Reports of Meche for Sweeney: Ain’t happening

OAKLAND – Everyone loves trade rumors in late July. Not everyone cares if they’re accurate.

By the time many of the Seattle Mariners arrived at the ballpark for Wednesday’s day game with the Oakland Athletics, a Seattle sports radio station was reporting the team had traded Gil Meche to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Mike Sweeney.

No one was more surprised than the Mariners.

Apparently, the story was put together by assumptions – bad ones – stemming from a canceled interview Meche had scheduled to do Wednesday morning with KJR-AM.

When he didn’t make the appearance, the station made a call to the Tacoma Rainiers, and a team spokesman said any further announcement would be made later by the Mariners.

That was interpretted as: Trade!

The problem was, Meche wasn’t traded. The “announcement” the Mariners planned on making was already widely known – Meche is going to join Seattle in Anaheim and start Friday’s game.

General manager Bill Bavasi arrived at the ballpark and was immediately barraged with questions about the deal.

Trade talk is just that, talk – The Mariners aren’t getting Sweeney, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying to make a trade – involving Meche or any number of Seattle players – before the Saturday deadline.

Teams are known to have asked for left-hander Ron Villone, reliever Mike Myers and pinch-hitter Dave Hansen.