The Mets have acquired Gary Matthews Jr. for Brian Stokes according to Jon Heyman of SI.com. Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog believes there probably won’t be a corresponding trade involving Matthews and that Matthews will be battling with Angel Pagan for the starting CF job while Beltran is out.
Matthews is actually a former Met. He played in two games back in 2002. The Mets had purchased his contract from the Pirates and then traded him to the Orioles for John Bale in ‘02.
If Cerrone is right and there is no corresponding trade, what was really the point of the move, couldn’t we have signed some scrub to battle with Pagan? Is Beltran’s injury possibly more serious than just missing April? Probably. With the Mets and their injury news we’ll never know the true extent of injuries.
And lastly When are we going to address the Starting rotation??? This is what we should be focued on right now, not backup outfielders.
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Another reason why this franchise is so inept. When I first heard of Matthews to the Mets this morning I assumed it was for Luis Castillo. Unfortunately Minaya decides to give the Angels an arm out of the bullpen? At lease the Angels are still paying 90% of his contract. Uggghhhhh, another day and another genius move by mets brass. Good job Men.
Stokes was a mediocre reliever who was out of options. They couldn’t send him down without putting him on waivers. So he would either have to stay in the pen or get traded. This could be a precursor to the Mets signing John Smoltz to a short deal to use in the bullpen. At the same time they added OF depth and bench bat while only paying 1 mill a season for 2 yrs. Not exactly what I would like to see, but they could be addressing two needs here with this move.
Matthews is better than both Reed and Sullivan if he keeps healthy. Lets face it those two guys at the plate were just two more who couldn’t get the ball out of the infield. At least Matthews is a has been .