As we reported last night, another potential deal for a shortstop – in this case Ian Desmond – fell by the wayside when the Tampa Bay Rays insisted on Noah Syndergaard plus another prospect in return. They also demanded Syndergaard in a trade for Ben Zobrist before eventually trading him to Oakland.
It’s amazing how it’s now become practically automatic for teams to ask for Syndergaard as a starting price no matter what caliber of shortstop we are pursuing.
In addition to Desmond and Zobrist, Syndergaard has also been linked to potential deals for Troy Tulowitzki, Didi Gregorius, Brad Miller, Chris Taylor, Alexei Ramirez, Starlin Castro, Chris Owings, and I’m sure a few others I may have missed.
The baffling part is that in those instances when players the Mets were linked to get dealt to another team, the returns are not nearly as costly as what they demanded from the Mets.
I can’t fault Sandy Alderson for balking at some of these asking prices, especially for one-year rentals like Zobrist and Desmond. But is there something else at play here? Why are teams demanding significantly more in return from Alderson and then ultimately selling for a lot less to other teams?
Last night I tossed out the idea that maybe Alderson’s reputation is hurting him. Is it possible that teams are wary of dealing with Sandy because of how his deals for Carlos Beltran, Marlon Byrd, and R.A. Dickey turned out? Not only was Sandy lauded in the media for torching the other teams, but even he himself has often been very smug about how much he was able to squeeze out from the GMs at the other side of the negotiating table.
There could be some resentment by rival general managers who don’t want to become another victim of Sandy’s propensity for wanting to always win big on his deals and in turn making them look bad.
What do you think? Is it possible that teams are not going to go out of their way to help the Mets unless it’s them who walk away as the big winners, and that’s why our top prospects are always at the forefront of every negotiation? It’s certainly something to think about.
By the way, I totally agree with something I read from Bill Price of the Daily News this morning, who says that because of how often Noah Syndergaard has been a deal-breaker this offseason and last, there is going to be some intense pressure on him to immediately produce once he finally arrives this season.
