Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Lets talk about Carlos Beltran

Carlos Beltran signed his 7 year $119 million deal with the Mets back in 2005 and his deal expires after this season making $18.5 million this year and the cash strapped Mets want to deal him. Beltran had knee surgery last year, he was moved from Center field to Right field and has not played more than 81 games since 2008. His name has come up in trade rumors as he has been very good this year and most think that a move to the American League to DH would be great for Beltran, but his high price tag and injury history has made teams wary.
The Mets have solved some of their financial issues with selling a minority stake in the club, but the ownership has also said that no player is off-limits to be dealt by the trade deadline.
Beltran had been part of trade rumors since before the season even began and at the time the Yankees did not seem as though they would be even considering Beltran as they had Nick Swisher in Right and Posada as the DH. Now its mid-Febuary and Nick Swisher is slumping bad and Jorge Posada is slumping really bad and so Carlos Beltran's name has come up in trade rumors with the Yankees. The idea is that the Yankees would trade for Beltran and split time with him in Right and at DH with Swisher and Posada and Jones would probably be released.
I don't think that the Mets would be realistically expecting anything for Beltran except maybe a mid level prospect or two, this trade is about Salary relief and the Yankees definitely can afford to take on Beltran's salary. This seems like a match made in trade rumors heaven as the Mets free up a lot of salary room and the Yankees get a bat that can energize their slumping offense as Beltran is swinging the bat pretty well slugging .564 in 39 games and just had a 3 homer game. The problem is that we as Yankees fans sometimes forget that those other guys who play baseball across town and make all those funny mistakes are technically our rival and Mets fans would probably be really pissed if Beltran was traded to the Yankees.
Also some Mets fans apparently think that Beltran is deserving of some legitimate prospects or even for some reason Brett Gardner or Nick Swisher in addition to taking on his salary. The Yankees could take Beltran's full salary and in exchange they would give someone of Justin Maxwell's caliber. If the Mets Front office expects more then that in a trade will never get done with the Yankees. This is also assuming that Nick Swisher does not rebound, because if he does and Posada continues to struggle then the Yankees would likely just promote Jesus Montero to DH and Catch once in a while or promote Jorge Vavquez who has hit 16 HR in 37 games with a .303 average.
Jorge Vazquez

Honestly even if Swisher continues to slump will likely keep him for next year even if they trade for Beltran and I think that a deal is unlikely to come about. To me the most likely scenario is the A's trading David DeJesus for Beltran with the Mets eating a large part of his salary. It is still more of a possibility than any of us expected coming into this year.

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