Dan O'Dowd suggests the Mets trade for Troy Tulowitzki

Dealin’ Dan is still at it. The former Rockies GM who now works for MLB network, wrote a piece for MLB.com highlighting trade proposals for surprise contenders. O’Dowd kicks the article off with a hypothetical trade that hits close to home for him and Rockies fans. Trading Troy Tulowitzki for a bunch of junk.

New York Mets
They are loaded with power arms, and we’ll get a glimpse of another one of them in Noah Syndergaard — the club’s top prospect who was scheduled to make his Major League debut Tuesday night. However, their lineup just doesn’t quite stand up against the other top teams in the National League. This is most noticeable at shortstop, as Wilmer Flores would make a great bat-first utility infielder, but he is not an everyday shortstop.

Proposal: The one player who could take the Mets from contenders to favorites is Troy Tulowitzki. He would not only stabilize the middle infield, but he also has the ability to carry an offense for weeks at a time. Tulowitzki is owed $94 million from 2016-19, but that’s actually a bargain relative to what he would get on the open market.

The Rockies need pitching, and the Mets have plenty of young pitchers whom Colorado would want as part of its rebuilding effort. New York could probably build a deal centered around its No. 3 prospect, left-hander Steven Matz, and keep Syndergaard if it wanted to.

The idea is to get the Rockies some pitching. Ok smart, but O’Dowd suggests that they get to keep their top prospect Syndergaard in the process of adding the National League’s best shortstop*?

Syndergaard has pitched lights out for the Las Vegas 51’s, the Mets AAA affiliate club. In five starts Syndergaard is 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA, and is set to make his major league debut tonight at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Syndergaard already has four MLB ready developed pitches with his fastball that tops out at 96mph, a hard slider, and his change up and curveball that both can vary speeds in the mid to high 70s. The other notable prospect Steven Matz is an equally impressive 4-1 with a 1.70 ERA in six starts for the 51’s.

Especially with Carlos Gonzalez’ trade value dwindling due to a down year last year and his slow start at the plate in 2015, I would expect Jeff Bridich and the Rockies would want everything they could possibly get in any hypothetical Troy Tulowitzki trade. A package centered around both pitchers along with another MLB ready player might be feasible, but nothing less. As good as Tulowitzki is, a future rotation of Jon Gray, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Eddie Butler, and Tyler Matzek might be hard to say no to.

Rockies fans should be thankful that Dan O’Dowd now only has the power to make fake trades, not real ones.

*When healthy