Earlier today the NY Mets traded right-handed relief pitcher Brian Stokes to the Anaheim Angels for outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. I wasn’t going to mention it, but I figured there’s enough of us here who either root for the Mets and want to vent some frustration in the comments or hate the Mets and want to point and laugh at all the Mets fans who are venting their frustration in the comments. Some of the details:
- Gary Matthews Jr. is crazy overpaid to the tune of 2 more years and $23.5 million.
- Brian Stokes is an average reliever going from the NL to the AL.
- Gary Matthews Jr. sucketh at baseballth.
- The Angels will pay all but $2 million of Matthews’ remaining salary. The Mets will pay the rest.
- For the Mets, Matthews will either be a horrible starting outfielder or a replacement off the bench that his manager will be afraid to call upon, depending on how he’s used.
- For the Angels, Stokes will be one of those guys who their fans forget by 2011 when he’s traded again.
That’s about it, really. To me, it’s just one more organizational move that puzzles me much like the Royals signing of Rick Ankiel and the White Sox trading for Juan Pierre. I can see why the Angels made this move I guess; they’re getting marginal value in return for a guy who would have provided them with absolutely nothing in 2010 or 2011. But the Mets? I just don’t get it. Why would they want to give $2 million dollars to a guy who sucks if they didn’t have to, and why would they offer up a useful reliever for the right to do so? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to simply sign a Type B free agent off the street and save the reliever?
Whatever, Omar Minaya is an idiot.
Somewhere, Roman is laughing/crying/punching something.
Man. The Mets. I…
Maybe they’re trying to clear payroll so they can sign LeBron James?
None of it makes sense, and that’s the most sense I can think of.
Hey Oscar, please trade away Ike Davis so he can play somewhere decent. Thanks.
Are you saying the Angels got the better of this deal? That’s preposterous. They are paying the Mets $20Mil to take Mathews and all they got was a shitty reliever.
I don’t think anyone would really say that. There really is no winner of a trade like this. The Angels screwed up back in 2006 when they signed Matthews to that crazy contract.
My wrath is more for the Mets, who traded for a guy who will cost them $2 million in cash even though he has negative value in terms of production. That’s fucking awesome.
That’s why I compared this deal to the White Sox trade for Juan Pierre. In both cases, you have an over-priced outfielder being paid to go away by the teams that signed them to their ridiculous contract. Sure Juan Pierre is probably a better baseball player than the two scrub minor leaguers he was traded for, but that’s not really the point. The point is that the White Sox traded for a guy who they think is good even though he isn’t. Both the White Sox and the Mets would have been better off not making these two trades. So why’d they do it? Only Kenny Williams and Omar Minaya can answer that. But that’s where the indictment comes in from me; Juan Pierre and Gary Matthews Jr. are 4th outfielders.
Poppycock.
/I win
Brian Stokes over the last two years had a +.9 WAR
Gary Matthews Jr. had a -2.2 WAR
Stokes made the league minimum. Matthews made $10 million a season. I don’t care if the Mets only have to pay $2 million on the $23 million left. They already have a significantly better back up, his name is Angel Pagan. If they needed a 5th OF with Beltran on the shelf they could have re-signed Jeremy Reed for nothing and kept Stokes. Omar is a fucking joke. An absolute fucking joke.