In his never-ending quest to acquire baseball players, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller will talk/listen to any team at any time about anyone. Now he’s talking about making a trade for the Mets’ Opening Day starter.
New York has put Dillon Gee on the trade block. The 28-year-old right-hander has become expendable as the Mets load up on young starting pitching and anticipate getting Matt Harvey back from elbow surgery.
In his first eight starts of 2014, Gee was 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA. Then he inujred a back muscle, missed two months and was not as effective after the All-Star break, losing seven of his last 11 decisions. Gee is not eligible for free agency until 2017, so he fits the mold Preller has been looking for … Younger, established players with controllable contracts.
Gee uses four pitches, a fastball, slider, change and curve. He’s not dominant with any of them but challenges hitters in the strike zone and gets by with his highly competitive nature. However, the one caveat with any pitcher coming to the Padres is, let him work with Pitching Coach Darren Balsley for a bit and we’ll see just how good he can be.
With the Padres, he would figure to be a back-to-the rotation starter or long reliever. It would be interesting to see how Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson approaches a possible trade with his former team. The Rockies, Giants, Royals and Rangers are also rumored to be interested in Gee.
