SUNDAY, 2:38pm: The Mets took on exactly $2.5MM in the deal, meaning that the Braves chipped in close to $500K, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets.
FRIDAY, 10:33pm: The Mets have officially acquired both Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson from the division-rival Braves. Two minor league righties — John Gant and Rob Whalen — will head to Atlanta in return.
New York will also absorb about $2.7MM in salary, according to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter). That’s not quite the full amount owed to the two acquired players, but Atlanta is chipping in some salary, per Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter).
Both Uribe and Johnson would provide options at positions of need for New York. With David Wright still out indefinitely, third base has become a pressing concern, and adding a left-handed corner outfield bat remains a priority. Both of the veterans provide options at the hot corner, and the left-handed-hitting Johnson has ample experience in left.
Uribe, 36, has hit an excellent .285/.353/.464 since coming to Atlanta in a deal with the Dodgers earlier in the year. While his glove hasn’t rated out as highly as it used to, there’s little question that he represents a reliable option at the hot corner. Uribe is owed $6.5MM this season.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Johnson has been a solid presence in Atlanta since joining the team on a minor league pact. He owns a .275/.321/.451 slash with nine home runs. By making the club, he earned a $1.5MM guarantee for the season.
As for the return to the Braves, Whalen is the name that has appeared on prospect sheets more frequently. He rated as the Mets organization’s 20th-best prospect entering the season, according to Baseball America, which praised his curve ball and promising additional offspeed offerings. Whalen has a reasonably high ceiling despite the lack of a huge fastball. He has not been quite as effective this year, his first at St. Lucie, but still owns a 3.36 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 over 83 innings.
Meanwhile, Gant earned a quick promotion after six excellent starts to open the year. He’s slowed down now that he’s at Binghamton, with a 4.70 ERA and 6.5 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in 59 1/3 frames. Gant is a “solid back-end type” with four useful pitchers, per Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs on Twitter, who provides video of both of Atlanta’s newest additions and assesses them as likely big league contributors.
Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (Twitter link)first reported that a deal to send Uribe and Johnson to the Mets was close. Joel Sherman of the New York Post (links to Twitter) reported the return. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported (via Twitter) that the deal was done.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bowden beat other national guys by 8 minutes on twitter, that’s a beatdown.
WHERE’S KENNY???
They’ve gotta let Bowden feel good sometimes, I suppose.
Both guys have been pretty good for ATL. Could that be someone like Rob Whalen and Luis Cessa? Maybe Dillon Gee or Jon Niese involved as well?
Nailed it on Whalen. Looks like it’s Gant and Whalen.
1-for-2. I’ll take it lol
Adam Rubin reports one player going to Atlanta is RHP John Gant.
Good moves by Mets. Both will really help. Upton or Cargo (either one) would be ideal, but this works.
Not what Mets Need or should have been after, These Guys are John Matberrys in waiting . The Mets Need “REAL” Hitters , not Luckly Mud sticking against the wall type players, they already got enough of them on this Roster.
I am not sure your analysis is correct on this one. Juan Uribe is a real hitter. Over the last three seasons, including this season, he has been a 115 ops+ player. That is definitely someone the Mets need on their team.
Rafael Montero is a good get for the Braves
Is he in this deal? That would be very surprising.
Can’t see him being in this deal. Still hurt and it wouldn’t make sense to trade him now.
I’d be shocked as well. He’s injured.
According to Robert Murray of Baseball Essential, he is a part of the deal, which would be pretty crazy if it turns out to be true
Edit:Phew, that would have been a head scratcher if I ever saw one.
Please don’t mention that name on this site, thanks.
Passan says Montero isn’t involved
lolz….Montero will be worth much more than that next year.
No he wont. Hes reliever only profile now after all the injuries.
He’s still worth more than Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson
An ml ready reliever with 4 years of control would bring exactly this type of package. You figure a 2 win upgrade for 4 wins from the reliever over his 4 years. The deadline premium makes the difference.
He still profiles as a #3 starter or elite reliever. And he’s had one injury, not “all the injuries” as you claim.
Braves trading for more pitching, huh?
Guess they decided that if you’re gonna be the Mets in 2 years, might as well actually get a few former Mets farm hands to make sure you do it right…
ATL won’t have bloated contracts of Wright, Granderson to deal with, but they actually have more position prospects doing better than what I can imagine ATL having in 2 years, unless a few turn corners quickly. And I can’t see any of Sims, Fried (healthy), Wood, Teheran, Miller holding a candle to Snydergaard, Harvey, deGrom, etc. — but I’d love to be wrong. Good thing is, if everything goes well, I can see ATL having a good bit of cash to fix some of the offensive holes (but not all of them).
