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December 7, 2012 12-13 Offseason Joe Janish

Revere Rides to Philly and Winter Meetings Wrap-up

The winter meetings are over, and a few more moves were made since the last update.

First off, the Phillies acquired centerfielder Ben Revere from the Twins in exchange for Vance Worley and pitching prospect Trevor May. The Phils were desperate to get a centerfielder, but I can’t decide if this was a good deal for them. Revere is certainly better — defensively — than any other option the Phils have for CF, but he doesn’t provide much offense beyond speed on the bases. Is he worth a Major League starting pitcher and the Phillies’ top prospect? I’m not sure. On the flip side, Worley is damaged goods and likely has hit his ceiling, and May has not yet lived up to his promise. If the Mets did this trade, it would probably be something like Dillon Gee and Jeurys Familia going to Minnesota — would you have done that? I don’t believe I would.

In other news, Joe Blanton signed a two-year, $15M deal with the Angels — a clear sign that the price of starting pitching has risen. We’ll discuss this in further detail in another post coming shortly.

The Red Sox couldn’t go a day without signing someone, so they inked reliever Koji Uehara to a one-year deal.

The Braves re-signed Reed Johnson to a one-year deal. Ho-hum.

The Yankees supposedly offered Kevin Youkilis a one-year, $12M contract. I’m just not seeing Youk in pinstripes, can you?

Oh, and then there was the Rule 5 Draft, in which the Mets drafted lefthanded pitcher Kyle Lobstein from the Rays organization and flipped him to the Tigers for cash. The Mets chose not to otherwise participate in this draft because, according to various reports, they didn’t have roster flexibility. Huh? There are currently three open spots on the 40-man roster, and are wasting two of the other 37 on Anthony Recker and Greg Burke (I’ll be kind and pretend Collin McHugh is worth protecting). I’ll admit I’m not up to speed on all the young men who were left unprotected by other teams, but I find it very hard to believe that the Mets couldn’t find at least one player worth bringing in to spring training. This team IS in a rebuilding phase, is it not? But, I must be patient. Perhaps Sandy Alderson is working on a blockbuster deal that will add 7 people to the roster.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. Dan B December 7, 2012 at 11:20 am
    Alderson proclaimed he was going to overall the roster this offseason. So far he came out of the winter meetings resigning a player already on the roster and making this blockbuster trade where they made sofa change trading a player that isn’t even on their roster. I promise to be patient and wait for opening day for final judgement but it doesn’t mean i have high hopes.
  2. argonbunnies December 7, 2012 at 7:21 pm
    I wanted Uehara. The guy just does not allow baserunners. He’s a little homer-prone, but still better than anyone we have. I wonder how much the Sox paid for him? On a one-year deal, I would have happily gone up to $4mil, so I hope it’s not less than that…

    The Phils-Twins deal could easily wind up being lopsided for either side. Very curious to see about Worley’s health and May & Revere’s development.