On Monday I posted about a rumor that the Mets and Marlins were discussing a trade for Giancarlo Stanton in exchange for Zack Wheeler and Travis D’Arnaud. I questioned it’s veracity and didn’t put much stock into it, but thought it made for a good debate on the hypothetical aspects of it. The post actually made for a great discussion on MMO with over 100 or so chiming in on it.
Today however, Sports On Earth discussed the possibility of trading Stanton, and Jonathan Bernhardt speculates that the Mets were one of only four teams in baseball that had the pieces to actually pull it off and pry the 22-year old superstar away from Miami. He writes:
The Mets can’t offer one of the top five prospects in baseball, but they can come close, and they certainly have volume on their side — pitchers Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard and catcher Travis d’Arnaud with perhaps one of their cheap, low-ceiling outfielders to take Stanton’s place on the Marlins’ roster should get it done.
Wheeler’s a top twenty prospect and d’Arnaud was one of the best prospects in baseball before a bad knee injury last year; with Syndergaard tossed in, this theoretical package could compete with Baltimore’s and St. Louis’s.
I’d add a caveat about the Mets having to pay more because the Marlins wouldn’t want to trade him inside the division, but I doubt Miami cares too much about that right now. The real reason nothing close to this will happen is because the Mets ownership is almost as irresponsible as Loria in Miami and doesn’t have the money to give Stanton the long-term deal he’s looking for regardless of what the Wilpons say. The trade becomes a disaster if Stanton himself gets flipped the next year when Fred suddenly checked his bills against his bank account.
Making it more likely that Stanton isn’t long for the Miami Marlins, was this very telling statement by team owner Jeffrey Loria, who spoke to reporters last night for the first time since the controversial trade with Toronto last November.
Joe Capozzi, who covers the Marlins for the Palm Beach Post, included this quote from Loria regarding Stanton’s future with the Fish:
“He is here for certainly the foreseeable future and we will cross that bridge at the appropriate moment. He will be here this year and I’m hopeful he will come here the next year. I would love to see him be the centerpiece of this ball club. He’d be the young giant in the ball club, but you can’t make promises in this game because strange things happen all the time.”
The one thing I take away from this is it deflates the argument that many have suggested that the Mets don’t have what it takes to land Giancarlo Stanton. I never believed that, even before the trade for D’Arnaud.
Secondly, that quote from Loria sounds more like a stay of execution for Stanton and I have no doubt that his days with the Marlins are numbered. Especially with arbitration looming in 2014.
Will he end up with the Mets? Well that’s another story, but so far Sandy Alderson has shown more of a propensity to trade away stars rather than trade for them. So there’s that…
SIDE NOTE: Mets’ Media Director Shannon Forde just reached out to me after I wrote to her yesterday and I’m glad to say she’s back working with the team in Florida. Of course she is still fighting her battle with breast cancer, but sounded like she is in good spirits. 🙂
She’s such an amazing person and I know that she will ultimately beat this thing.
