The Price for Beltran may be declining - Giants among favorites

Yankees unwilling to give up top prospects for Jimenez - NYPOST.com:

The Mets were described by multiple sources as having moved off A-level prospect requests for Carlos Beltran. They shot high for a few weeks, seeing if someone would break for the best hitter available in this market. But a variety of obstacles such as the inability to offer Beltran arbitration and his $6 million-ish price tag the rest of the year meant the Mets were never going to get elite youngsters such as Philadelphia's Domonic Brown or San Francisco's Zach Wheeler.

"An official from a team involved on Beltran said, 'It doesn't matter how good [general manager] Sandy Alderson does [his job], there is only so much he can get for Carlos Beltran for two months. They will get a good return, but not a headline good return.'

As of yesterday, the Mets were talking two- or three-prospect deals with the Giants, Braves, Phillies, Red Sox and Rangers; and the Brewers continued to call, though their prospect base is viewed as weak. The way the Mets were trying to arrange the deal was if they could get a prospect they really like then they only would need one other prospect from lower down in the system. But if the main cog was not as alluring then they wanted three prospects as a way to deepen their system.


Mets officials insisted they had not defined a front-runner, but the Rangers remained very aggressive. Meanwhile, many outside officials believe the Giants ultimately will end up with Beltran with one saying, 'It is hard to see how it won't be San Francisco. They can take on the most money and I think that is what it is going to come down to.'"