I want to preface this article with this statement: Unless the Mets are blown away with a package for Niese, I am not for trading him. Young pitching is hard to come by and young pitching is unpredictable. Niese has shown that he has what it takes to bring his game to the next level, and he looks to mature at around the same time that the new young talent on the Mets emerge in 2014.
Teams seem ok with moving young pitching this offseason. The Reds have just traded Travis Wood, the Athletics are in a lot of the different talks to trade Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey. It was just really made public in the last few days that the Braves tried to trade Jair Jurrjens for Adam Jones. Teams seem ok about giving up their pitching talent. If we push the clock back farther, the Giants felt it was within their means to trade Zach Wheeler to the Mets for Beltran during the season.
In a way, this makes sense because of the young arms race that has been going on for the better part of a decade. For a while now, teams would not trade their young pitching. Through the draft and minor league signings, or a few blockbuster trades, teams would stockpile young arms. Now teams have so many pitchers, that all have similar ceilings, they feel it is ok to trade these players for other pieces.
So if the Mets were looking to trade Jon Niese, that time would be now. There are some teams like the Blue Jays and Red Sox, that are really looking for a starter right now. If these teams lose out on Marquis (who is now going to the Twins). Darvish (Rangers) Gonzalez, Jurrjens or Kuroda, Niese could look like a nice option, and maybe the Mets can play their position.
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