The Bronx Bombers have acquired a player who was once connected to the Mets.
The Mets need a shortstop for 2015. The Diamondbacks had a shortstop to spare. Today, Arizona traded one of those shortstops to a team in New York that is not the Mets but that also needs a shortstop.
The Yankees acquired Didi Gregorius in exchange for middling starter Shane Greene. The Tigers are also involved, and they will be the the ones getting Greene and sending minor league infielder Domingo Leyba to Arizona. Left-handed pitcher Robbie Ray is headed from Detroit to Phoenix as well.
Ugh, that was complicated.
Yankees get: Didi Gregorius
Diamondbacks get: Domingo Leyba (INF), Robbie Ray (LHP)
Tigers get: Shane Greene
So what does this mean for the Mets? That the Yankees "stole" Gregorius from them? Maybe. But it's likely the Mets were not too interested in Gregorius, who is a career .243/.313/.366 hitter in two major league seasons. Sure, his defense is pretty good, but so far nothing Gregorius has done screams "way better than Ruben Tejada."
Plus, there's this:
So, that was interesting. Yankees gave up Shane Greene to get Didi Gregorius. D’Backs wanted Noah Syndergaard.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) December 5, 2014You can't really compare Greene to Syndergaard here because the Snakes are getting the Ray/Leyba package and not Greene. On the other hand, it's pretty funny that the Yankees could give up Greene for Gregorius (equivalent of Dillon Gee, perhaps) while the Mets could have dealt one of their top prospects.
I'm guessing the Diamondbacks were reaching for Syndergaard before settling for the Detroit package (which includes an offensive prospect), but you can still slide the Mets and Gee into the Yankees' part of the package.
It's probably a bigger deal that the more desirable Arizona shortstop, Chris Owings, is now likely off the market.