Jim Bowden of ESPN isn’t buying the rumors and reports that Mets lefthander Jon Niese is not available.
“There have been reports that a Mets front-office executive said that Niese was “never” available. I don’t believe that. Multiple GMs have told me they’ve had conversations with the Mets regarding Niese, and have done so for months.”
“To think the Mets would not deal Niese if they had a chance to trade for Javier Baez, Carlos Gomez or Jay Bruce is just plain absurd.”
“They shouldn’t trade one of their top young starters, but in the right deal, of course they would trade Niese, given their pitching depth and his history of shoulder soreness. He has been pitching well of late, and his stock has soared.”
Spot on…
It’s really hard to differentiate between the times that Sandy Alderson is telling the truth or otherwise, and that’s mostly because sometimes he speaking for himself while most of the time he’s speaking for Fred and Jeff Wilpon. He is after all their lackey and official mouthpiece.
On Thursday, Alderson insisted – for like the umpteenth time – that he is not trading any of the “big four” and by that he meant Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz.
You see right there, he’s telling the truth. But what he’s also saying is that Jon Niese is on the block and available to anyone who would have him, providing of course that they have the bat that Sandy Alderson is looking for. The question is, what can you possibly get for Niese?
I wholeheartedly disagree with Andy Martino, who spoke to some MLB executives that told him they don’t view Niese any differently now then then they did last winter – despite his incredible run of quality starts this season.
That’s a bunch of hogwash. Why would a rival GM revealed his hand? I think it’s all posturing and that there are many contending teams who look at a left-hander like Niese and wonder what it would take to get him for their rotation.
Obviously Niese alone is not going to get the kind of bat the Mets desperately need right now. But I can certainly see him as the centerpiece to a major deal that would include pieces like Brandon Nimmo or Gavin Cecchini.
As you may have heard, MMO’s minor league reporter Michael Mayer spotted the A’s Front Office and scouts at the B-Mets game last night.
So what do you say, Niese, Nimmo, Cecchini and Ynoa for Ben Zobrist and Josh Reddick?
That would be a huge win for both teams…
We’ll see what happens in the next six days but I’m betting that Niese has seen his final days as a Met.
July 23
Jayson Stark of ESPN reports that based on teams that have checked in with the Mets, they are very open to trading Jon Niese as long as the player they get in return is under team control similar to the veteran southpaw.
Niese, 28 , is under contract through 2016 for $9M and has two club options worth $10M for 2017 and $11M for 2018.
That said, Mike Puma of the New York Post, hears that the Mets are not anxious to move Niese because they are relying on his innings going forward.
Additionally, Andy Martino of the Daily News reported a week ago that most general managers still remain skeptical of Niese, despite his recent run of success.
In his last four starts, Niese has posted a 1.23 ERA, and overall this season, he has a 3.36 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in 112 1/3 innings pitched.
