New York Mets: 10 Other Players Who Could Move If They Become Full Sellers

If the Francisco Rodriguez trade was any indication of what is to come for the New York Mets at the MLB trade deadline, fans are in store for another sucker punch of an end of the season. The trades, however, are not entirely bad news. By cutting certain ginormous salaries here (Francisco Rodriguez?) and other outlandishly large salaries there (Carlos Beltran?), the Mets are saving money to make their product more impressive in the coming years.

Over the past 50 years of Mets baseball, fans have endured much heartache. Many fans of the organization have developed bitterness—a dark sarcasm that focuses on a bizarrely bleak view of their favorite club. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s not easy to be a New York Mets fan. The “Younger Brother Syndrome” (i.e. the Mets, the Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago White Sox, or the dreadful Oregon State Beavers) is difficult to conquer when you support only the “second most popular team in the city.”

It’s not just the fans, however, that suffer from being the second team. From a marketability standpoint, the Yankees have always taken the throne for commercial success and domination in the city of New York. They have the upper hand. They own a television station and annually generate revenue comparable to that of an entire developing nation (note: the author can neither confirm nor deny the validity of this statement).

In 2007, New York Magazine estimated that the Yankees brought in $302 million dollars, and in 2010, Forbes Magazine estimated the Yankees' net value to sit at $1.6 billion, or $55 in revenue per fan in the metropolitan area of almost 20 million potential NYC fans. Let it be known that if the Yankees are worth $1.6 billion dollars, the CIA reports that the Gross Domestic Product of Burundi was $1.489 billion dollars. The New York Yankees are worth more than the entire GDP of a small African nation near Rwanda.

How are the Mets supposed to compete with that? The New York Mets are always playing catch up. That’s part of their game. As the trade deadline approaches, the Mets fans are left to wonder about their front office decisions. As sports fans, we will always second-guess the decisions of those in power. But an ownership in financial trouble due to the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme needs to take extra precautions.

As their biggest and most marketable player, Jose Reyes, enters the final year of his contract, Wilpon and Einhorn will have to figure out strategic ways to balance their budget and potentially re-sign the most coveted shortstop in franchise history. If this means cutting ties with some of the other fan favorites, then that’s what it will come down to.

If the following players (ordered in terms of the valued relevance that a trade at this deadline would bring, not likelihood of a trade) are shipped for positive value in the coming weeks before the trade deadline, the brilliant and young front office of Alderson, DePodesta and Ricardi will have made the right decision for the future.

10. Willie Harris

Willie Harris, like Chris Capuano, is the perfect example of a veteran that could assist any playoff contending organization. Harris, a natural outfielder, has started at multiple positions and even played second base for the club as recently as a few games ago. His experience and veteran status in the clubhouse could be appealing for a team that feels like they are a few pieces away.

In a buyer's market, the New York Mets could be sellers with a player like Willie Harris. Harris, who is hitting .267 this season, is 33 years old and offers any team depth and composure as needed. Available to pinch hit, Harris has been an important part of the organization this season but could be replaced in the future by players like Nick Evans and Fernando Martinez.

9. Fernando Martinez

Fernando Martinez is an outfield platoon man that would be the speculative replacement for Carlos Beltran if he were to be traded. If Carlos Beltran is not traded, however, Fernando Martinez may become the name from the outfield that is shopped.

Martinez, 23, is the type of player that often fits into trade deadline packages. If the New York Mets become sellers and Martinez sees his name on the chopping block, it wouldn’t necessarily be a poor move for the Mets management. The injury-prone athlete has been optioned back to AAA every time that he’s made an appearance in the big leagues, and has dealt with multiple knee injuries.

In 2010, Baseball-Intellect called Martinez the No. 2 prospect in the Mets organization (behind only Jennry Mejia) and rated him a B+ prospect with All-Star potential. Still a top-five prospect in the organization, some worry that his injuries have hindered his value and his stock may be slipping.

With what is left of Martinez’s potential comes the little grain of trade value left in his stock. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised never to see Martinez fulfill his potential in New York, and whether that means he'll be traded or just never peak is yet to be determined.

8. Chris Capuano

When I say that Chris Capuano is on the trade block, the typical reader might construe an image of numerous teams ringing Sandy Alderson to try and get this guy on their team for the remainder of the season. Rest assured, Chris Capuano is the farthest thing from a “hot commodity.”

Paul DePodesta, New York Mets executive, is known around the league for his keen eye for starting pitching value. That’s what drove much of the success for the “Moneyball” teams, and that’s a policy that he is instituting here in New York. With his signing of Chris Capuano, he was able to detect a rebound year for the former Brewer. His production has been solid all season long, and has won eight games at the halfway point.

