Your Winter Meetings Have Come

By Stefi Kaplan
Posted Monday, December 3, 2007

The Winter Meetings.

For me, this moment, the morning of the first day of the Winter Meetings, is what I’ve always considered to be the official beginning of next season. This week has always signaled for me the official shift to next year, with the hangover of the World Series gone from the teams that participated and the wounds not quite as fresh from our team’s loss (although this year, the wounds haven’t exactly healed yet). Pitchers and catchers report in just over two months (can you believe it?!) and anybody who is anybody in baseball has made his way down to Nashville, Tennessee to gauge interest in his players, make some trades, sign some free agents, evaluate his team and vote on video replay. Now should be the time when teams really get down to business.

Of course, GMs these days have changed all that. The offseason these days actually begins during the playoffs, when teams like the Yankees and agents like Scott Boras feel the need to steal the thunder of the playoff teams by generating buzz about their elite third baseman. And the Twins have managed to make this offseason seem long already by dangling Santana for the past month, resulting in their monopolizing the headlines and little else.

Whereas in the past, the month leading up to Winter Meetings was spent taking care of marginal needs and resigning or offering arbitration to a team's own players, things are different today. In this age of technology, there is no reason to wait until all of the GMs and agents are in one place to strike a deal. Omar can make deals from his cell phone while watching winter ball in Dominican Republic. Agents and GMs can negotiate deals just as easily in November as they can at the Winter Meetings. In fact, it is often easier to set the framework of a deal in November and use the Winter Meetings merely to ink them. In short, the punch has been taken away from the Winter Meetings. Now, this week is not so much a milestone but a brief retreat during the offseason for the hot shots in baseball to hang out in one place for a few days.

As such, a lot has happened already this offseason in Metsland. Of course, it makes sense that Omar resigned the free agents and dumped Mota’s contract in November. But trading Lastings on the cusp of the Winter Meetings seems bizarre on its face...until you really think about it. Upon closer review, this move makes sense regardless of what comes next.

First, and most importantly, Omar has shown he is not desperate. By trading the highly touted (even if just by fans and media) former prospect Lastings Milledge for two already-proven players, Omar gave notice to every GM that he means business for his team in 2008. Despite our reactionary feelings about the loss of Lastings, Omar can spin this move among the GMs as his big move for next year. I don’t think Omar is done, but chances are, he has gained some bargaining room here. Think about it: Omar just acquired one of the best defensive catchers in the game, who is known for working well with young pitchers. Now, he can go into the Winter Meetings with the attitude (at least outwardly) that he is comfortable with going into next year with Pelfrey and Humber and allowing Schneider to work with them. In some ways, acquiring a decent catcher improves the pitching as a whole and Omar has less work to do to build a solid rotation. Is it true? Maybe not. But Omar made a bold move in trading Lastings for Schneider, so he clearly believes in that at least a little. Even if no other moves are made, the Mets rotation is at least slightly better than it was on Thursday. Not totally comforting but remember, appearance is everything in trade talk.

Second, Omar showed that he is willing to part with “his guys” in the right deal. So far, in the Omar era, we have heard rumors and rumors about trading Milledge, Pelfrey, Humber, Gomez and Fernando Martinez. But until Friday, all of them were still Mets and despite all the talk, Omar was never willing to part with any of them. Trading one (and arguably the one with the lowest ceiling on the Mets) signifies to everyone else that he isn’t so blind sighted by “his guys” as to think that they are untouchable. I say Milledge had the lowest ceiling on the Mets because he didn’t seem to fit their plans the same way Gomez and Martinez might. And the glut of outfielders make it so any pitcher is more important to the team right now than an outfielder, despite any discrepancy in talent. Now, by trading Milledge, Omar may have made himself an approachable GM and I think that could help his future negotiations.

Third (and I put this as lowest priority because I think it is the least likely), one of the teams with which Omar has been negotiating for pitching may actually prefer a major-league-ready player in return for pitching and it is possible that Milledge is not viewed as such by the teams involved. There is always a chance that this deal is a precursor to a trade for a pitcher and Church and Estrada were necessary to give Omar the right package. I don’t actually believe this. Listening to the buzz, it seems that Omar has wanted these two players for a while and this deal was in the works for at least five months. I would put my money on both of these players wearing blue and orange on Opening Day (so welcome aboard, new Mets!).

Maybe it doesn’t mean what it used to, but this is the time. Your Winter Meetings have come. Let’s hope there is more in store this week than a few overpriced dinners and some social banter, because I’m not so sure I can take two more months of a steady stream of “Santana to the Sox, just kidding the Yankees” talk. Go get ‘em, Omar!