Oldschool41 : He did play good, and that would be a good signing, but the second year might not be that good, and the Yankees will probably over pay for him. But who isn't over payed anymore?

I like the Dempster signing.

It's short term and upgrades a weakness. If he sucks it's just two years.

Cubs and Tigers are final suitors for Anibal Sanchez.

That Hamilton signing might come back to bite the Angels. L.A. is an easy city to lose yourself to temptation. As a reformed alcoholic... all it could take is one night to ruin that contract. He should have stayed in Texas or gone to a small market team. If he holds up though the Angels will win one of the wild cards. They just don't have the pitching to make a serious run so the Athletics will win the division.

Next big domino to fall has to be Nick Swisher.

legacyme3 : To be fair, any large city has a night life and alcohol so it really wouldn't matter much where he would go.

NotJon :

Not every city has L.A's media. Only two worse places he would have gone were Boston or New York. Frankly I'm glad the Do didn't bite the bullet for him. I wouldn't have offered him more than 3 years honestly.

Now we just have to avoid signing Swisher and this will have been a great off-season.

Philly is notorious for jerkitude so I'd put them with NYC and Boston too. And yeah, nice offseason for you guys. Short deals that addressed the outfield, first base, and pitching. I feel the same way for the Giants; avoid Swisher and all is good.

There is a rumor that Jays and Mets will have a multi player swap.

It is believed that the players likely to be included in this deal will be Diccky, Wheeler, Arencibia and Gose + possibly Rasmus and a few others.

I'm interested in seeing how this all pans out.

bobq : How can they trade Dickey if he hasn't signed yet?

In other news, it loos like Sanchez got signed by the Tigers to a five year, $80 million contract. But the one that he supposedly signed with the Cubs turned out to be false, so I don't know if this is confirmed. And isn't $80 million quite a bit less than he originally wanted, or am I thinking of somebody else? Either way, if this is true, then we should have a really good top three rotation, with Verlander, Fister, and Sanchez, as long as he preformed as well as he did late in the season. I still don't think he was worth that much though.

patar4097 :

He's under contract next season for 5 million I think.

Travis D'arnaud is another piece that could be involved.... oh god I hope so. Dickey had one good season. I feel like he'll fall apart in Toronto against better offenses.

Get it done Mets! Ruin their farm system!

We will still be better than Boston next season. We also have a solid farm system regardless of the trades we have made in recent years.

I'm afraid of Diccky though, I'm afraid that he will sputter and cost us some of our better players.

I hope its Gose, or Rasmus + Lind for Diccky, nothing more.

bobq :

That won't be enough for Dickey.

It's going to cost you D'arnaud and Rasmus+ OR Arencibia, Gose, and someone like Noah Syndergaard. The Mets are rebuilding and they need a catcher. If they don't get D'arnaud they'll probably take a lot of those top 10 guys.

I also doubt the Jays will be better than the Sox. The Jays have made flashier moves sure, but the Red Sox made more solid team based moves. Napoli, Victorino, Ross, Dempster... all decent players and good clubhouse guys. Farrell has a chance to fix Lester. If Lester rebounds it's like signing an ace. It's not a perfect team... but second is possible for sure in that division. The Orioles haven't improved and lost Reynolds, the Yankees are already worse than last year and age is catching up to them. Then there are the Rays who look like they will win the division. The Blue Jays slot in at third if they away healthy. Fourth if they don't.

I agree it won't be enough, but I do know that AA is a great GM. He can make things happen and he is very smart. Also, I don't have a lot of confidence in the Mets GM. I feel like he may get desperate at some point and pull the trigger on a lesser deal. I can see a Gose, Syndergaard, Arencibia trade for Diccky and Wheeler, or something along those lines.

Wheeler is rated the 6th best prospect in baseball, compared to Syndergaard's 83rd rank, so that would be a big upgrade. We would also retain D'arnaud.

I'm still thinking that AA might hold onto both Arencibia and D'arnaud though. He might throw in Buck or Jimenez instead, and pad the trade with other prospects. I do hope we hold onto Sanchez and Norris though.

