The Hip…Or The Wallet?
So I went to bed last night, thinking that the Mets had finally acquired the ideal player for their lineup and their stadium and at the cost of a pitcher I have long advocated moving, along with an underwhelming middle infielder.
Imagine my chagrin this morning.
And I can’t help but thinking that Carlos Gomez‘ hip has nothing to do with this trade falling through.
Maybe its the same DNA that makes me a Mets fan, but I wonder if someone in the Met ownership box did a quick calculation and decided that Gomez is too rich for their blood. If that’s the case, we have come to the turning point of the 2015 season; a figurative Mike Scioscia Game 3 homer to all of the work done by the players, the manager and the coaching staff and even the much maligned front office to get to this point. Looking at Sandy Alderson’s press conference being re-run on TBN this morning, I could shake the feeling that he has returned from vacation and replaced the Body Double that stood in for him this past week.
Yes, I know there are still 40-plus hours left to get a deal done. And this probably means that you, like me, will be constantly refreshing whatever website you frequent, hoping for news of another move. But brace yourselves for disappointment, as I think we have seen the true nature of this ownership and the front office. We’ve gotten close and there is genuine excitement about this team again. If an inability or unwillingness to take on a major league contract is the real reason why Gomez isn’t a Met, then our hopes for a turnaround have taken a serious and potentially permanent hit.
Here’s to us.
You could be right about the hip not being the real reason
More likely the brewers backed out due to wheelers injury, and the mets tried to spin it the other way. Or were insulted that the details and extent of wheelers injury were leaked.
You’re not breaking up with me, I’m breaking up with you!
I’m thinking more along the lines that they saw something in the medical records that they thought they could use to their advantage to get more concessions from the brewers, and overplayed their hand
But its hard to argue that Dan’s rationale is a crazy conspiracy theory given all the stories floating around today…there has to be at least some reasonable chance that the wilpons just up and killed the deal
Do you have a better explanation for that than the ones being thrown around here?
Is Gomez healthy? According to Boras? According to the Astros? Medical opinions vary based on the same sets of facts (X-rays, MRIs, medical exams, etc.), that’s why we get second opinions. It could very well be that the Met doctors arrived at “not worth the risk” and the Astros took the risk. The term “healthy” can mean different things to different people.
It would surprise me if the Mets doctors said “Not worth the risk” and the Astros doctors said “So much worth the risk that we should give up Phillips and Santana” (ironically, two of the guys I wanted to trade Wheeler for). But you’re right, it’s certainly possible.
Cespedes is coming. Gave up Fullmer. Not sure if Fulmer or Wheeler is the better one to keep. Either way, Fulmer is gone and Cespedes is coming. Hope he hits closer to his rookie year than years 2 and 3. Send Conforto down and when Cuddyer returns, he’s the 4th outfielder with the occasional start at 1st. I would platoon Legares and Kirk as well.
Agreed on that OF configuration, unless Cespedes can play a solid CF.
Cespedes is streaky, and hot right now. Let’s hope it lasts…
Do you honestly think a deal would get agreed to and this far down the path without understanding the finances involved? Shows a glaring amount of naivete as to how the transaction world works. I echo what
Alderson has 25 hours left to undo the damage.
If I remember correctly, the credit issues only started after Madoff scandal came out.
And as you point out, gooey, you can always find evidence to support any far-fetched theory — as well as pooh-pooh any evidence to defend relatives and/or country club buddies. What so far is “far-fetched” by the way?
Eh, why do I bother? May as well argue politics or religion with you. It’ll go nowhere and you’ll continue to believe what you want to believe and I’m not changing my mind, either. I don’t like the ownership to the point it has made me be completely indifferent to the club, and you continually defend it. Agree to disagree, as usual.
Yeah, don’t follow and don’t watch. There’s nothing to see here. There’s nothing you’ll miss.
Agreed 100%
I’ve been googling “Mets financial situation” “Mets financial problem” before 11/30/08 and there are no relevant hits. According to Wiki the Madoff scandal broke in December 2008. There was a Forbes article saying the Mets raised $613 million in bond sales to raise the money to pay for their share of Citi Field. Hardly indicative of a team in financial problems.
