true, but why does JV care what the mets get in return? if he's willing to go to the dodgers, with their farm, i don't think we'd really have a fighting chance.
Manoah imploding again in Toronto at the moment… them and Baltimore are the dark horse candidates that could make a successful/enticing bid for the Mets to take to JV to approve. Toronto has a close enough proximity to NY and Detroit so JV probably could be convinced to go there. Baltimore would be solely to try and win more WS’s.
He doesn’t have to… the Mets field the offer before they present it to him, provided it’s from a team they know he’d be willing to waive the NTC for.
I think it depends on how desperate the Mets are to trade him. If they are perfectly content to keep him, they only present him the best offer. If he declines, that's on him and they are fine with the result. If they really want to trade him to get him off their books, then certainly they need to know where he's willing to go.
It is VERY likely some of those will be consolidated for a single better player - preferably an ace or elite bullpen arm.
The problem with JV is teams are bidding like an auction for the right to ask JV if he will waive his NTC. So, the Mets negotiate for best possible deal and teams offer WAY more than they normally would THEN the Mets ask JV if he will accept the deal. If he says "no" then they ask him for the next best offer. But that team has already offered more than they would have if they weren't bidding against that other team If they went to JV first and then negotiated best deal from those teams, the return would be smaller. So the Astros have no chance without offering at least 1 player who projects to be an all-star (Pena, Brown, Diaz, or Gilbert must be included or I see no chance) and then at least 2 others who project to be MLB starters. Even then I see the Astros getting outbid. The only hope is he refuses to accept the other teams.
Both these prospects are 55 grades. Gilbert is the only 55 grade prospect thecAstros have. So these 2 would be equal to Gilbert, Arrighetti, and someone like Andrew Taylor or Michael Knorr.
Mets don’t have to trade him if they don’t want to… and the Rangers have had a below average rotation for some time now, especially moreso if Eovaldi is nursing something (velocity has been down).
