Meet the Mets
David Wright issued a statement on Friday afternoon regarding Jose Reyes' defection to Miami. He wishes Jose well and trusts that the team will be competitive in 2012. You and me both, Dave (does anybody ever call him "Dave"?).
The Mets yearly holiday party will be this Tuesday and Daniel Murphy will be the "lucky" man who gets to don the Santa suit this time. I say "lucky" because Murph will now have to deal with the team's long-running Curse of Kris Kringle.
A ruling on whether the trustee in the Madoff case can appeal Judge Jed Rakoff's decision to dismiss nine counts against the Wilpons is expected in federal court as soon as the next week.
There's still plenty of reaction to Jose Reyes' departure, as well as speculation on the team's direction under Sandy Alderson. Over at Mets Today, Matt Himelfarb suggests that the Mets were right to let Jose walk away. Meanwhile, Andy Martino takes a look at the team's rebuilding Aldersonizing plan. Mike Puma in the Post says that the Mets are listening to trade proposals on just about everyone not named Wright, while a guest post at Baseball Prospectus wonders when the sun will rise again in Flushing. Finally, Dave Searles wants to you blame the Wilpons, not Sandy Alderson, for what's transpired this offseason. Sounds good to me!
Around the Majors
There was one big trade on Friday, as the Diamondbacks acquired 23-year old RHP Trevor Cahill and lefty reliever Craig Breslow from the Oakland A's in exchange for top pitching prospect Jarrod Parker, outfielder Collin Cowgill and relief prospect Ryan Cook. All in all, while Parker's a very solid near ML ready pitching prospect, this seems to be a bit of an underwhelming return for Cahill, who's still so young and is under team control through 2017.
The Tampa Bay Rays have locked up a young star long term, though this young star has just 9.1 regular season major league innings pitched under his belt. 22-year old lefty Matt Moore and the Rays agreed to a five year contract, worth a guaranteed $14 million dollars. The deal includes club options for 2017, '18 and '19 which would raise the deal's value to $39.75, a potential steal for a pitcher as talented as Moore.
Octavio Dotel has signed a contract with the Tigers, who will become the 13th team he's pitched for, a new major league record. The previous record of 12 teams was held by Mike Morgan, Matt Stairs and Ron Villone.
Juan Carlos Oviedo, the closer formerly known as Leo Nunez, has apologized for using a fake name and age. It looks as if Oviedo will not be prosecuted but he is still without a U.S. Visa and he may face suspension from Major League Baseball.
The city of Oakland, in a last ditch effort, is trying its hardest to keep the Oakland A's from leaving town.
Mike Newman reacts to the Astros' selection of Binghamton Mets reliever Rhiner Cruz with the number one overall pick in the Rule 5 draft.
Finally, the market for former Met Carlos Beltran, he of the .389 wOBA and .910 OPS, is surprisingly slow. It would be pretty awesome if the Mets had an extra $10-12 million lying around to bring Carlos back to Flushing in 2012 to help bolster the offense, but sadly they don't. It appears that money is currently tied up in a certain Canadian outfielder who's last name is also a body of water.