For those that don’t believe there is a connection between what happens off the field and on the field, look at today’s replay. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Team still has a shot at the playoffs, with or without Gomez. Let’s see if they can put this disaster behind them.
I’m not a huge fan of that logic myself, but at least it’s not as ridiculous as your stab at David’s thoughts.
On the positive side, supposing that logic were true, the Mets players should be excited and ready to play well now that they’ve been given Cespedes!
As I said, not a huge fan of the “bad boss” logic. I don’t think it’s inconceivable, though, that players don’t do their best work when something negative is going on at the workplace, such as a spectacle being made of one of your buddies.
Chalk it up to long suffering Metsfanitis.
I don’t think a similar scenario is likely, though; Gomez isn’t Manny.
They were probably just being skittish about the same medical reports that got the Astros to give up two top OF prospects. We’ll see who was right in the long run… Maybe Wheeler puts it all together in 2017 and the Mets look like geniuses for refusing to take anything less than a 100% risk-free Gomez for him.
Cespedes works because he’s off the books come October.
The combo of Melvin’s quotes plus the Astros deal does make some sort of dishonest bailing sadly plausible, though.
But, hip or no hip, Madoff or no Madoff… the Gomez non-trade might have been a *good* thing. At this point in the season, pushing the dog days of August and pushing age 30, Gomez has just 8 HRs and, as of the day of the non-trade, a sub-par .328 OBP.
Now compare this with the Mets’ gloriously failed 1992 pennant push, when they brought in a 32-year-old Kevin Bass, he of 7 HRs and a .310 OBP. That didn’t work out too much better for the Mets.
They’re going for it? Pass the Kool-Aid. The front office has succeeded in its quest to sell tickets without breaking the bank.
To date, the Mets have a winning percentage over .700 when they score three runs or more, well above the league average. Johnson, Uribe, and Cespedes, in conjunction with d’Arnaud’s return, have the potential to make a significant offensive difference.
The Mets made some decent moves, but your criticisms are indistinguishable from those you made in any of the past three years. If that’s your bag, have at it. I’m enjoying meaningful August games. It sure beats the alternative.
Taking on $2+ mil (but not the full $3.7 mil those players are earning) for Uribe, Johnson and Clippard doesn’t prove much, but is at least a small investment in winning and/or selling tickets, more than we’ve seen in past years. The shopping of Wheeler, though, and the hunt for Gomez/Bruce/Cespedes, is about as “going for it” as it gets.
What would be more “going for it”? Given the particular package the Rockies got for Tulo (specifically an above-average replacement SS), very few teams would have any chance of landing Troy, and the Mets weren’t one of them. I have no idea why the Rockies went that route instead of just trying to maximize prospect haul, but they did. Maybe the Wilpons aren’t the only owners who rule according to P.R. concerns.
If you view the Mets’ activity as more a desire to sell tickets than anything else, well, in this case the same move that sells tickets improves our odds of winning more games and somehow sneaking into the playoffs, so I’ll take it.
Based on the recent attendance spike, I do hope management’s takeaway isn’t “enter the year with a cheap .500-ish team, add talent mid-season if we’re close enough to sniff the playoffs”. One success does not a pattern make, and if they have any brains at all they’ll look around the game and see that doesn’t pay out very often. I’m hoping that they get inspired by the big turn-outs and want to do what it takes to keep them going, such as actually entering seasons with 90-win teams on paper. We shall see…
Whether or not he’s “elite” is academic. I have no doubt he’s going to do his job in producing runs.
“There has been a lot of speculation as to why the Gomez deal did not happen. Mets sources say the team was ill at ease about medical reports concerning his hips. The Brewers claim the Mets wanted them to absorb more dollars on his existing contract, which runs through 2016.”
“My sources tell me there is truth on both sides. When the Mets found out about Gomez’s alleged hip issues they still seemed interested in the deal but wanted the Brewers to shoulder more of the financial load than what was originally agreed upon. At that point the folks from Milwaukee told the Mets to stuff it and wound up trading him the next day to the Houston Astros without incident.”