7:53pm: John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer spoke to a Reds' source who said the team has zero interest in Matthews (link goes to Twitter). The source went so far as to name five outfielders the team has in camp that they'd take over the former Angel.
6:54pm: The Reds are interested in acquiring Gary Matthews Jr. if he can't win the Mets' centerfield job, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney. Sarge Jr. is currently battling Angel Pagan to replace Carlos Beltran as he recovers from knee surgery, though Olney mentions that Pagan is expected to win the job.
Cincinnati has been seeking outfield help seemingly all winter, though they did just re-sign Jonny Gomes about two weeks ago. They have five other outfielders on their 40-man roster at the moment, though Chris Heisey and Drew Stubbs have yet to experience a full season in the big leagues
The Mets acquired Matthews from the Angels back in January, and the Halos are on the hook for all but $2MM of the $23.5MM left on his deal. Even though Matthews has hit just .245/.326/.358 in 837 plate appearances over the last two seasons, $2MM for two years of a fourth or fifth outfielder isn't awful.
If the Reds acquired Sarge Jr., it would not only take heat off Omar Minaya for pulling the trigger on Matthews Jr., but I think he would fit in real nicely with the Reds.
Great Ballpark to hit in and he could potentially platoon with Gomes in left or serve as a backup OF if Chris Dickerson wins the Left handed hitting left fielder job.
Possibly Matthews Jr. for Bill Bray?
The Mets need a lefty in the pen. I couldnt get his splits though. Is he effective at all?
He was actually pretty good before the injuries hit him, but i think he can still be a effective pitcher for the mets but agian i dont want him on the reds
maybe the Reds can trade one of their borderline 5th starters/long relievers. Maloney or Lincoln or someone. Right now the Mets have guys like Nelson Figeuroa. yeesh.
The Mets should trade him for a bag of balls. There is no reason why he should be on the team to begin with.
Although I kind of agree with you. The trade shouldn’t have even happened to begin with.
He did hit a monster shot today.
But the Home Run of the day goes to, ——–Chris Carter!!!
Yes, he should be no where near this team ,but you can not trade him for a bag of balls. We gave up Stokes to get him. A comparable player better be ruturning if we move him.
The only GM dumb enough to give up a useful player for Matthews was Minaya. The Mets would be lucky to get a light-hitting minor league journeyman for him.
Ryan Jorgensen is a long time minor league Reds Journeyman…
He has a career 3.86 ERA through 112 innings with a disastrous .277 AVG against.
His only good season was 2008 but then again, The Mets could use some relief help either way. Even with the recent signing of Kiko Calero.
Mets just traded a bag of balls (Brian Stokes) for GMJ.
Nobody is gonna give the Mets anything of value for GMJ, the Reds don’t even want him.
Buster Olney should seriously stop making up stories and reporting them.. ESPN has to do something about him..
GMJ is here because Angel Pagan is fragile. FMart isn’t ready.. Somebody has to hold down CF until Beltran is healthy.. It was a good move picking GMJ up at that cost..With Kiko Calero signign with the Mets , Brian Stokes probably would not have made the opening day roster and been cut loose before spring. Atleast the Mets got something useful for him , and yeh, GMJ defensive in Citifield is useful
Gary Matthews Jr. is a joke.
No way do I like this… Unless we acquire a legit productive OF I don’t want any of these guys blocking our youth in the OF….GMJ is not worth delaying the arrival of our future OF’s
How much of Matthews’s remaining salary will the Mets have to eat?
Nothing if you take Mike Lincoln off our hands I’d be guessing. I don’t like taking GMJ but if we do you can have a bullpen guy making ~2.5 mil that is healthy after struggling last season due to a injury. He was solid decent in his healthy year but we are stacked in the bullpen and have cheaper options.
PS…still don’t like the idea of bringing him in but I would guess that would be the swap
this makes as much as batting brandon philips clean up or janish/taveras lead off last year.
none
Phillips had 98 rbi’s last year and that was with horrible options at leadoff and 2-hole…i expect him to break 100 this year with a better top of the order. Plus who else are we going to hit there?
how about the guy who hit .305 last season with an 800+slugging? scott rolen
Rolen is an ideal 5-hole hitter who with a whole season will provide Phillips with some protection so he will see better pitches…at this point in their careers Phillips has more power than Rolen
What about the idea of Mike Lincoln starting in the rotation over Aroldis/Leake/Owings/Travis Wood?
No way Lincoln is going to start over our other options…I think this whole thing is just a ply to up his trade value. Has hasn’t started since what 2004? Maloney is easily a better option and lefty
Angels are payin 98% of GMJ’s salary
Dumb story.
leave it to olney to mix up apple juice with urine.
this guy is clueless..
GMJ for Arroyo
So wait…………… The Reds dumped Willy Taveras only to make room for a possibly worse player?
they dont wanna pay taveras however. so they dumped him on the A’s and since the Angels are footing the Matthews bill they might be able to save some money
Good point, but I still don’t see why they’d want to block or take away an iota of precious playing time from Stubbs, Heisey or any of their other outfield prospects with a cipher like Matthews jr.?
Jocketty is still GMming like its 1997, methinks.
In any case, if anyone wants to go and dig up the advanced stats for Taveras and Matthews Jr, and find out their WAR, FIP, and PAP………. They can come back and report as to who is the worse player, if anyone has this kind of time on their hands.
This might be a fun rainy-day game you can play with your kids???
