I was scanning through my channels last night and with nothing on turned to the MLB Network where they were doing highlights of all the teams that were in the hunt for a Wild Card. They showed highlights of Tampa Bay’s 5-1 win over Baltimore to grab one of the Wild Card spots. I was half asleep when I was jolted to attention after I heard one of the hosts say that Wil Myers was literally carrying the Rays on his back during the month of September. Wait, who? Wil Myers? Where do I know that name from?
They did a little profile on him and showed a clip of Myers getting cheered by Royals fans when the Rays went to Kansas City last month to play a make-up game. It was Myers’ first appearance in Kauffman Stadium since he was traded to Tampa Bay last offseason. It looked like they were having Banner Day in the stands as there were signs for Myers everywhere, some of them read “Wil the Thrill.” Damn, what a cool nickname – apologies to Will Clark.
As most of you may remember, the Mets wanted Wil Myers last Winter and while the Royals were desperate to add a frontline starter, they had no interest in R.A. Dickey which was the only pitcher the Mets had interest in dealing.
There was an official counteroffer made by the Royals to the Mets and according to various reports, it was the same exact offer they made to Tampa Bay for James Shields and Wade Davis. Kansas City wanted Zack Wheeler and Jon Niese.
This deal was on the table for Mets last week, per source: Niese and Wheeler to KC for Myers and similar package to what TB got for Shields.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) December 10, 2012
Along with Myers, the Royals were also giving up pitching prospects Jake Odorizzi and Mike Montgomery, and third baseman Patrick Leonard. (The two pitchers would certainly have been top five or top ten Mets prospects going into this season.)
Odorizzi was a 2008 first rounder and was ranked No. 45 in MLB’s Top Baseball Prospects going into 2013. Montgomery, also a first rounder in 2008, has been among baseball’s top 50 prospects for the last three years.
Since Wil Myers made his Major League debut on June 18, there has been some talk that he could wind up winning the American League Rookie of the Year award with the least number of games ever played by a position player.
Going into this weekend series, Myers was hitting 308/.417/.734 with four home runs, 10 RBI, and 10 runs scored in September. Overall he has a .827 OPS with the Rays this season and an impressive 130 OPS+ in 79 games. He’s hit 38 doubles and 27 homers while driving in 106 runs combined between Triple-A and the Majors this season, and scouts say he’s barely scratched the surface of his power potential.
On a slow Sunday news day, and knowing what you know now, would you have pulled the trigger on Wheeler and Niese for Myers, Odorizzi and Montgomery?
This is totally hypothetical of course, but looking at where the Mets are now and with “complete hindsight”, would you do that deal that we reportedly turned down?
While you think about that, here’s a cool video clip I found on Myers…
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