Clearing Up The Willis-to-the-Mets Rumors

The WFAN reporter who initially reported this rumor, Sweeny Murti, was just on Detroit's WXYT with Doug Karsch and Scott Anderson to clarify whether or not the Tigers really offered Dontrelle Willis to the New York Mets.  According to Murti, a formal offer wasn't made, but the Tigers - knowing that the Mets wanted Willis - made a call to gauge their interest.  

As a catch, however, the Tigers insisted that Pudge Rodriguez had to be part of the deal, much as the Florida Marlins attached Mike Lowell to Josh Beckett when making that trade with the Red Sox back in 2005.  Not only did the Mets not want to pay Pudge's $13 million salary, but they also had no interest in offering a contract extension to get Rodriguez to waive his no-trade clause.  

Was that a deal breaker?  Well, no - because a deal was never truly discussed.  The Tigers may have just thrown that out there to see how serious the Mets were about getting Willis.  

Who would the Tigers have gotten in return?  Again, the talks never quite got to that stage, but Murti believes catcher Ramon Castro would have been one player involved in a trade.  But it's not happening, and wasn't ever likely to occur.