Make A Trade, Omar
“Let’s not get too excited about Fernando Nieve yet. He’s having a great run and should stay in rotation for now but he’s not a superstar.” – MostlyMets via Twitter
The quote above proved prophetic as after posting a 3-0 record with a 1.45 ERA in 18.2 innings (10 hits, 11 Ks, 9 BBs) in his first three starts Nieve allowed 11 hits and 3 runs in just 3.1 innings. It was bound to happen eventually.
But let’s not blame the whole game on Nieve. Good teams are supposed to overcome bad outings by their starting pitchers more often than not. This is just not a good team in it’s current state. The three core players that are currently on the disabled list (Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado & Jose Reyes) each have no clear timetable for returning and without them this team is sunk.
It’s not going out on a limb to say this team needs a trade to inject some life into the team. I agree with Omar Minaya’s idea of not overpaying for a player but disagree with his justification for not acquiring a marquee player. I heard him tell Mike Francessa on WFAN last week that he wouldn’t acquire a big name player because he still needs to play the injured guys when they return. One of the problems with that philosophy is that if you don’t get trade for the big name guy then you won’t be in contention when the injured player returns.
Say what you will about Steve Phillips but he had the right idea on this issue in 1998. You may recall that Todd Hundley, fresh off of two all star seasons in which he hit 41 and 30 home runs respectively, suffered an elbow injury. what did Phillips do? He traded prospects Preston Wilson, Ed Yarnall and Geoff Goetz to the Florida Marlins for Mike Piazza. Piazza, already established as a star, went on to be arguably the best catcher in Mets history and led the team to a World Series appearance in 2000. Hundley played some left field for the Mets after returning from his injury but after the season was traded for Armando Benitez and Roger Cedeno, two other players who played integral roles for the 2000 Mets.
The lesson learned is that you need to do what you have to do to survive now. In Phillips case that was to acquire Piazza. And even though that was not enough to help the Mets that year (they finished 18 games behind the Braves that year) it ended up paying dividends later. I’m not saying that the Minaya should haphazardly trade away everything to fill a position of an injured player. But if the right player becomes available he should pursue and not worry about doubling up on a position. Jerry Manuel will worry about that later… if the team is still in contention.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.