The New York Mets made a splash with their signing of Curtis Granderson, but a huge move could be coming on the horizon at the winter meetings, as the team is looking to trade Ike Davis or Lucas Duda and the team is looking for a shortstop and Troy Tulowitzki on the Rockies could be a candidate.
This season the Mets had a rough season once again and now they are trying to get back into things and they have been looking to deal Duda and Davis and while the deal for Tulo is a very unlikely longshot, he has been linked to other deals this offseason. Hardball Talk reports that the Mets could try to make a deal, but they don't have the pieces to make a move and the Rockies have looked like they will stick with Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez on their team. The Mets made their biggest move in a few years with Granderson and the NY Post reports that a deal with their young players is coming.
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And down here, let's make fun of what we wrote before the Cano deal went down and we can look at the speculation that was bouncing around before he finally made the deal: The New York Yankees are heading into the offseason with plenty of questions after missing the playoffs for just the second time in nearly two decades and past everything that will happen with Alex Rodriguez, his suspension and pending lawsuits, the team has one huge priority in deciding what to do about free agent second baseman Robinson Cano.
Cano and the top Yankees free agents in Hiroki Kuroda and Curtis Granderson got qualifying offers from the team and that means the Yanks protect themselves if those players leave, as they will get a draft pick as compensation if they go. Cano obviously will not taking the $14.5 million offer and the two sides right now could be far apart, while Kuroda and Granderson could return as well. The Yankees are putting themselves in a position to at least try and retain those players and they also have been linked to a number of players heading into the offseason, including Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Brandon Phillips.
Kuroda was paid more than the qualifying offer last season and after being the best pitcher for the Yankees he could get a raise or possibly could sign with another team, while Granderson might be best served by returning for one season and the offer. Cano has been selected to five All-Star games in his career and he is by far the biggest player set to hit the market this offseason, with the last second baseman to sign a big deal being Ian Kinsler, although his was an extension. Kinsler signed a deal to make his contract into an eight year deal worth $110 million, but Cano likely will price himself as a more productive player than the market usually dictates for second basemen.
If the Yankees play hardball with Cano, there are plenty of other teams that could decide to pony up the cash for him, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, NY Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. Cano has averaged 28 home runs over the past few years and it remains to be seen whether the Yankees will be able to keep him. Cano has been one of the best players for the Yankees over the past five years and after they developed and brought him up the team wants to retain him but after everything with Alex Rodriguez, the team may not want another lengthy and expensive contract and that is likely to be the main sticking point for the negotiations.
