With word out there that the White Sox are shopping pitchers Gavin Floyd and John Danks it spurred an idea in my head that the Mets should absolutely be in on one of these arms. Danks is expected to make $6-$7M this year through arbitration then he is a free agent while Floyd will make $7M this year and there is a team option for 2013 worth $9.5M.

My original thought was the Mets should trade a prospect package like say Wilmer Flores and Darin Gorski for Floyd. Then I remembered the White Sox have the worst farm system in baseball and don’t seem to have a ton of interest in improving it. One of my Twitter followers @daturk22 then presented an idea that got me to write this piece.

What if the Mets trade Angel Pagan for Floyd? Ok I figure since the contract of Floyd is nice it’ll take a prospect with him. I figure I would throw in either Fernando Martinez or Gorski. The White Sox are always about acquiring big league pieces that can help, especially on the offensive side of the ball. You give them Pagan and they can trade Carlos Quentin or play him in left field and move Alex Rios to right field. They also can obtain a pitcher like Gorski who can be a back end type starter or a guy like Martinez who possesses great upside but with a ton of injuries. Theoretically if they deal Quentin they can try out an OF consisting of Martinez-Pagan-Rios to open 2012. Not the flashiest, but in that division don’t you think the White Sox need to take some risks? If SOMEHOW Martinez stayed healthy (maybe alternate DH/LF with him and Dunn?) they’d be getting some good right now offense for a #3/#4 type starter.

Now how does this work for the Mets? Well first off they are not keen on the idea of bringing back Angel Pagan at ~$5M because they consider him to be more of a quality 4th outfielder who can fill in than someone who is a full time player though it is not believed that is the general consensus throughout baseball. The Mets also could use some starting pitching help this year with the questions around Johan Santana. If you acquire a Floyd you can put Dillon Gee in Triple-A or the bullpen if Santana is healthy. But if Santana isn’t good to go then you have Gee for the rotation and you added a more quality pitcher rather than a #5 type starter like Jason Marquis.

How will the Mets afford the $7M that Floyd is making? Well if you believe Jon Heyman of SI that the Mets were likely to tender Pagan at $5M then you can look at it as a net $2M addition. Even the Mets should be able to swing that. I think that is the kind of trade that can benefit both the Mets and the White Sox. Is it a kind of deal that Chicago would without question do? No probably not. But I bet it would be up there as one of the better offers they’ll get. I think the Mets need to be creative this year and not just try to plug the holes with free agents. Sandy Alderson needs to make some trades, and pursuing a trade along these lines sounds like a no brainer to me.