Uribe is cluth and great clubhouse player.
So true. I know it was for the best, but dammit do I miss Feast Mode
Right, he wanted more playing time but we had too many infielders.
I’m very happy the Mets picked up Uribe, as they should have gotten him from LAD earlier in the year.
Clutch at errors
A Juiced up old man, That’s all !
Horrible trade by the Braves. You are very deep at pitching and very short on hitting and guess what you trade for another pitcher. A pitcher who was not one of the Mets top 15 prospect.
Meh. Not like Uribe or Johnson matters to the Braves long term anyway.
That is true, But you still don’t want to help your heated rivalry. And besides the Braves don’t have good hitter in the minor league.
Johnson and Uribe will be long gone before the Mets-Braves rivarly has any significance again.
What about the Nats, neither is in their ballpark going forward!
They do have a few good hitters in the minors. Albies has been one of the fastest rising prospects in baseball over the past year. They also have Peraza, Braxton Davidson and Mallex Smith showing a lot of potential. The Braves aren’t loaded with hitting prospects, but they do have multiple legit position prospects.
Both Braxton Davidson and Mallex Smith are both colds hitting under 250. If you are going to make a trade do a trade that will help you in the short And long turn otherwise don’t make the deal to being with.
If every team only made trades that helped short and long term, this website would not exist.
Mallex Smith was promoted not that long ago. He’s underage for his level and he’s still adjusting. Prior to his recent promotion he was tearing things up. Braxton Davidson is again underage and making progress. But his plate discipline for his age is incredible. Looking solely at batting average doesn’t tell you the full story.
Making prospect deals for specific positions at this point for the Braves isn’t actually that great an idea. You just make the deal for the best players you can for what you are giving up. Then you deal the excess for players that you need when you actually need them.
this, so many times this. Davidson and Smith are doing just fine.
They arent “underage” for their levels. If they were any older at their levels they wouldnt be real prospects anymore. The last point you mentioned about taking the best package is correct though as you arent filling big league holes yet.
Actually they both are underage for their levels. Both are competing in leagues where the average age is 2+ years older (Mallex was at 2+ years even prior to being promoted) than them. If they were a year or two older on the same teams they still would be considered real prospects.
You dont look at the total age of the league. There is organizational filler that makes the average age higher. Good prospects are 22-23 at the absolute oldest before they hit triple a. But you have 30 year olds hanging on and 35 y.o 3rd catchers raising the average age. Truly young for the level is 20 in AA and 21 in AAA.
In addition to that, Maybin, Freeman, Peterson, and Simmons are all young and cost-controlled.
Uribe/Johnson wouldn’t have gotten us a “good” hitter, especially from the Mets. You weren’t really thinking we’d be getting Conforto for Uribe/Johnson, right?
No I did not, but I mean you trade away two decent hitters you would hope to get back in return a decent value back.
They traded away two rental role players. They did receive fair value.
Nimmo maybe.
There is plenty of time for them to build a more complete team by flipping prospects they have gained (as well as through free agency and international signings). The position of these prospects matters very little right now.
They weren’t getting anybody’s Top 15 prospect for Uribe and Johnson. They were unneeded assets for the Braves, so they dumped them for depth pieces. Pretty typical deadline deal.
True, short term – Mets, long term- Braves.
Guess that means Chris Johnson can take the for sale out of his yard. (Sad face).
I believe that the Braves would still trade Chris Johnson (were any team so inclined/desperate to want him) even without someone like Uribe or Kelly Johnson available to slide into the 3B job. They would put a warm body there if it meant freeing up that money and roster spot. Freeing themselves of Chris Johnson would be much more valuable than what they put at 3B in the short term. Of course this all changes when they’re ready to compete in a couple/few years.
Saves them $3 million and gives them two young guys to gamble with. It’s not too bad.
The money that the Braves save will go off the book ones the season is over with So it not like this the Braves will be able to use it next year.
You weren’t going to get flashy prospects in return for these guys, they’re just not good enough to warrant that, the return seems pretty fair on paper. These are the types of flips rebuilding teams make this time of year pretty ritually.
Pop quiz, fill in the blank: “You can _____ have enough pitching”
Adam Rubin reporting that Johnson and Uribe are due about $3.15MM total the rest of the season.
