According to Jon Heyman of SI.com and MLB Network, Omar Minaya told the Blue Jays no when they called and offered the Mets Roy Halladay in exchange for prospects Fernando Martinez, Ruben Tejada, Jon Niese and Bobby Parnell.
Wow…
The Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post spoke to Omar Minaya:
Minaya also did not deny an SI.com report today that the Mets turned down a proposal from the Blue Jays for Cy Young winner Roy Halladay.
“That rumor’s out there right now, but I’m not going to comment about rumors,” Minaya said of the Halladay report.
It sounds like the Mets are definitely not buyers. In a brand new park that is built for pitching, you would think that the Mets would view Halladay as priority number one.
Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel have repeatedly said that the only way the Mets could win games is with solid pitching and not by thumping the ball. And yet when the opportunity to produce a 1-2 punch of Johan Santana and Roy Halladay knocked on the door, they passed up on it.
To make things worse, Jerry Manuel said before tonight’s game that he didn’t expect any outside help before the July 31st trade deadline, and later on Omar Minaya repeated those words to reporters. Minaya also said that he would not make a trade for rental players, but Halladay would still be signed through 2010 and the Mets would have 1 1/2 seasons to negotiate an extension.
Imagine the burden on Jon Niese to perform when he finally gets called up. He will be remembered as the pitcher the Mets could have traded to get Halladay. Expectations will be unrealistically high.
I have no problem moving F-Mart, this is a win now team and Beltran is getting a little long in the tooth. F-Mart will not realistically help this team until 2012. We can’t wait that long, and there are still many who don’t believe he will ever be the player the Mets seem to think he’ll be.
As for Bobby Parnell, some of the best relievers in baseball make less than $3 million dollars a season, I’ll be damned if Bobby Parnell becomes a deal breaker if I’m running this team.
Ruben Tejada is 19 years old and is a plus defender, but he’s also blocked at shortstop by Jose Reyes. Oh, I have a great idea… why don’t the Mets bring him up three years too early, move him from his natural position and make him the everyday leftfielder next season.
Niese projects as a middle of the rotation starter, but is not there yet. The Mets gave him a shot last season, but he was over-matched. The Mets then gave him a chance to win a job in the spring, but he was beat out by Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez. He started out his season 0-7 at Buffalo, but since then has rebounded nicely and is on a nice roll.
But we are talking about adding arguably the best pitcher in baseball to a team that already has Johan Santana and nothing else.
We don’t have the type of offense that can clobber opponents like the Phillies. Our road to victory is with solid pitching and solid defense.
Joe D’s Roadmap To Victory
Halladay and Santana would be able to start 30 of the remaining 70 games this season. It’s not unreasonable to see the Mets win 25 of those 30 games.
That leaves just 40 games. Lets say we win half of those games. That gives us a 45-25 record for the rest of the season and puts us at 89 wins.
If we were to take an extra 5 of those 40 games, we would have 94 wins and either win the division or at the very least a wild card. If the Mets get Delgado and Beltran back for the stretch run, we can still win this thing. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t truly believe it in my heart.
The choice is simple…
If you want to win, then pay the price for Halladay and don’t look back.
Otherwise don’t bore me with your feeble excuses, I don’t really want to hear them.
