Sandy Alderson addressed the Mets’ lack of activity at the trade deadline with beat writers after the deadline passed. The Mets’ GM said he did have conversations about “significant” players in both a “buyers and sellers” sense.
The bottom line for Alderson is that he was not ready to subtract players from the active MLB roster, and he was reluctant to part with any top prospects to upgrade the offense. In other words, he still has no clue what kind of a team he has on his hands right now and doesn’t want to make a move until he knows for sure.
Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, posted a partial transcript of his specific comments:
Why was it prudent for no activity at the deadline?
“There was some activity. Nothing came to fruition. There were some proposals that we made that were not acceptable and some made to us that we didn’t feel were reasonable. And so, while we were active in conversations, although not super active, we just didn’t make any deals.”
“I think going in we didn’t intend to be sellers and we didn’t intend to be buyers necessarily. We were looking at the market and what it would dictate. We set a price on some of our players. And, under the circumstances, they weren’t met. So be it. We’re happy with the team that we have. We’re happy we retained all of our players. And we’re looking forward to the last 60 or so games of the season.”
Regarding fans frustration with nothing done to improve the club.
“The question of improving the club is certainly a legitimate one. In order to potentially improve the club some significant way as opposed to some incremental way, we would have had to have been prepared to deal some of our young pitching. At this particular stage, we’re not prepared to do that, at least in the deals that were presented, or were available to us.”
“I actually think that if we’re going to trade some of our young prospects, that we’re probably better off doing that in the offseason. I mean, we have a known commodity in those prospects — I think a recognizable group of prospect assets in the game. In some way, we don’t want to limit ourselves to the options that are available now as opposed to what we think may be available in the offseason. That leaves you with some sort of an incremental improvement. We just didn’t see that out there. So we were alert to the possibility, but we didn’t feel the opportunity presented itself.”
Read the rest at ESPN New York.
The Mets could still engineer a trade following today’s deadline, as they did last season when they dealt Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Bucs for reliever Vic Black and second base prospect Dilson Herrera. Tomorrow the Mets will try and see if they can pass any players through waivers.
I guess you could say I’m somewhat disappointed that we did nothing, but I still would rather do nothing than sign off on a bad deal for the team.
We saw some huge names switch teams today, debunking the usual prehistoric claims that big players don’t get traded in July.
Among some of the bigger deals we saw today were the following:
The Tigers were the big winners, acquiring the top pitcher on the market LHP David Price from the Rays. They sent LHP Drew Smyly and SS Willy Adames to the Rays and OF Austin Jackson to the Mariners. The Mariners send INF Nick Franklin to the Rays. Looks like Ben Zobrist stays put again. What a rotation by the Tigers: Price, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez.
The A’s struck first blood and acquired prized lefthander Jon Lester, OF Jonny Gomes and cash from Red Sox for OF Yoenis Cespedes and competitive balance draft pick. Billy Beane is the best GM in baseball, and guess what, he doesn’t hoard prospects. The Tigers have a great rotation, but the A’s are certainly no pushovers with a squad that features Lester, Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir and Jeff Samardzija. The Red Sox were all over Cespedes when he was a free agent and look for them to sign him to an extension before next season.
Yankees acquire INF-OF Martin Prado from Diamondbacks for 1B/OF Peter O’Brien. I laughed when the Yankees traded for Stephen Drew about 15 minutes before this one came down the pike, but Prado is the kind of player any team can use.
The Cardinals acquired RHP John Lackey and LHP Corey Littrell from the Red Sox for 1B/OF Allen Craig and RHP Joe Kelly. St. Louis is always a big player when theybcan sniff the playoffs and it’s too bad the Mets didn’t get in on Allen Craig or hey even Cespedes for that matter. Of course Craig on a lesser basis n
The Marlins acquired RHP Jarred Cosart, INF-OF Kike Hernandez and OF Austin Wates from the Astros for OF Jake Marisnick, 3B Colin Moran, RHP Francis Martes and a competitive balance draft pick. I love this for the Marlins. I like Cosart, he’s a big-time arm and his stock is rising. Good job to land him while they wait for Jose Fernandez to recover from TJS. I wonder if the Fish would swap him to us for Bartolo Colon? (sarcasm font)
Nationals acquired SS Asdrubal Cabrera from the Indians for SS Zach Walters. Another NL East rival makes a move although I’m not sure how this helps them unless the 28-year old shortstop returns to form. He’s young so it could happen, and with Ryan Zimmerman out until September, he’ll get plenty of playing time to rediscover himself.
Orioles acquired LHP Andrew Miller from the Red Sox for LHP Eduardo Rodriguez. Looks like the O’s are going for broke. Miller is a tremendous left-handed reliever but he’s free agent at the end of the season. They may regret losing the 21-year-old Rodriguez who is a highly regarded prospect.
Some other deals that went down…
Brewers acquired OF Gerardo Parra from the Diamondbacks for OF Mitch Hanigar and LHP Anthony Banda.
Braves acquire INF-OF Emilio Bonifacio, LHP James Russell and cash from the Cubs for C Victor Caratini.
Mariners acquired OF Chris Denorfia from the Padres for OF Abraham Almonte and RHP Stephen Kohlscheen.
Athletics acquired OF Sam Fuld from the Twins for LHP Tommy Milone.
Surprisingly, or not, Alex Rios remained in Texas. Other players staying put, besides anyone in the Mets organization, are Marlon Byrd, Josh Willingham, Matt Kemp, and lets not forget Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez.
By my count, it's 12 trades, 37 players exchanged and two draft picks dealt on the single wildest deadline day anyone can remember. Awesome.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2014
That’s pretty much a wrap on what has been a busy, busy day.
