There’s always a barrage of rumors about potential trades and signings in the offseason. One has the Mets going for Ian Kinsler. Really?
Get used to it, Mets fans. It’s part of the offseason if you haven’t been through one. The rumor of the day, courtesy of MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, has the Mets interested in acquiring second baseman Ian Kinsler from the Detroit Tigers in a deal that reminds of their recent experiment with Neil Walker. The Mets need to take a tip from Albert Einstein before they do this.
Sources: #Mets, #Tigers have had preliminary discussions on an Ian Kinsler trade. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) November 20, 2017
With no Mets games to watch, the best one to play now is the rumor mill game. They abound from everywhere and by the way, did you hear the Mets are within days of signing JD Martinez to a multi-year contract. I could start that one up, and it would get the same traction as Morosi’s.
The Mets do, in fact, need a real major league second baseman not named Jose Reyes, who could be leaving via agency anyway. But the idea of Kinsler in a Mets uniform sounds too much like what Yogi Berra would call, “deja vu all over again” and the Mets’ previous solution to their problem, Neil Walker.
And this is where Mr. Einstein plays a role in our storyline today. Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result…Sandy Alderson, take note.
Caveat Emptor: Let the buyer beware
Kinsler, like Walker, is a fine major leaguer. Check that, Kinsler has been a very fine major leaguer. And for the $11 million he’ll be paid in 2018, at the age of 35, seriously, can he be expected to earn his keep with the Mets, or for that matter, any team he plays for next season?
For that kind of money, I doubt it, though, when you consider that Kinsler is on the downside of a pretty good career that is winding down with little or no upside. He hit just .236 last season for Detroit, though he did have 22 home runs and 52 RBI. Hopefully, the Mets front office agrees.
That doesn’t mean the Mets don’t have a wish-list for 2018:
Agents earn their keep this way
The fact is most of the rumors out there now, except maybe for the ones about Giancarlo Stanton, are put out there by a player’s agent who is mainly trying to drum up attention and support for their client.
Here’s a story, for instance, pushing the Yankees to pursue J.D. Martinez that makes no sense at all when you consider Martinez as a good-hit, no field player the Yankees don’t need in their already stacked lineup. And yet, it’s “out there,” and presumably the Yankees will have to deal with it.
And lest you think I’m above the fray, I put a story out there a day or so ago suggesting the Mets, if he is available, need to sweep up Josh Donaldson – yesterday. But that’s because in this instance, Donaldson, as opposed to someone like Kinsler, could be a difference-maker for the Mets in 2018.
The unique aspect of baseball that enamors me is that it’s a year-round sport. The Hot Stove League holds as much excitement and intrigue as the regular season itself. No other professional sport can make that claim, which is supported by the number of stories in the New York Post, for example, devoted to timely baseball activity in today’s edition.
So as we move along here, we’ll take each of the rumors that come along—and there’ll be a whole lot more like the one about Ian Kinsler and the Mets—dissecting, analyzing and trying to decipher whether it’s real or not. This one, hopefully, belongs in Sandy Alderson’s trash can.
