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Mets, Padres Trade

METS GET:

OF Ben Johnson
RP Jon Adkins

PADRES GET:

RP Heath Bell
RP Royce Ring

This is a minor deal, but a fun one. Boy, is Padres GM Kevin Towers busy.

Adkins is old and has always been pretty much a replacement-level reliever. Don't be fooled by his 3.98 ERA in San Diego last year - that's not an impressive number for a reliever in that ballpark. You could get a player like him for free. So whether or not this deal is any good depends on the other three players.

Johnson has mostly had decent numbers in the minors. He didn't play well in 2006 at AAA Portland, but was decent in San Diego. He'll probably be a bench player who gets some starts against lefties. Fun fact: Towers tried to get Albert Pujols from the Cardinals for Carlos Hernandez, but he had to settle for Johnson instead.

Bell has been terrible in multiple shots with the Mets, but his AAA numbers are so ridiculously good that he probably deserves another shot just to make sure there isn't anything there.

Ring was a first-round draft pick in 2002 - you may remember him from the book Moneyball as the player Billy Beane made fun of White Sox GM Kenny Williams for picking. You may also remember Ring for being traded for Roberto Alomar in 2003. Anyway, Ring's improvement has been steady in the past couple years, and he now looks he can be a solid, cheap contributor in a big-league bullpen.

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In other news, Joe Girardi and former Pirate Jim Leyland have been named the NL and AL managers of the year, respectively.