In each of his last eight starts, Capuano has recorded at least five strikeouts. Capuano could be the type of player that a contender tries to target, much like the Dodgers did last season with Ted Lilly. While Capuano’s value may be minimal, his departure could come soon.  

7. Tim Byrdak

In April, MLBTradeRumors.com published an article that explained why pitcher Tim Byrdak has the MLB Trade Rumors app on his iPhone. "You do everything you can to keep your job, and I felt like I put up pretty strong numbers. I thought we'd have more of an opportunity to secure a big-league job, so you have to keep watching the wire, MLB Trade Rumors, all these sites to see who is going where, who has interest in guys. So it became a pretty valuable tool for me to keep an eye on other lefties that were still on the market, and how that market was developing.”

This article put a personal touch on what could be devastating for a player like Byrdak. Nicknamed the “Bird Man”, Byrdak, 37, is a likable left-handed reliever who has generated moderately impressive numbers in his tenure with the Mets. He is a rare commodity in baseball. Like Capuano, Byrdak isn’t the type of player that will produce headline news when he is involved in a trade rumor, but his arm would be of assistance to anyone in need of a strong relief pitcher late this season.

One of those teams who suddenly find themselves with a desire for relief help, however, is his own New York Mets. Now that Francisco Rodriguez has been traded to the Brewers, a presence like Byrdak would be positive for the bullpen. While the Mets might be able to snag a prospect or two for Byrdak, I maintain that his value is too high for the pen and too little to for opposing team for a trade to be worth Byrdak shipping up his family to their sixth Major League destination. 

6. Mike Pelfrey

Mike Pelfrey, who was named the Mets staff ace and Opening Day starter at the beginning of the 2011 season, has not reached the level that the fans have hoped for. Recently, he has received some very negative press for his extreme inability to show up in big games. For example, in a recent blog post, New York blogger Mets Blob called him “a mental midget” and “a gutless quitter."

He has been unable to perform in the big games, and as the staff ace he is currently producing a lousy season (5-9, 4.67 ERA). In April, New York Daily News writer John Harper reported that Pelfrey could be traded “sooner than expected”. More recently, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Heyman included Mike Pelfrey in a list of names (including Beltran, Reyes and K-Rod) of Mets players that could be traded if the Mets were not in contention by the July 31^st trading deadline.

My best speculation is that Mike Pelfrey would not get very much value as a lone trade target. His performance has been weak, and his value would seem to be comparable to that of a bottom-of-the-rotation-pitcher for most contending teams. Rather, I see Pelfrey as an upside-tag-a-long (he did have 15 wins last season) to a Carlos Beltran deal. With his name added, the Mets might be able to reel in an extra prospect or two.

On Sunday night, Pelfrey was quoted in ProSportDaily as saying, “I try not to think about it. You know something is going to happen. It's unfortunate, but you have the idea something is going to happen. You wish everybody could be back. If we get Ike, David, and Johan back, we could go on a run. But I don't think we're going to have the same guys." What Pelfrey may fail to realize is that he is one of those guys that could be off of the team if a team accepts him in a package.

5. Jason Isringhausen

Isringhausen is a very marketable trading piece. He comes with a very low price tag and years of playoff experience. In the first save opportunity since the K-Rod trade, the reliever came in Tuesday night to record his first save since 2008 in St. Louis. Requiring only 11 pitches, he threw a perfect inning and struck out a batter.

Now that Rodriguez has been dealt, trading Isringhausen would be a risky move that could come back to bite the Mets in the butt if it turns out that Bobby Parnell is not ready for a closing role. Isringhausen, a graduate of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, is a personal favorite and a player that I wish the Mets could have had in his heyday.

Instead, the Mets shopped him before his prime (to the Cardinals) and now owns his salary for a one-season contract. He (and his one-year contact) has been the topic of numerous trade talks, and according to a trusted source, the Mets had been aggressively attempting to ship him off before the July 31^st deadline. Without Rodriguez and without much value inherent to his own name, it would be very risky to try to move Isringhausen now.

4. Jason Bay

Jason Bay’s lucrative contract makes him a virtually unmovable trading piece. While he was once a part of one of the hottest and juiciest trades in recent memory (the Boston-Los Angeles-Pittsburgh trade that moved Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers), Bay would be an ideal means of shaving salary at the deadline.

Unfortunately, the former slugger has produced at an atrocious level and has been one of the most inconsistent bats in baseball this season. Whenever he begins to heat up, he falls back into a slump. He is impossible to predict.

