Earlier today in a three team trade, Heath Bell went from the Marlins to the Diamondbacks and Chris Young went from the Diamondbacks to the Athletics. When I first read about this before boarding a subway, I quickly shut off my phone thinking, “Oh not a big deal for the Mets”. It just means Bell is out of the division.
And then I remembered what this may mean for the outfield market. At the start of the off season, the Diamondbacks had Upton, Young, Parra and Kubel. They needed to trade at least one player, which they did today. Earlier it looked like the Diamondbacks would move either Parra and Kubel. Now that they moved Young, the question is, will they move another outfielder? The Diamondbacks were looking for starting pitching, so if they can get starting pitching, then maybe yes, they will move another outfielder. However, now the Diamondbacks are in a much better position because they don’t NEED to trade anyone. They now have a hand up in negotiations.
The trade market taketh away, it also giveth (yeah I know I reversed that quote, whatever).
With Chris Young now on the Athletics, this moves Coco Crisp into the trade market.
(Edit): Oakland GM yesterday said that he is not inclined to trade Crisp. So Crisp isn’t on the market now. However, it looks like Oakland will not bring back Gomes, so he’s on the market now.
tl;dr – It may be more difficult for the Mets to now trade with the Diamondbacks, but now the Athletics may be looking to move an OF, will probably let go of Gomes.
