The Mets Said What?

Take one day off for jury duty and all hell breaks loose. Let me get this straight: Toronto offers the Mets Roy Halladay for Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell and prospect Ruben Tejada and the Mets say no thanks! What? My colleague Matt Estreich excellently covered this last night but I had to chime in. On July 7th I wrote that the Mets should look into getting him. With the barren farm system the Mets have, I wasn't sure that they would be able to put together a package to get him. But obviously the Jays have settled on some players they would take so what's the problem?

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I will say this: Mike Francesa of WFAN claims that the Mets told him that the offer was never on the table. I don't know if I believe the Mets were being truthful to him. But Ok Mets... Let's say Toronto never made that offer... FINE... MAKE THE OFFER TO THEM!!! We now know what it would take to bring in a top flight pitcher. Get on it Omar! To make things more urgent, there now is a time limit. Late Tuesday, we learned that Blue Jays G.M. J.P. Ricciardi has set a July 28th deadline to execute a trade for the ace pitcher. Ricciardi doesn't think it will happen.

The problem may be Halladay's contract. If you trade for him you have to negotiate a new deal worth gazillions for next year and beyond. Obviously the Mets have been very frugal with their money since Fred Wilpon was ripped off by Bernard Madoff. But the Mets are built to win NOW. There's no way that this deal should be held up because the Mets think they are giving up too much future talent. None of those guys are that great, so if they can bring back Halladay, go for it. The Halladay deal would be for NEXT YEAR. I know.. he says he wants to go to a winner. But assuming the Mets core guys come back healthy next year, the Mets should be right in the mix. So bite the bullet. Trade for Halladay, give him what he wants as far as his contract is concerned and go from there. Delgado's money will come off the books. A team with Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran, David Wright and Jose Reyes as their core would be a team to be reckoned with. Throw in a couple other contributors and give it a go. Give the Mets fans a reason to be excited for next year. Give the Mets fans to come out 2 of every 5 days the rest of this year. Will the Mets do this? Probably not.. Betcha the Phillies will get him... Then the Mets will really be kicking themselves.