Interestedobserver

There's got to be a ton of money coming back.

Will the Yankees and/or Red Sox Be in on Pujols if he hits FA? If so, where do they play him?

I would bet Beltran has a much higher differential than that this year.

The Mets want salary relief. Why should they eat salary to send Beltran to Boston and then take back one of those contracts?

I don't think the Mets are interested in paying Beltran to play for the Red Sox.

Saw this message on another board about Beltran -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Red Sox are looking for an outfielder and continue to talk to the Mets about OF Carlos Beltran “The relationship between Beltran and the Mets is not great,” Gammons said. “He’s not going to play in the outfield for 150 games, and there are still hard feelings between Ownership and Scott Boras because of the operation Beltran had a year ago.” Gammons believes the Mets would like to move Beltran and roughly $10 million to help free up money that can be used to acquire pitching. According to Gammons, the Mets expressed interest in Red Sox SS Marco Scutaro and RHP Daisuke Matsuza, but, he says, “I don’t think the Red Sox will do that.” Nevertheless, Gammons does think it is a possibility that Beltran would accept a deal to Boston, where he would play left field and get to DH against left-handed pitching. Now I think it makes sense for both teams for Beltran to go to the Red Sox. However, very little after that of what Gammons said has any coherence. The Mets want to dump Beltran because the relationship has soured and with Beltran's knees, he's better off where he can DH part time. Beltran has no real trade value at his salary. If the Mets trade him they're looking at a salary dump. They're not looking to eat salary or to take back Scutaro or Dice K. If the Mets do eat salary, which they probably have to do, they'd be looking for real talent back. Probably in the form of a couple of decent prospects. The more salary they eat, the better the prospects.

Unless he goes back to the Rangers, he's a Yankee.

After 2011, the Mets have fifty million coming off the books. If they wanted Pujols, they could sign him. As for winning, any team that adds a Pujols looks pretty good to me. Plus Ike Davis could either move to right where they could use his cannon for an arm, or bring back a nice return in trade. That said, I don't know if the Mets would go all out for Pujols.

I think the winning bid will be well below Dice K. Maybe high thirties, or lower. A lot of teams will put in low ball offers just to say they bid. I expect the Sox to be one of those teams. Of course, the nightmare for the Sox would be for this guy to be the real deal.

He'd look good in anybody's uniform, but he's not leaving St. Louis.

Beltran would probably be available for 2-3 B-/C prospects. The type that make it look like they got something for him as long as the Sox pay his salary. He has a full no trade clause, but would probably waive it to go to Boston. He should have a good bounceback type year since he's playing for a contract. If the Sox wanted the Mets to pay half, he'd probably take real talent to acquire.

There has been some talk that he would be posted. What do you think would be the posting fee?

Concussions are freak things. I'm sure Theo put zero thought into that when he made his decision.

Somebody's going to overpay for Crawford, Werth, and Lee this winter.

He's 24 and considered an ace in Japan. What do you think the posting fee will be this time around? He's got better stuff than Dice K.

Any team that wins a championship has some serious luck on their side. And almost all are far healthier than the norm, which is part of the luck. That's one of many reasons why it's so hard to repeat.

I think a package for Wright starts with Lester. No way do the Mets trade away the face of their franchise for minor leaguers. No team would do that. Seaver still haunts them and he was 33.

Thank you. I doubt they'd even consider trading him. Reyes and Wright are the only thing worth watching about that team.

Although I doubt the Mets would trade either Reyes or Wright, why would they possibly even consider that package? To get another team's star talent requires putting up real talent in return, not some poo poo platter of second tier prospects. As for Beltran, he's probably going to have a decent year next year and is playing for a contract, although he may benefit from playing a corner outfield position and dhing part time. He's probably available for an Ellsbury type with the Mets picking up half the contract.