Cano to Mets deal official

[GreenSox]

8 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Kimbrel went for prospects #25 and #76. He had 3 years left at $37M. 

Chapman went for prospect #2 Gleyber Torres, former top 100 prospect McKinney, Adam Warren, and Rashad Crawford (now in Yankees AAA team). He had 2 MONTHS left.

Diaz went for prospects #62 and #89. He has 4 years left, 3 of them in ARB. 

 

Mariners got hosed if you want to break the trade down in to two parts. 

 

Chapman trade was an anomaly.  July trade for a team trying to win a W.S.

Mariners didn't get hosed at all.

[caulfield12]

The M’s are about to trade 2B Robinson Cano and CL Edwin Diaz to the Mets – the actual Mets – in exchange for top prospects Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn, and the contracts of Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak. It’s a franchise-altering deal, one that sends off the biggest trading chip the franchise has moved in years, and one that firmly closes the door on any form of contention in the next few years. A deal this big takes time, so we’ve watched the initial speculation, counter-offers, and analysis play out publicly over several days. It’s at once fascinating and awful. 

The M’s are obviously desperate to move on from Cano. The question is why: it can’t purely be a cost-saving move, as with the money they’d reportedly send to New York AND by taking on Bruce and Swarzak, they don’t really save a lot, especially in the next 2-3 years. Edwin Diaz garnered a lot of attention from other clubs – how could he not? – and the M’s still seem hell-bent on packaging him with Cano. 

Now, I think Cano’s contract has always been overplayed. Yes, it’s a lot of money, and yes, it runs through his age-40 season, but what gets lost here is that Cano’s been productive in his time with Seattle. Yes, he missed 80 games last year, and that probably led to some of the urgency with which Jerry Dipoto shopped him this month, but people are referring to him as an albatross or simply as a cautionary tale about long contracts. No; Robinson Cano is *still* an excellent player, and will add value on the field wherever he plays next year. Is he worth his contract? He’s projected for 3 wins next season, and at ~8-9 per, that’s $24-27 million, or right in line with what he’ll get. The problem is that the M’s will be paying about half of that amount. At ~$12 M per year, Cano looks like a decent bargain, particularly in the early years. “What about his age 39-40 years?” you ask? Who cares? He’ll have provided plenty of surplus value once you account for the M’s kicking in all of that money. The M’s are building a contender, it’s just in New York. 

That’s not to say the deal is as disastrous as it first appeared. The M’s now get two prospects that easily slide into the front end of their top 10, and Anthony Swarzak had a brilliant 2017 before an awful 2018 turned him into a salary-matching throw-in that probably undersells him a bit. I’m not sure I love this deal, especially without knowing what, say, Philadelphia would’ve traded for Diaz alone, but I’m just struck by the weirdness of it. What about Cano’s personality or what about the clubhouse’s demeanor in the 2nd half did Dipoto attribute to Cano? For a year or two, the M’s had been doing everything they could to counter the old narrative that Cano was selfish. We’ve seen him work with plenty of young hitters, going back to Justin Smoak, Ketel Marte, Jean Segura, and then youngsters this season. We watched the loose, laughter-filled competitions that Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano would organize for the M’s in the spring, and as much as anything, that camaraderie was singled out as a reason why the M’s were blowing their pythagorean record out of the water in early 2018. Not long after, the M’s are apparently deciding to pay handsomely to be rid of one of the architects of that culture. Meanwhile, the Mets, long seen as loathe to spend money following the Bernie Madoff-fueled losses their owners absorbed, will take on a long-term contract right when they’re trying to extend Cy Young winner Jacob de Grom. 

Both teams can probably come out of this claiming victory. The Mets get a ton of money to go along with their new obligations, they get one of the best relievers alive (who happens to be earning next to nothing), AND they keep their top prospects in Peter Alonso and SS Andres Gimenez. The M’s can say they get future flexibility to add star-level players AND get two very good prospects for a system that needs them desperately. They recognize that what the M’s of 2019-2020 need *least* are shut-down relievers, so better to move them now. 

That approach also led to today’s rather more modest deal. The M’s are sending Alex Colome to the White Sox in exchange for catcher Omar Narvaez. At first glance, this is simply great for the M’s. The M’s do not need a great set-up man or closer in Colome, and I remain somewhat skeptical that he’s great at all. He’s had a FIP in the mid 3’s 3 of the past 4 years, and he hasn’t shown a *persistent* ability to strand runners the way he did in 2016. He’s a good player, but not a transcendent one – not when the average reliever has a K% just 2 percentage points behind Colome’s 2018 mark. Narvaez is an intriguing guy. He’s 26, bats lefty, and draws a ton of walks. Coming into 2018, that was essentially the sum total of his attributes: he had zero power, and hadn’t shown consistent hitting ability in the minors beyond a good walk rate and low Ks. Worse, he didn’t have a classic catcher’s arm, a Zunino-grade cannon to control the running game – he was a bat-first catcher with half a bat. But 2018 showed a lot of promise. Narvaez hit 9 HRs, tripling the 3 he hit in 2016-17 combined. There’s a bit more whiffs now, but a high walk rate and mediocre power is pretty darn good, especially at that position.

ussmariner.com

Edited December 3, 2018 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1069078662077665280

Now the Mets will help rebuild CLE by sending their two best prospects over for Kluber...or worse, get in a bidding war with Yankees and send an even better package.

[Sleepy Harold]

 

[southsider2k5]

 

[RickinIndiana]

Today I am just thankful that I'm not a Mets fan.  That was a brutal trade.

[Bob Sacamano]

9 minutes ago, RickinIndiana said:

Today I am just thankful that I'm not a Mets fan.  That was a brutal trade.

Yeah I read an article yesterday (Ken Rosenthal maybe?) where he said the team could have just signed a closer using the money they just took on in the Cano deal, avoided the aging Cano contract and played McNeil at 2B, and held onto their prospects. 

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

16 hours ago, GreenSox said:

Chapman trade was an anomaly.  July trade for a team trying to win a W.S.

Yeah...and what was stopping the Mariner's from using any of the next 4 "July trade for a team trying to win a W.S" opportunities to get a good deal for Diaz?

 

Breaking that trade down in to two parts make the Diaz half an absolute abortion of a trade for the Mariners.

Edited December 4, 2018 by ChiliIrishHammock24

[southsider2k5]