There has been a lot of back and forth the last few days between the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays and many days of names being tossed around in the media. The main piece in the deal is 2012 Cy Young Award winner R. A. Dickey. A couple of them are former Phillies prospects. Now, Ken Rosenthal reports that an agreement is in place:
Sources: #Mets, #BlueJays have agreement in principle on Dickey trade. Window open for Jays to extend Dickey, which would complete deal.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 16, 2012
Various media outlets have tossed out names as they came forth. It appears that the centerpiece of the deal going back to New York is former Phillies blue chip prospect Travis D'Arnaud. D'Arnaud was the centerpiece of the acquisition of Roy Halladay. How many players have been traded twice for Cy Young winners?
Phillies scouting director Marty Woelver thinks highly of D'Arnaud:
I hated to lose him,. He can be the centerpiece of an organization for a long time.
To give up the D'Arnaud, the Blue Jays insist that Dickey must be signed to a contract extension. They do not want to give up their best prospect a rental. We learned last week that Dickey asked for two years and $26 million in an extension; the Mets were only willing to offer $20 million for two years. Dickey is 38 years old, but the shelf life of knuckleballers is longer as we have seen in pitchers such as Tim Wakefield.
Some reports have the Mets getting pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard and the Mets and Blue Jays swapping catchers John Buck and Josh Thole. Buck just went back to the Blue Jays just last month in the dismantling of the Miami Marlins.
We probably won't know who the moving parts are until complete. With Dickey's demands previously known, completing the extension shouldn't be too hard. All I know is this: the Phillies will be able to take advantage of a New York Mets team without their Cy Young winner this year, but in the future they should be stacked with talent.
