The Mets are listening to trade offers on their three most expensive starting pitchers.
As Ken Davidoff reported a week ago, the Mets are looking to trade one of Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, or Bartolo Colon. Jon Heyman adds today that one of those pitchers is likely to be traded soon.
The Mets are probably not in the market for a blockbuster deal, which is consistent with trading one of their back three starters since none of them will bring back anything spectacular. Heyman says that the Mets are currently fielding offers on their three veterans and one can guess that GM Sandy Alderson will spend a good portion of this week's winter meetings in San Diego trying to find a landing spot for one of them.
Niese, who turned 28 in October, is under contract through 2016 at a reasonable cost, and the Mets hold team options for 2017 and 2018. Gee will be 29 in April and is eligible for arbitration for the first time this year. He won't be a free agent until 2017. Colon will be 42 in May and is in the second year of a two-year deal he signed with the Mets last offseason. He's owed $11 million in 2015 and the Mets have said they'd be willing to pay for part of it.
In addition to dealing a starting pitcher, other items on the Mets' to-do list include acquiring a shortstop and a left-handed reliever. There's typically lots of action at MLB's annual winter meetings, so we'll see if Alderson is in a wheeling-and-dealing mood.