jay Bruce of the Cincinnati Reds, Josh Reddick of the Oakland A’s, and Parra of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Wheeler underwent Tommy John surgery in March, but is expected to begin throwing soon, and likely to return sometime next season with a target of early to mid June.
Rafael Montero has also come up in various trade rumors connected to the Mets, and in fact many initially believed he was the integral piece in the trade to acquire Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe.
A couple of sources also believe that the Mets are having conversations with the Colorado Rockies lending some credence to the on-again and off-again rumors regarding Troy Tulowitzki, who does not want to be traded and the team insists is not on the trade block.
After the game on Friday night, GM Sandy Alderson left open the possibility that the Mets are not done yet, only saying to stay tuned.
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