Mets “100 Percent Certain” They Won't Trade Jose Reyes

Reyes reportedly likes the idea of playing for the Angels

We've been so focused on the possibility that the Mets will send Carlos Beltran out of town before the end of the month that the previous potential trade obsession of the season has been ignored.

That would be Jose Reyes, of course. Before he set off on the best season of his career and helped keep the Mets ship from sinking over the first three months of the season, a Reyes trade was all that anyone could talk about.

Buster Olney of ESPN brought it back to the forefront on Wednesday when he tweeted that sources told him that the Mets are "100 percent certain" that they aren't going to trade Reyes before the end of the season. Per Olney, Reyes's play this season changed their mind about making a deal. 

This report should quell any lingering concerns that the Mets were planning a deadline surprise, but it isn't particularly surprising. Sandy Alderson intimated as much earlier this month and the Francisco Rodriguez deal (along with Beltran's departure) means that there's going to be money to spend on keeping Reyes after the season.

That brings us to the second Reyes report of interest. This one comes from Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports and it says that Reyes has told friends that he would love to sign with the Angels when the season comes to an end.

Reyes would be an excellent fit in Mike Scioscia's system, which emphasizes speed more than most other American League clubs, and the Angels play in a market that could certainly support the kind of contract that Reyes figures to receive at the end of the season. Whether they'll actually pay it is another issue, however.

Passan doesn't think the Angels will offer Reyes a contract in the neighborhood of the one Carl Crawford got from the Red Sox -- music to Fred Wilpon's ears -- and there's good reason to believe he's correct. The Angels have been a strange team in recent offseasons as they spend big money to lure guys like Bobby Abreu and Vernon Wells to Anaheim and then close up their wallets when bidding on elite free agents.

All in all, that feels pretty thin, but it is the kind of thing you should get used to in the next few months. Reyes rumors are going to become a cottage industry and every one of them needs to be taken with a grain of salt as a result.

The best news here -- assuming Olney's sources are correct and we have no reason to think they aren't -- is that the Mets believe they have a chance to sign Reyes to another contract. If they didn't think they could pull it off, there would be no reason to send out a sustained message that they don't want to trade the man.

In short, there's reason to hope we have more than 66 games left to watch Reyes in a Mets uniform which is a pretty good place to be, given the winds that were blowing earlier this season.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us