Putz trade close
According to Baker, Zduriencik believes that a deal for Putz is close. That goes along with this from Ken Rosenthal:
The Mets are working to acquire a setup man for new closer Francisco Rodriguez — and that setup man would be another closer from the American League West.
J.J. Putz could be headed to the Mets in a three-team trade with the Mariners and Indians, according to major-league sources.
Mets right-hander Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first-base prospect Mike Carp would be in the deal, as would Indians outfielder Franklin Gutierrez.
The deal also would include one or more prospects, but it is not yet clear which players are headed where.
It’s a pretty crazy rumor with a lot of details missing. If it comes into clearer view, we’ll update the post. I will say this, though – Franklin Gutierrez is one of the very best defensive outfielders in the game (think Mike Cameron with a few less walks), and if the Mariners are really targeting him after going after Matt Joyce, it should be clear that he understands the value of good gloves in the outfield.
Update: Now the rumors have expanded to include us giving up Luis Valbuena, and apparently the Rays read the blog, realized Matt Joyce was both good and available, and are about to pick him up for Edwin Jackson. The Rays are what we absolutely should be aspiring to.
Second Update: Apparently, the M’s are going to give up Putz, Reed, and Luis Valbuena and get Gutierrez, Aaron Heilman, and Mike Carp, with various assorted pieces ending up in Cleveland and New York. It’s a remarkably interesting deal on a lot of levels. I love Gutierrez’s glove, but would have preferred Joyce as a better fit for Safeco. Heilman demanded a trade because he wants to start, and we’ve already got too many starters. And I hate giving up Valbuena, but Carp could be a legit 1B of the future. We’ll break it all down once it becomes official.
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The combination of (a) the sheer stupid excitement of trade rumors involving the M’s and (b) the optimism that whatever results will actually be good for the team… man, it’s nice.
We could definitely do worse
Oh my god! Oh my god! I love Franklin Gutierrez! I wanted to talk about Franklin Gutierrez in the Joyce thread but I was afraid to for fear of [ot]! If we got him AND Endy Chavez it would not only be AWESOME just from a roster construction perspective, but also for the great omen for future talent evaluation.
It’s like Dave is working behind the scenes… Dave?
(This experience has been tainted by 10 hits from an apple-pipe)
The issue might be if Heilman expects to start and the team thinks that they’ll have a slot to fill after they move Morrow back to the pen to replace Putz, who they’re trading…
I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to read stuff like this, after what we were drug through the past few years (especially the AJ saga).
This is awful.
Gutierrez? Are you serious. I don’t give two spits how good a defender the guy is, he can’t hit to save his life. Being a right hander already struggling in year 3 in the big leagues, Safeco field is going to kill this guy. He doesn’t take a walk, he doesn’t hit for power… he is bench fodder. A defensive replacement..
Horrible move (if true). I would have taken Joyce 1-1 for Putz over this.
I’m sorry, but if you can watch this team for the last five years and still believe that defense doesn’t matter, no one should care what you think.
Think I’d take this comment more seriously if you’d said that his atrocious bat far outweighs his defensive skills. As it is, you sound like Bill Bavasi or Chuck Armstrong.
Or a Mariner team executive. Wait. That’s redundant.
Yay for Gutierrez!
Sad face for giving up Valbuena.
The phrase “two spits” really seems to identify the poster above as a think-with-your-gut baseball old-timer, but the use of “leet speak” in the handle seems to point towards a flame-war veteran keyboard jockey.
Either way, he’s wrong about this trade, and Gutierrez is going to make whoever else closes look way better than they otherwise would.
Would Gutierrez start in CF or RF? Any chance Jack or Wakamatsu gets Ichiro to go back to CF?
I was sort of digging the Hermida rumors. Perhaps Jack still wants to pull that off, idk.
We need to wait this one out because Jon Heyman says it’s a 12 player trade…
Imagine an outfield of Chavez, Gutierrez, and Ichiro!
I think I just had a defensegasm.
Would that be two Mark Spitz?
