The Mets and Giants are very close to completing a deal to send Carlos Beltran across the country to the NL West leaders, according to multiple reports this afternoon, originating with a tweet from Yahoo!’s Tim Brown. Because Beltran is a 10-5 player, he has 24 hours to review and approve any trade, which means that the official details may not be known until this time tomorrow afternoon and there’s still technically time for another interested party to swoop in on the deal.
There’s no official word on what the Giants will be sending back to the Mets, but currently the best guess seems to be that it’ll be pitching prospect Zack Wheeler, as both ESPN’s Buster Olney and the New York Post’s Joel Sherman are reporting. There was a prior rumor that outfield prospect Gary Brown would be the return, but at least at this point (remember, it’s not officially official yet) that seems unlikely.
It’s a pretty steep price for the Giants to pay (both Wheeler and Brown are good prospects), but this is a trade that you can at least see both sides of. The Giants are the defending champs and they’re 15 games over .500, but they needed a bat to become a serious threat to win the National League pennant again. Beltran’s 15 homers, .391 OBP, and .904 OPS should provide that. Brian Sabean’s notorious for making trades with no regards for the future, but when you have a chance to win you have to grab it and that’s what he’s doing here.
Wheeler, meanwhile, is exactly the sort of prospect the Mets need to rebuild their farm system. He was the sixth overall pick in the 2009 draft and he entered 2011 as Baseball America’s 55th best prospect. This year he’s striking out 10.0 batters per nine innings, giving up just 7.6 hits per nine, and has only allowed seven homers in 88 innings. He has some control issues, but he’s young with a great arm and he’s a great return for two months of Carlos Beltran.
