The Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets are close to agreeing on a trade that could send Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto for a couple of yet to be defined players, according to major league sources.
The speculation and buzz is pointing to Antony Gose and J.P. Arencibia.
Outfield prospect Anthony Gose who batted .222 with a .622 OPS in 166 at-bats with 59 strikeouts and 15 stolen bases. Gose, 22, has a career slash of .264/.343/.391 in five minor league seasons. Gose’s offensive game is very similar to Luis Castillo with very little power and above average speed.
According to several reports, the second player in the deal would be catcher J.P. Arencibia rather than Travis d’Arnaud who the Mets love, but the Jays are still reluctant to deal him – especially if they are giving up two players.
Arencibia, who turns 27 in January, hit .233/.275/.435 with 18 home runs in 372 plate appearances for the Blue Jays in 2012. He has hit 41 home runs in 858 plate appearances over the last two seasons and will become eligible for arbitration after the 2013 season. The knock on Arencibia is his high strikeout rate; 108 K’s in 347 ABs last season.
Dickey of course is the grand prize in any deal. The 38-year-old Dickey became the first knuckleball pitcher to win the Cy Young Award after a going 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 2012. Making his achievement more remarkable was that he did it with the fourth place Mets who had the league’s worst bullpen.
There’s a lot of risk here for the Mets who are not getting any players who are expected to be major league stars like Dickey is. Gose has more upside then Arencibia who is what he is. Whether he is ready for the role or not, the Mets will probably bat Gose lead-off from the word go.
It looks like Dickey is going either way, but if it goes down like this I’m afraid there’s a lot that needs to go right for Gose and d’Arnaud before we can call this a win for the Mets.
