What we learned from the Winter Meetings about the Mets

By Steven Inman

The Mets will likely leave Nashville with no new players but we did gain a little clarity on the 2013 team, not as much clarity as we would have liked but here is what we know

• The Mets and R.A. Dickey are still very far apart on a contract extension.
• Dickey’s agent believes there is a good chance he is traded because the contract talks aren’t going well.
• The Mets have gotten interest in Dickey by at least 8 teams but haven’t found an offer that they will seriously consider yet.
• Sandy Alderson would be surprised if the R.A. Dickey situation carried on into January, 2013.
•  The Mets have interest in bringing back Scott Hairston but don’t want to give him multiple years
• Hairston believes he can get two years elsewhere and the Giants, Cardinals and Yankees are all very interested.
• The Mets have interest in right handed hitters Cody Ross and Ryan Ludwick.
• Ludwick may be close to a deal to go back to the Reds however.
• The Mets, surprisingly have had very few discussions about LHP Jon Niese
• The Mets would love to get Wil Myers for R.A. Dickey but those talks haven’t gone far despite the Royals interest in Dickey.
• The Royals instead may trade Myers plus others to Tampa for James Shields.
• The Mets still believe some team will overpay for Dickey once Zack Greinke is off the market.
• The Mets dislike the free agent catching market and would prefer to acquire a catcher via trade.
• The Mets are unlikely to make a selection in the Rule 5 draft tomorrow morning at 10am.

Team officials are still unsure what to do with Dickey since the gap in a contract extension is still very large and the team hasn’t gotten the prospects in a trade that they were looking for. It is disappointing as the team was hoping to leave the meetings with a plan on what will happen to Dickey. The team knows very little more on what to do with him than they did at this time last week. Only time will tell but this Dickey situation can drag on for a while.