Just Mets

Late Monday, the Rockies traded Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays for Jose Reyes and minor league pitching prospects.

But apparently, the Blue Jays were not alone in their pursuit of the star shortstop.

The Mets interesting Tulowitzki has been fairly well chronicled over the last year, and apparently that interest was alive and well before Toronto acquired him on Monday.

Sandy Alderson said on Tuesday the Mets made more than just a basic inquiry for Tulowitzki, suggesting there were detailed conversations about bringing Tulowitzki to the Mets.

Alderson said he was surprised by the ultimate deal which sent Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays.

Over the winter when the two sides were discussing parameters for a deal, the Rockies ask for Tulowitzki was supposedly Zack Wheeler, one of Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, and one of Travis d’Arnaud or Kevin Plawecki. The Mets understandably balked at that price and despite wanting Tulowitzki, they never agreed to a deal.

Besides, the Mets already knew Wheeler had a torn tendon in his elbow, and that would’ve been exposed if they had agreed to terms which might have destroyed the deal anyway.

According to people in the know this time, the Mets and Rockies were indeed talking about a deal into yesterday. Sources with knowledge of the discussions said Wheeler was a name involved in those talks, but the Rockies wanted one of the pitching prospects Alderson has said publicly he would not trade as a basis for the deal, plus another player, and the Mets didn’t budge from their stance. 

So, the Rockies instead took the deal which they felt provided the maximum return for the money, and here we are, and Tulowitzki is a Blue Jay.

The Rockies made a very good deal for themselves. They’re saving about $50 million on this deal, got some very good pitching prospects back, and now have some flexibility going forward. The Mets didn’t have a better, “bad contract” to deal, which made it more difficult for the a Mets to offset the money for Colorado. In the ultimate deal, Colorado’s ability to save as much as they did may have resulted in what appears to be a lighter prospect package coming back to them. 

But, they still got a good, albeit declining shortstop, and some hard throwing pitching prospects which they hope eventually prove fruitful. And if Reyes rebounds down the stretch, perhaps he will be an attractive trade chip this winter,

Part of the problem right now for the Mets is they simply do not want to deal their top shelf pitching for anyone. It’s understandable – it’s clearly a championship caliber pitching staff which has the chance to win pretty much everyday. It’s hard to sacrifice even one of them, even if it helps solve a problem, especially since pitchers get injured and depth is critically important.

But if they want to keep those pitchers, it’s slim pickings behind them if they want to acquire a superstar of Tulowitzki’s ilk. They can get good players like they’ve gotten for their available prospects, but even packaging them for one of these stars isn’t necessarily attractive for another team.

In other words, perhaps the Mets have more talent on paper for a deal, but their willingness to deal what teams really want is a different story, which means the a Mets have to up the ante, and they’re clearly unwilling to do that.