Kazmir Returning to Mets?

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are making Scott Kazmir available for trade according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post.

This off-season there are many teams in need of starting pitching, but the best free agent starters are all over the age of 40. This is leading many teams to sift through trade possibilities.

The biggest names of pitchers who might be traded are Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins and Rich Harden of the Oakland Athletics and now apparently Kasmir.

With so many rumors surrounding the Twins and Santana the Devil Rays are thinking that they could get as much or more for a player still under control for the next three seasons as opposed to Santana who will be a free agent a year from now.

The reason they may want more prospects is because they have a very strong group of young offensive players but a complete lack of a decent pitching staff. Figuring it may take two to three more years to compete they are now looking into trading Kazmir for pitchers who will be ready in that time span. Unlike Kazmir who will be just about set to leave via free agency by then.

The New York Mets are in search for a pitcher to front their staff and may look to acquire the same player they sent out for Victor Zambrano a few years ago. Of course it would take much more than that to bring him back and because the Devil Rays have so many young outfielders the Mets biggest chip, Lastings Milledge, would probably not be very attractive.

This is not particularly good news for Yankee fans however. Being in the same division as the Devil Rays they would be less likely to obtain him and if he left the American League East it would also be a hit to them as Kazmir dominates the Boston Red Sox (118K’s in 101.1 innings with a 2.66 ERA against). He has done well against the Yankees, but not nearly as effective.

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