Report: Minaya Wanted Top Talent for Sheffield
By Frank Russo ~ August 21st, 2009. Filed under: Rumor Mill.
Jon Heyman has reported that the Giants claimed Gary Sheffield off the waiver wire, but the two teams could not come to an agreement on a deal.
Last night, I contacted one of my sources, a Giants front office official, who confirmed for me that Omar Minaya was asking for “high level talent” for his aging slugger, something that Giants GM Brian Sabean was not willing to part with.
We were also told that there is a strong possibility that Minaya will be asking for the same type of “high level talent” for Billy Wagner, if and when he decides to finally move him.
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August 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am
I become more and more confident as this season rolls along that Omar has no idea what he’s doing.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:27 am
For Wagner he should ask for top talent because if he doesn’t get it he’ll get a top selection in next year’s draft after another team signs him. I don’t think that’s the case with Sheffield, so he shouldn’t be asking for as much.
Along those lines, the Mets will likely accept lower-level talent for Wagner — in otherwords, do it bass-ackwards. Why? Because they’ll want to asve the month’s worth of salary for him, which is much higher than what they have to pay Sheffield. It will be just another example of the Mets being penny wise and pound foolish, and another indication that they have no idea how to accumulate talent. They’ll then fire Minaya and hire someone unqualified from within, like this Ricco guy, and continue to foster the incompetence in accumulating talent, particularly young talent, that they’ve worked so hard to achieve.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I find it hard to believe they’ll get any compensation picks for Wagner since he hasn’t pitched in over a year…
August 21st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
john: The Mets will not receive draft pick compensation for Wagner, as they’d have to offer him arbitration and have him decline it. They won’t be offering arbitration since he’d be likely to be awarded even more then he’s making this year. They could bank on the chance that he’d reject it because he wants to close, but that could be an expensive risk. They need to get rid of Wagner and Sheff for whatever they can get to save the money that they’ve been so desperately clinging to all year.