John Gant and Rob Whalen going to the Braves
Alright. For all the criticism Sandy has gotten (especially for not getting Ramirez), a good play here getting both of these IF’ers, putting up fairly solid numbers this year.
Let’s wait and see if they help the Mets score! They are dealing with one of the worst teams in baseball, the whole division is weak.
Come on guys, Both are Wsashed up , Former Average League players, One is a Juicer in Waiting to be caught !
Whalen must be sad; die-hard Mets fan traded to rival Braves.
Might fix Sentence that has David Wright in it because he doesn’t play for Mets. Montereo coukdv’e been the guy the Brewers wanted for Parra,
seems sensible for both teams; arms with a shot to make the bigs for veterans that can help the mets. Uribe is a gamer- i should hate him more for his homer in the 2010 nlcs.
John Gant not related to Ron Gant, obviously.
Ultimately the Braves acquired Uribe for 2 pitching prospects that I would value lower than the 2 they gained now. But they also got rid of Callapso in that trade as well. So this seems like a pretty solid pick and flip thus far.
Come on braves , don’t help the mets.
As a Braves fan living in Queens – the Mets demise will be by Sandy. He’s their Trojan horse. I don’t know how much help Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe will be.
Very Little, But with the Mets anything is Better than Mayberry and Campell, or just about !
Third trade which involved both parties being in the same division! Pit-Mil, Hou-Oak and now NYM-Atl. But pretty solid trade for the mets.
these trades between division rivals are always surprising to me. uribe and johnson are intelligent, relatively low cost pickups for the mets post madoff
Why would that be surprising? If I was a seller, I would want to take my division rival’s prospects for players that won’t be there next year when I hope to be more in contention. As a buyer, you get a much more in depth look at the players you are trading for as well.
Near-lock for these guys to be solid regulars – the Braves just own prospect evaluation on pitchers. These two plus Toussaint in addition to what they had – wow. Gotta love how the Braves work.
Why does it seem to me that the Braves aren’t getting enough in return in some of these trades this season?
Because you don’t see the big picture.
Hart is turning over the roster and cutting payroll at the same time. He will have money for free agents as he’s building a team to contend when the Braves move into their new park in 2017.
It’s not about trade vs. trade. It’s about how a GM builds a roster.
I very much do see the big picture, but there’s more to it than that. Two veteran players, both of whom are having good years, can’t get you one more AA or A player? Give me a AA bat or another A pitcher and then it feels a little more like we didn’t just give them away for payroll relief. That also goes to the end point of the GM building his roster, but it’s just a little bit more.
Kelly made his way throughthe AL East, now he’s trying for the whole NL East? LOL. I liked Kelly though.
Mets won the deal in my opinion, however I didn’t love the deal for them.
The Mets got an upgrade, but it wasn’t a huge one. With their offensive woes, they needed a spark plug
The Braves sold two of their four most valuable rental chips (Johnson, Uribe, Pierzynski and Kelly) and didn’t get a great haul in return. I like Whalen a little, but I’m not a fan of Gant at all. Both look like dime a dozen middle relievers in the future considering all of the talented arms that will overshadow the both of them in Atlanta’s system.
Also, this also depletes the depth in the Braves’ infield. Now, they will not be able to trade Chris Johnson, which seemed like a goal for the organization.
Like this trade for braves. 2 lottery ticket type prospects for 2 role players with no future value to the team. And I know from mets perspective they didn’t give much but don’t see either guy improving that dreadful offense. Hope it isn’t their last move
Maybin next Brave to go maybe to Royals for Colon,Starling,Marin and so on.
AJ and Jim Johnson to Twins?
Chris Johnson and Johnny Gomes to Giants for like Hector Sanchez and so on
Nick M. and one of Starters to Cubs fir Baez and so on
Why would the Giants want Chris Johnson’s contract? Matt Duffy is better than him and has third base locked down.
The Mets have two days to trade Uribe to Oakland. That’s who the Dodgers play next.
Johnson may one day rival Kenny Lofton’s at home jersey collection.
Are these 2 rentals? Contracts over 2015
I like all of the moves by Hart so far. This team was NEVER going to contend this year. Any player over 30 with no long term deal should be jettisoned in favor of prospects that can be traded for bats next year. Also the Braves have been trading for international pool money – to pick up position players to compliment all of the pitching they have been stocking.
Meanwhile, Jeff Todd really likes to use “meanwhile” to transition.