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Troy Tulowitzki hasn’t officially requested a trade yet, but all signs point to that coming in the near future. The Rockies are going nowhere -- again -- and being the face of a franchise that has finished under .500 in six of your nine years in the majors has to be wearing on Tulo. While there are concerns about his health and ability to stay at shortstop due to the injuries, there is no question that adding Tulowitzki to a contender would change the playoff races considerably. The Mets should keep that in mind.
New York is in first place in the NL East, but the Nationals have already narrowed that gap after their rough start to the season, and now sit just 2.5 games back. While the Mets can pitch -- their rotation is loaded enough that top prospect Noah Syndergaard only made his major-league debut on Tuesday because Dillon Gee landed on the DL -- the lineup remains questionable and vulnerable. With Travis d’Arnaud and David Wright getting hurt, no one in the lineup is hitting besides first baseman Lucas Duda. Wilmer Flores has been okay at short offensively, but defensively, he’s a shortstop in name only. Tulowitzki would be a huge upgrade on both sides of the ball, and a force the Mets could use in the middle of their lineup.
The Mets are loaded with the young pieces to pry Tulo from the Rockies, too. There is Syndergaard, there is Steven Matz, and position prospects like Brandon Nimmo and Dilson Herrera. The prospect cost will be high, but prospects exist to improve the major-league roster, whether by plugging them in or trading them for someone else who fits. Money will likely be what keeps the Mets from going for Tulo over, say, Starlin Castro, but if they want to take advantage of the best opportunity they’e had to return to the playoffs since Omar Minaya was still in charge, then Tulo is the shortstop they need.
- Mookie Betts started the season with a couple weeks of bad luck, but he’s now arrived, and just in time for a Red Sox team that needs the help.
- The Tigers are hitting the ball plenty, but they aren’t scoring as many runs as you think they would because of it.
- Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium. He’s pretty strong, y’all.
- Barry Bonds is filing a grievance against MLB for collusion that kept anyone from signing him for the 2008 season, so what better time is there to figure out which teams could have used him the most that year?
- Speaking of the Rockies and Troy Tulowitzki, their offense is not blameless for the recent skid.
- Watch for these four pitchers to move by the July trade deadline.
- The A’s are off to a poor start, but there are reasons to believe that this is just temporary, and that Oakland isn’t actually terrible.
- Sean Casey pegged his co-host in the head with a wiffleball line drive during a demonstration.
- These pitchers are exceeding expectations early, but it’s important to remember for some of these arms that the word that modified that previous clause is “early.”
- The Braves have had some things go right in their rotation -- Shelby Miller! -- but once again, Mike Minor is going to miss time thanks to surgery.
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