Reese Kaplan -- The Drew Smyly Rumor

Making the rounds on the various boards and blogs is a hypothetical trade of Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Conforto for the Tampa Bay Rays' Drew Smyly.  I like him a lot despite a lackluster 2016 campaign.  In fact, I had opined earlier in the year when Matt Harvey went down:

"My preference, however, would be the somewhat unheralded Drew Smyly who has quietly put together a nice little career.  He started off shuttling between the bullpen and rotation for the Detroit Tigers before making his way to Tampa.  The lefty owns a career 26-25 record with a 3.69 ERA, a 9K per 9 IP strikeout record and a nice WHIP of under 1.2.  This year he’s earning $3.75 million and is arbitration eligible for the first time next season, not a free agent until 2019."

However, the prospective price for Smyly seems way too high.  Yes, it would give the Mets the ability to include one of their starting pitchers in a trade to help another area, but if that's the ultimate goal, why not simply use Conforto and d'Arnaud to fortify the roster rather than making it a multiple-step deal?  Conforto is coming off a very down year as well, but I'm firmly in the camp that he'll adjust.  

Don't get me wrong.  Smyly is an underrated pitcher who could be a middle-of-the-rotation guy on most clubs.  I just don't see that you'd want to use the few chips available to buttress what's arguably a strength.  And as good as he's been, the conventional wisdom is you don't trade a good hitter even up for a good pitcher.  In this case you're giving up Conforto AND d'Arnaud without having a plan for catcher.  Furthermore you're removing Conforto from the outfield equation when you're likely losing Cespedes and thus opening up a spot for him.  
It's a bad idea all around.