It also seems like some of the other teams interested in Diccky have taken a step back in their pursuit of him. That would play into Toronto's hands nicely.

I see Boston coming in last in the division actually. I don't think they will be competitive until 2014. I believe they will be above .500 on the season, but not good enough to compete for a wild card spot this upcoming season.

bobq :

The current rumor is Dickey, Thole, and a minor PTBNL (not an elite guy so no Wheeler) for D'arnaud, Syndergaard, Buck, and a PTBNL (again likely not an elite guy).

If that's the trade I feel bad for Blue Jays fans because that's a horrible trade for a 38 year old Knuckleballer with only one guaranteed year left on his contract.

As a Red Sox fan I want this to happen. Especially since I won't have to worry about my team trading Xander Bogaerts and Matt Barnes for Dickey.

Tough luck jays fans... if this happens then your GM is an idiot.

I think he is too smart for that trade. He is very against trading D'arnaud. That is why I think that is he is to trade him, he would want someone like Wheeler to be a part of the return. Of course, Mets would want another pitcher coming back, which makes me think it would be Syndergaard.

I think it is almost certain that Gose is going to be a part of the trade, since Mets need a center fielder. If we can manage to trade Rasmus instead though, that would be great.

I'm more concerned with keeping our top pitching prospects, but if we get Wheeler in return, I'm fine with giving one up.

We have Jimenez in our system still, so I don't see why we need Thole in return.

I do think AA will trade Arencibia instead of D'arnaud though.

This is to say that Diccky is even going to be traded to Toronto.

bobq :

Thole was Dickey's catcher. Not everybody can catch a knuckleball.

And while the trade would be uncharacteristic of AA... it's looking more and more likely. The Mets are unlikely to trade a top pros sect back in any case. They know they can hold onto him and have a high price for him. If the price isn't met they'll keep him.

I looked around the net and no feasible trade scenario has Wheeler going to the Jays. The one tossed out the most is the one I listed earlier. With the PTBNLs being guys in the 10-20 range. As of this moment it looks like the Jays have a high chance of getting fleeced.

Then again... I think it's a dumb idea to trade for Dickey at all. The one good thing for the Jays is that knuckleballers tend to pitch well in domes.

Either way I want this done. I can't wait for D'arnaud to be on the Mets and out of the AL East. I know he'll be involved since the Mets declined a similar trade with Arencibia involved instead of D'arnaud. It's going to take him at minimum
And it's going to cost someone else in the top 5. And you "probably" won't get a top 5 guy back without including a 3rd top 5 guy.

The trade is official. Catcher Travis d'Arnaud, right-hander Noah Syndergaard, catcher John Buck and Minor Leaguer Wuilmer Becerra will all go to New York. On the other side, the Blue Jays will get catchers Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas, and of course, R.A. Dickey. In other news, the Red Sox signed Stephen Drew, the former Oakland short stop, to a one-year, $9.5 million contract, however, the Sox haven't yet confirmed the deal. And the Astros signed veteran Carlos Pena to a one year deal.

bobq :

Told you so.

Ichiro will be a Yankee for two more years, while making somewhere between $12 and $13 million. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, so we don't know for sure yet how much. And the Angels and Mariners just made a trade. The Mariners will get the switch hitting DH Kendrys Morales, while the Angels will get the left handed starting pitcher, Jason Vargas. Both of these players are going into the final year of their contracts.

I think the Angels-Mariners trade was fair for both sides and addressed their respective needs. Regardless of how they perform, they're both expiring contracts so it won't be a huge loss. Seems funny that the team that had what looked on paper to be a five-headed monster Weaver-Haren-Greinke-Wilson-Santana (okay, maybe not Santana), is now a much more cuddly Weaver-Wilson-Hanson-Vargas-Blanton. Rangers look much worse with all their free agents signing elsewhere. I wonder if Oakland can catch lightning in a bottle for a second time.