2mm for a fourth or fifth outfielder IS terrible if that outfielder is GMJ.
After Corey Patterson in 2008 and Willy Taveras in 2009, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Reds DID get GMJ. I can hear Toothpick Baker lobbying Jocketty and Ca$htellini for this now. “I KNOW Patterson and Taveras sucked. But I CAN’T be wrong on three different veteran Center Fielders in three straight years can I?”
Fay saves the day and puts this rumor to rest….relief
“John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer spoke to a Reds’ source who said the team has zero interest in Matthews (link goes to Twitter). The source went so far as to name five outfielders the team has in camp that they’d take over the former Angel.”
Hahahahahahahahahaha
^That’s for all of you who took this rumor seriously even for a second without instantly hating the Reds forever, if that wasn’t clear.
I bet last year that same source probably said Jonny Gomes would make the team out of Spring Training instead of Darnell McDonald too.
Face it, with Toothpick Baker as Manager, if there is a broken down, over the hill, scrap heap player out there, he will know about it and want him. Just like moths are attracted to flames, Baker collects these guys like crazy women collect stray cats.
why don’t they just sign Dye whose ten times better.
Because, silly, Dye isn’t a has been Center Fielder. He is a has been Left Fielder.
You see, in Dustyland, a veteran whose statistics are on a downward slope isn’t a guy quickly heading towards retirement, he is a guy who is just needing a chance to bounce back towards his career norm and Toothpick, being the social worker he is, wants to give as many of these wayward players a chance for one last, big paycheck that he can.
Matthews Jr. off the juice = a seat at the end of the bench
Obviously someone was having fun with Olney. Just as obvious to Reds fans is the number of young outfielders including Stubbs, Bruce, Heisey, Francisco, Balentien, Frazier and possibley even Alonzo that need at bats this spring and summer so the club can figure out who can actually play at the major league level. Reds management has done a good this past year or so signing and bringing along young prospects and sprinkling in some vets who can show the way. This could be a breakout year of a long stretch of contending, time will tell. What is appalling is the number of vicious racist trolls that monitor this site some of who actually pretend to be Reds fans…
In one of Toothpick Baker’s first interviews after being hired as Manager, he said “there have been many players calling to congratulate me and telling me they want to come to Cincinnati to play”. At that time I asked WHO might those players be?
Two years later the answer is no good, scrap heap players who can’t find a job ANYWHERE else. Corey Patterson, Paul Bako, Jerry Hairston Jr (twice), Willy Taveras, Jacque Jones, Daryle Ward, Jonny Gomes and Laynce Nix. Not to mention Darnell McDonald not only making the Major League squad out of Spring Training but actually STARTING.
In 2008, JHJ was picked up of the scrap heap in early March. Even though he was an injury prone career .260 hitter, he surprised WITH A CAREER YEAR (which again included getting injured) and the Reds overpaid to bring him back. What did he do in 2009? He went BACK to being a career .260 hitter and NOT some late blooming breakout player.
The same thing happened with Jonny Gomes last year. He is picked up off the scrap heap, plays over hsi head and…. nobody wants him as a Free Agent. The Reds bring him back and pay him ABOVE league minimum salary. This, even though, they have OTHER, younger, less expensive players who can play Left Field.
Nope, if it is between a young player who Baker has to actually teach or manage or a veteran he can just pencil in the line up and then go back to making and chewing toothpicks, Baker will take the veteran.
Oh yeah, if Baker is such a GREAT Manager, WHY can’t he win WITHOUT steroid abusing power hitters in the middle of his line ups? Steroids were outlawed in 2004 and heavy penalties were instituted that year and starting in 2005, Baker has NOT had a winning season. And don’t tell me it’s because he hasn’t had the talent or team payrolls weren’t high enough.
In 1996, with the Giants, he had Barry Bonds and San Fran had one of the highest team payrolls in the NL. Guess what? They finished with the worst record in ALL of the NL.
In 2006, the Cubs had one of the highest team payrolls in all of the NL and THEY finished with the WORST record in ALL of the National League.
So, even WHEN Baker has talent and a high payroll, he finds ways to mess things up. Whether it be his lack of judgment as far as evaluating the talent of players, his rigidity as far as line up construction (fast Center Fielder bats lead off, Short Stop bats second, Catcher bats eighth, etc), in game moves and strategy or his use/overuse of pitchers, Baker has shown he isn’t very good UNLESS he has a high payroll team AND steroid abusing power hitters in the middle of his line ups.
From 1998 (when Bonds started using steroids) to 2004 (when steroids and PEDs were outlawed), Baker had a winning record EACH YEAR. His other years;
1993 – winning record
1994 – losing record
1995 – losing record
1996 – losing record (worst in all of NL)
1997 – winning record
2005 – losing record
2006 – losing record (worst in all of NL)
2007 – passing along his “wisdom” as a commentator on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight.
2008 – losing record
2009 – losing record.
Amazing how you can take the steroid abusers away from Tony La Russa and Joe Torre and they can still have winning records but when you do so with Baker his teams LOSE.
One last thing; if Baker is SOOO great then WHY didn’t the Giants bring him back to manage after he took them to the World Series in 2002?
Oh yeah, if you want to complain about people playing the race card, look another direction, like maybe Toothpick Baker’s way.
Go back and read some of his comments over the years. Baker, just like Bobby and Barry Bonds, can play the race card with the best of them but they don’t get called out for it.