There is nothing obvious here. How much better of a defender is Gutierrez than Reed? Is Gutierrez’s bad approach at the plate crippling to his development or might he turn into a .260 / .320 / .450 center fielder? How good is Heilman (tough to determine because his role hasn’t been adequately defined)? Is giving up Valbuena a big mistake? And finally, is Carp’s apparent development for real? Looking forward to the breakdown…
Aren’t Reed and Endy Chavez the same player?
Would it be better if Joe Smith was the guy coming instead of Heilman? I”ve heard his name involved.
Valbuena doesn’t seem like a guy we should be parting with, considering the dearth of middle infielders we have in the upper minors.
Wow…wasn’t expecting that when I got home…sound pretty frickin’ rad…
Some thoughts:
Hate to see Reed go…was always hoping he’d reach his potential…even though he didn’t, he’s a nice left-handed, defensive, 4th outfielder…
Really hate to see Valbuena go…was hoping he’d take over for one of the double-play turds…
The guys we might be getting back are going to help the rotation sooooo much…defense, defense, defense…
Hopefully Heilman will prompt them to dump Wash, Batista, and Silva for anything they can get…I’m talking give them away…the Brewers are on line 1…
JJ will be sorely missed…loved that guy…
And how about JJ setting up K-Rod? Wholly shit! Good luck coming back after the 7th…
Still would like the Hermidia for Johnson deal too…
Go Z Go!
And how about JJ setting up K-Rod? Wholly shit!
That’s not a nice thing to say about JJ.
Haha. I think he mistyped.
Apparently we are receiving Endy Chavez too. Someone who loves us understands defense!
But also giving up Sean Green. This trade is crazy interesting.
We get David Dellucci too. Holy Crap.
Also, making Heilman the closer pumping up his value and then trading him seems like the way to go.
Dave beat me to it…looks like we’re giving up four to get four…
Reed, JJ, Valbuena, and Green…
Dave, would this be a good deal?
I’m now confused with Green thrown in there…
Scratch Dellucci
Whether this goes down or not, this is sooooo much fun…
Remember when we had to contemplate Soriano for Ho-Ram?
Yeah. Don’t like losing Green in the deal, but..
That would be a great defensive outfield. Like Dave, I’d be a little more excited if we were getting Joyce + parts from Detroit.
Would Heilman be anything more than a middle-of-the-rotation starter? He showed control problems (5.47 BB/9), but also had a high K/9.
Churchill says that Joyce is gone…maybe Z was too late and now he has to go this route…
Rosenthal says…
This is fun!
The Tigers inexplicably traded Joyce to the Rays for Edwin Jackson. And when I say “inexplicably”, I mean “retardedly.”
Aren’t Green and Corcoran redundant for us anyway? Groundballers who can’t be trusted after the 7th?
Making Heilman a closer should make him happy. There’s no room in the rotation until a few more trades are made.
I think it goes…
Mariners lose:
Putz
Green
Reed
Valbuena
Mariners receive:
Gutierrez
Carp
Chavez
Heilman
Minor leaguers
Mets lose:
Heilman
Chavez
Carp
Joe Smith
Mets receive:
Putz
Reed
Sean Green
Indians lose:
Gutierrez
Minor Leaguers
Indians receive:
Joe Smith
Valbuena
I hate it that JJ would have to take a back seat to F*&%Rod.
I hate that Morrow might get screwed for Heilman.
I’d like Reed to get a shot playing someplace.
I love the idea of defense.
Right. This deal has a ton of pros and cons.
Good: Gutierrez is a great defender, Carp could be a .300/.370/.450 first baseman by 2010, Heilman’s not much worse than Putz as a reliever.
Bad: Valbuena gets punted, Gutierrez is RH, and Heilman wants to start, which makes Morrow as closer more likely.
So the outfield would be Chavez, ICHIRO!, and Gutierrez…if we also make the rumored trade for Hermida along with WLAD, we’d have quite the outfield…good defense…platoon options…
I like…
Z will get an automatic F+ on any deal that sends Morrow back to the pen…period…
I don’t like the idea of making Heilman a starter at the expense of Morrow. I’d like to see what Morrow has as a starter before some guy that demanded in trade in NY gets his demand on a team he hasn’t played for.
Way to be open minded.
