After everyone finally got clear of the #LOLMets Twitter storm that whipped up around last night’s botched trade between the Mets and Brewers, we were given what seemed like a reasonable explanation for why the deal fell apart: the Mets were worried about Carlos Gomez’s bum hip. But a new report claims the Mets may have backed out of the trade for financial reasons.
Again, Gomez’s hip being the source of the hang-up was widely reported:
This morning, however, Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt reported that the Mets weren’t actually that concerned about Gomez’s hip, and just used it as an excuse to back out of the trade after the Brewers refused to throw some more money into the deal:
The source said the Brewers then were asked to put some money in the trade to cover part of what’s remaining on Gomez’s contract, including a $9 million salary next year. Considering the talent level of Gomez and his reasonable contract, the Brewers understandably declined to put any cash into the deal.
It was only then, according to the source, that the Mets came back and said they were calling off the deal because of concerns over Gomez’s medical records.
And then came reports that Gomez’s hip is actually just fine:
The reporting on this story has gotten so convoluted—Haudricourt had multiple sources last night telling him that Gomez’s hip was the issue, for what it’s worth—that we’ll probably never know the real reason why the Mets backed out. Maybe it was the hip! Maybe it was the money! Maybe it was both! What we do know is that if there’s any team that’s going to trump up a possibly non-existent medical issue in order to scuttle a trade over $9 million, it’s probably the Mets.