DEALER’S CHOICE
Yanks, Mets in trade market
ORLANDO — Last week was madness in New York baseball, and we weren’t even here yet. Really, stop for a moment and consider all the people new to the Yankees and Mets since Thanksgiving: Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann, who agreed to terms earlier but was not introduced until Thursday. Curtis Granderson, who jumped across town. On Friday, Robinson Cano landed all the way on the other coast.
All of these transactions were free-agent signings, and they provided us with the busiest pre-winter meetings week in memory. So what’s left to do? For the New York teams, the sizzle this week is more likely to come from trade talks — and we do not place free agent Omar Infante, a solid second base option for the Yanks, in the sizzle category.
The Yankees’ outfield is way overpopulated, and the best move to improve their offense is to send Brett Gardner elsewhere. The Mets, according to people with direct knowledge of their plans, remain very eager to trade Ike Davis, and are more than willing to complete that this week. According to sources, the team’s very strong preference is to trade Davis and retain Duda. The Mets’ front office is not debating; it has decided.
Additionally, Mets people have already told an official from at least one other club that they are willing to move Daniel Murphy during the winter meetings — and that if they make any other major news this offseason after landing Curtis Granderson, it will probably be via trades, not free agency.
My opinion on the Davis/Duda choice is, hey, maybe neither of those guys becomes a consistent power hitter in the major leagues, but Davis has a much better chance. That is based on par ts of four years spent observing Duda’s lack of confidence, which he does not seem able to shake. But the Mets’ front office isn’t seeking the opinion of some snot-nosed ballwriter, and thinks that Duda will blossom once he receives assurances that he is the everyday first baseman.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe we’re right. Check back a few months into next season. But we can tell you what they want to do, and that’s to jettison Davis.
Just as the Mets have a glut of first basemen, the Yankees have an overabundance of outfielders, and should spend part of this week working to resolve that. After signing Ellsbury and Beltran, the Yanks actually suffer from a lack of power out there, between Ellsbury and Gardner. Those two are similar players, speedy and athletic, excellent defenders with plus bats for center field, but not enough pop for a corner.
The Yankees moved Gardner from left to center last spring, making him a far more valuable player. They will suffer if they return him to the corner — and also clog up the DH spot, a position they need for Derek Jeter and McCann on some days, with Alfonso Soriano.
So, the right move this week is to listen to all offers for Gardner, and take the best one. His value will be reduced because he is under team control for just one more season, but a Soriano-Ellsbury-Beltran outfield makes much more sense than the alternative. The Yankees also have Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells, though neither will generate much value.
Neither the Yankees nor the Mets is done meeting with agents, or considering various ways to improve their ballclubs. The Masahiro Tanaka saga will be a major story line for the former all week, as the ace’s Japanese club decides whether or not to post him, under a new system that will pay it far less money B than expected. ut many possibilities are closed; Shin-Soo Choo, for example, who interested both teams, will play in a different city in 2014. Pitchers like Matt Garza and Ervin Santana are not i n the plans of the Yanks or Mets. This week won’t be about top free agents, not in New York. It will be about sending homegrown players away, and seeking value in return.