Bay, a Canadian-born outfielder, is known as a likable player who works hard to get out of his slumps. And while it may be too difficult to sell the ship on Jason Bay, I still believe that he can be whipped into shape with the right coaches and patience. His upside is too high, so Mets fans who are upset about their inability to shop Bay really shouldn't worry too much. If he comes back as a hot outfielder for the second half of the season, you’ll forget he was ever an option to be traded. If he continues his miserable hitting performance, however, forget I ever said anything.

3. Jose Reyes

Jose Reyes is the clear-cut leader of this organization, and I firmly believe that if he plays well the team will follow suit. So long as the injury-prone superstar can stay healthy, I can say—with my bias checked at the door—with full confidence that Reyes will be one of the greatest players in the world. He carries this team, owns the respect of the organization, the players and the fans. He leads the dugout and can start a rally at any given point in the game.

How the Mets would survive without Reyes is yet to be determined. If the financial troubles are worse than I had expected, however, life may have to move on. I don’t expect Jose Reyes to be traded by the deadline, but this article would be incomplete without explaining what a trade would do to help the organization.

Take a minute to recall what happened to the Cleveland Cavaliers following “The Decision.” If they had traded LeBron James at the trading deadline, the front office could have brought in an arsenal of players to build for a future without James. That wasn’t an option for Cleveland, but it is for the New York Mets.

According to a recent Buster Olney tweet, the Mets are now 100% sure that they will not trade Jose Reyes this season. That being said, if Reyes decides to stick around this season only to pack up and take his talents to the Bronx or Bean Town next season, the Mets would have lost out on an opportunity to rebuild. Reyes is a homegrown talent, and I do not have a particular interest in humoring the packages that Reyes could be exchanged for. I think that is imperative to sign Reyes before riots explode in Queens. Reyes makes the New York Mets the New York Mets.

Without Reyes, the future might be bleak. Without getting prospects in return for Reyes, however, it would look even bleaker.

2. David Wright

The fact of the matter with David Wright is that, as strange as it sounds, he is not the best player on this team. As the Mets build for the future, they may have to plan for it to not involve David Wright.

In the past, people have argued that the Mets “owe it to David Wright” to shop him out of this market so he can play his career for a better team. In my opinion, the Mets owe it to Jose Reyes to clear as much cap space as he needs. He is the player that has taken over as the leader, and Wright—while a fan favorite and essential community man—might have taken the back seat in that time.

I, personally, have David Wright bobble heads and David Wright t-shirts. It takes a deep gulp for me to imagine the Mets without the young star. As of late, however, it has seemed more realistic for sake of the team's future to imagine the Mets testing the market with Wright. Reyes is a bigger and less replaceable difference maker than David Wright. While Wright still has time left on his contract, if I were in the Mets' front office, I would currently be looking into Wright's potential trade value.

Trading Wright wouldn’t be a fire sale, but if the Mets do turn out to be “sellers” in this market, Wright might be a gold coin that clubs here and there might not want to pass up once he is healthy again. He is projected to come back in the coming days or weeks, likely before the deadline.

1. Carlos Beltran

With Jose Reyes hurt, Carlos Beltran was the lone representative for the New York Mets in the NL's starting line in the 2011 All-Star game. Brian Wilson, who recently dressed in a Onesies tuxuedo speedo for the ESPYs, took a break from calling players “cyborgs” for a moment when, before the All-Star game, he introduced Carlos Beltran as a player that he would love to play with in San Francisco.

Beltran has blown up the internet in the past couple of weeks, and seems to be the hottest player on the market. At the beginning of the season, many Mets fans realized that this would be the end of Carlos Beltran in New York. While he never quite peaked with the team as a fan favorite (see: 2006 NLCS), he has turned around his performance this year.

Some attribute this to Adrian Beltre Syndrome, considering that this is Beltran’s contract year, but that doesn’t change the fact that Beltran is absolutely killing on the field right now. He has turned out to be the team's most coveted and marketable trading piece, and while some will worry about the Mets giving up on the season should they trade Beltran, those same fans are forgetting that the prospect value that they could get in return for the coming seasons would far outweigh the late-season run to a Wild Card berth, at best, that the team would be forfeiting.

According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, the Mets recently stated they would be willing to assist in paying some of the $6 million still owed to Beltran this year if he were to be traded. The most likely destinations for Beltran, according to Jon Heyman, seem to be San Francisco, Philadelphia and Atlanta (one beat writer recently tweeted that the Mets had sent scouts to the Braves minor league organizations).

Others in the running appear to be Texas and Boston. Beltran’s hot bat could put any one of those teams into a much more comfortable offensive standpoint than they were before the trade, and a player like the Phillies’ Domonic Brown would be more than worth the late-season heartbreak.