Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News is hearing buzz from scouts that the Mets are shopping 29 year-old reliever Aaron Heilman. Heilman has a career best strikeout rate in 22.2 innings, but everything else has gone haywire (control, home runs and hits allowed).
Rubin says the Mets are looking for a setup man in return. It seems that the best fit would be with a noncontending team that would switch Heilman back to starting. The Nationals (Jon Rauch), Reds (David Weathers), and Pirates (Damaso Marte, John Grabow) might have decent relievers available. Not sure if they’d have interest in Heilman, though.
Heilman will be arbitration-eligible in 2009 and 2010 and will reach free agency after that.
