It didn’t take much longer than 24 hours for the Mets to revamp the back end of their bullpen. They acquired J.J. Putz tonight from the Seattle Mariners for a package that included Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, Endy Chavez and B-Mets prospect Mike Carp.
Omar Minaya, at a late-night press conference in Las Vegas, just said he’s heard all offseason from Met fans how he needs to address one area: The bullpen.
“Well, to you Mets fans: We’ve addressed the bullpen,” Minaya just said from the Bellagio.
Putz, who closed in Seattle for the last two seasons, will presumably fill the eighth-inning role in front of Francisco Rodriguez. He provides the Mets with a strikeout guy they sorely lacked last season — the type of guy Jerry Manuel wanted, a crossover guy.
Putz didn’t come cheap. The Mets sent Heilman, Chavez and Carp to Seattle, and sent Carp, one of their top hitting prospects, to the Mariners. Carp was likely the hardest piece for the club to part with. He was the organization’s minor league player of the year in 2006. He struggled in 2007, but bounced back this year and was one of the top sluggers in the system.
I’ll have more later on the new makeup of the ‘pen. For now, here’s a look at the deal in full:
Mets acquire:
J.J. Putz, RHP, Mariners
Shawn Green, RHP, Mariners
Jeremy Reed, OF, Mariners
Mariners acquire:
Aaron Heilman, RHP, Mets
Endy Chavez, OF, Mets
Mike Carp, 1B/OF, Mets (minors)
Maikel Cleto, RHP, Mets (minors)
Ezequiel Carrera, OF, Mets (minors)
Jason Vargas, LHP, Mets (minors)
Franklin Gutierrez, OF, Indians
Indians acquire:
Joe Smith, RHP, Mets
Luis Valbuena, Mariners (minors)
4 Comments
No more putting up with Heilman’s increasing whine power and diminishing on-the-field output?
Holy crap, that’s even better than getting Putz!
Now… Schoeneweis and Castillo and cash to the Long Island Ducks for a tub of Bazooka and I’m a happy dude. Get on this, Minaya.
Good deal!
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