Deal is contingent on Dickey signing an extension with Toronto
The New York Mets have agreed to send the reigning NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, catcher Josh Thole and a prospect to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for catcher Travis d’Arnaud, right-hander Noah Syndergaard, catcher John Buck and a prospect.
The deal is contingent on Toronto being able to work out a contract extension with Dickey and they’ll have a negotiating window of 72 hours, expiring Tuesday at 2pm EST.
Dickey is under contract for next season at $5 million. The Mets attempted to negotiate an extension with Dickey, but the sides were could not agree on a new deal, after months of negotiations.
D’Arnaud hit .333//380/595 with 16 more runs at AAA Las Vegas in 2012, before a knee injury ended his season in late June
Syndergaard also would be a potential key component to the trade.
Syndergaard went 8-5 with a 2.60 ERA for Single-A Lansing last season with 122 strikeouts in 103 ²/₃ innings.
He was rated by Baseball America as the Blue Jays’ No. 3 prospect after last season.
Dickey paced the NL with 233 2/3 innings pitched and ranked second with an ERA of 2.73. He made his first All-Star appearance, collected MVP votes and won the NL Cy Young Award.
Over 10 major-league seasons, the veteran knuckleballer owns a career ERA of 3.98.
A number of teams including Texas , Baltimore, Kansas City and the Blue Jays reportedly were all involved in the negotiations with the Mets at some point this off-season.
The deal is consistent with a series of big trades and free agent acquistions the Blue Jays have made this off-season.
Last month Toronto acquired Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio and catcher Buck from the Marlins in exchange for pitchers Henderson Alvarez and Justin Nicolino, infielders Yunel Escobar and Adeiny Hechavarria, and center fielder Jake Marisnick, catcher Jeff Mathis and minor league right-hander Anthony DeSclafani.
The Jays then followed that trade with the signing of free-agent Melky Cabrera just a few days later to a 2-year two-year $16 million deal.