I would hope that Heilman would be flipped to a team that needs starters and that Morrow’s spot is safe…
Holy crap. I went to dinner and come home to a dessert buffet consisting of some Vanilla Custards, No-Bake Cookies, Peppermint Brittle, and Spotted Dick.
And I thought to myself… “well now this is new… new and interesting… I never thought I’d type this but… I think I’ll try the Spotted Dick.”
In Baker’s latest update he doesn’t have Chavez coming to the M’s, which would seem to make sense, especially if you plan on trying to get Wlad ABs, not too mention Saunders is there as well for a potential late season call up.
THIS is how you upgrade a rotation that is largely untradeable….
I’m just now sure how I feel about this yet. Carp appears to be a solid prospect, and Gutierrez is sure a great defensive pickup. But I’m just not too sure about Heilman. Very anxious to see how this plays out.
Chavez would be a 4th outfielder anyway. He’s not exactly a masher and isn’t projected well either. But his defensive additions would be absurd.
Just looking at their respective UZRs, an outfield consisting of mostly Chavez, Gutierrez, Ichiro would be a +40 to +50 run outfield. That’s a hell of a thing.
How are they going to score runs though?
Scoring runs or preventing runs… both are contributions, terry.
As a Mets fan, I couldn’t be freakin’ happier with this trade. Mike Carp I think has a good bit of potential (he’s the warm body in the trade I’m most disappointed about losing), but he’s been up and down in the minors…but he DEFINITELY has upside.
Endy should be for the Mariners something very similar to what he was for the Mets, a third/fourth outfielder who plays great D and occasionally gets on base. Sure, his FanGraphs projected wOBA is a mere .308, but his defense is strong, and he runs the bases fairly well.
I like Joe Smith, but I do wonder if he’s going to stay consistent. If nothing else, he tends to give a team a different look out of the pen.
And, from a purely non-objective POV, I’m done with Heilman. I know it goes against all statistical analysis, but I’ve lost all faith in the guy from watching him, subjectively, for the last year.
And for us Mets, we’re gonna be happy to have Putz, especially as an 8th inning guy, couldn’t care less about Reed (oh yay, another 4th/5th outfielder, at least he can be a defensive replacement for Tatis?), and am curious to learn more about Green.
By the by, Heilman isn’t a bad pitcher. Overall, he suffered from walking too many batters (14% walk rate), but the strikeout rate (22.4%) and everything else looked “fine” (groundball rate was down from his usual norms, tho).
I don’t think he would be a bad pickup. Between him, Rowland-Smith, and others, it’s not as if we can’t let someone compete for our fifth starter spot.
Green is Smith – groundballs, death to righties, can’t get lefties out to save his life.
Like most people, the prospects of Morrow returning to the pen is worrying. But we’ll see. Z has demonstrated so far that he knows what he’s doing.
Righty killing groundball machine. Has a nice two seamer he can throw for strikes and a three-quarters -> sidearm delivered slider that really messes with right handers (think Jeff Nelson).
Sucks against lefties.
Rosenthal makes it official.
It’s official…
Yes, but you still need to score more than you give up.
It’s official…
“UPDATED 11:12 p.m. — Done deal: Mets acquire Putz
The Mets have acquired a setup man for new closer Francisco Rodriguez — and that setup man is another closer from the American League West.
J.J. Putz is headed New York in a three-team trade with the Mariners and Indians, according to major-league sources.
Under terms of the deal, the Mets get Putz, outfielder Jeremy Reed and reliever Sean Green from Seattle. The Mariners receive reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first baseman Mike Carp from the Mets. They also get Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians and minor leaguers. The Indians get reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle.
From the Mets’ perspective, the deal is Heilman and Smith for Putz. Chavez and Reed are simply an exchange of backup outfielders, Smith and Green are an exchange of right-handed groundball specialists.”
Don’t bad things happen when we trade young infielders to the Indians?
Maybe they want Yuni…
This sucks for JJ…worked his ass off to become one of the best closers in the game and now has to “set-up” K-Rod…whom we don’t know as a person, but was hated as an opponent…
Best of luck JJ…re-sign with the Ms in 2011 for OUR run at the World Series!