Reese Kaplan -- Trades: A Cautionary Tale

With the winter meetings less than 2 weeks away, a great many people are preaching the foibles of handing out free agent contracts to people who often don’t measure up to the dollars paid for the duration of the deal.  It’s easy to cite any number of deals which have led to a team’s regret, including Kenny Lofton, Pablo Sandoval, and of course, the poster child for bad FA contracts, Jason Bay.  

So the alternative is to trade players to another team in order to fortify positions of need, dump salary, enrich the farm system or rid themselves of a troublesome personality.  During the current regime there’s not much frame of reference for success in this approach beyond the salary dump of R.A. Dickey early into Sandy Alderson’s reign.  Even if you are not a Travis d’Arnaud fan and are ready to write off throw-in Wuilmer Becerra, the fact remains they got the Blue Jays to pay up for Dickey’s Cy Young award and in return they got perhaps a future Cy Young caliber pitcher in Noah Syndergaard.

However, just as the trade route is sometimes flush with silks and spices, other times it’s a rocky road that leads to franchises sliding backwards.  Towards that end, let’s take a look at some of the checkered trading history of the NY Mets:

1B

At a time in the seventies when there was precious little to watch at Shea Stadium, one must-see moment was every single AB of Dave Kingman.  The former pitcher turned slugger was the ultimate all-or-nothing hitter (before it became trendy to put that characteristic on your resume).  He was a 35+ capable home run hitter who was known for the majesty of his towering shots as much as he was for his prodigious whiffs.  The Mets decided at one point they were tired of his act and sent him packing to San Diego for chronically injured future manager Bobby Valentine and journeyman reliever Paul Seibert.

2B

Well, here you had quite a few contenders of players who the Mets traded away who went onto fame and fortune elsewhere (not even including the Irishman who they let walk away as a free agent).  While you could make arguments for several names, the one that jumps out among all others is Jeff Kent who never fit in (much like Greg Jefferies).  In return for the borderline HOF caliber player they got a washed up Carlos Baerga.  Ugh!

SS

While Kevin Elster had an outlier of a season for the Rangers in which he smacked 24 homers and drove in 99, he departed as a free agent and never before or after came anywhere close to that total, reminiscent of the one-season wonder, Brady Anderson.  No, the one that got away in this case is long time Cardinal Jose Oquendo.  He was a flashy fielder who was thought to have not enough offensive ability to last in the majors.  He put together a 12 year career, retiring young at 31.  In return for him the Mets received Angel Salazar and John Young.  I’ll wait while you run to baseballreference.com to figure out who they were.

3B

There were a few contenders here as well, but considering the black hole this position has been prior to David Wright’s arrival, only one really stood out.  It is a little more complicated, but the Mets traded Robin Ventura to the Yankees for David Justice.  However, before playing a single inning for the Mets they turned around and shipped him to Oakland for Mark Guthrie and Tyler Yates.  In his first year for the Yankees Ventura delivered 27 HRs and 93 RBIs. The 36 year old Guthrie was actually quite good in his single season for the Mets – 68 games and a 2.44 ERA in middle relief – but Ventura’s bat was sorely missed.

LF

This one hurts twice.  I considered a great many players including the Kevin Mitchell for Kevin McReynolds deal.  I ruled that one out despite Mitchell’s later MVP season in San Francisco because McReynolds was solid if unappreciated while with the Mets.  However, the one that burned them the worst at this position was undoubtedly when they chose to include a prospect in the deal to the San Diego Padres who hit 17 HRs, drove in 83 and batted .283 in A ball.  His name was Jason Bay.  In exchange the Mets got luminaries Steve Reed and Jason Middlebrook.  Considering Bay was a Rookie of the Year and a three-time All Star, I’d say he most definitely qualifies as the one that got away.  Of course, later they compounded the issue by choosing him over Matt Holliday when both were competing free agents.  We all know too well how that went.

CF

Here there were several contenders for bad trades, including Mookie Wilson and Angel Pagan.  Many would argue that miscreant Lenny Dyskstra who was sent to the city of brotherly love as part of a multiplayer deal to land a washed-up Juan Samuel and you could have a case.  After all, Dykstra had 3 All Star appearances and once finished 2^nd in the MVP voting.  However, you have to go back to the early days of the franchise when they sent a .151 hitting outfielder to the Kansas City Royals for an established major leaguer.  Amos Otis was a five-time All Star and won three Gold Gloves.  The man they received in return lasted a single forgettable season, Joe Foy, who provided a slash line of .236/6/37.

RF

Here there were any number of contenders, too, including the trading away of youngster Ken Singleton, but in my book the worst was when they shipped fan favorite Rusty Staub for a single year of the 35 year old portly pitcher Mickey Lolich.

C

Here’s on position where the Mets have had some truly good players, including Jerry Grote, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza.  While this nominee won’t cause as much agita as other deals, they gave up prematurely on Bill Sudakis, sending him to the Rangers for Bill McNulty who was a .039 hitter in the majors prior to the trade and never sniffed the big leagues again.  Sudakis turned in a solid 15 HRs and 43 RBIs in just 235 ABs for the Rangers.  That definitely ranks as a loser of a deal.

SPs

Well, here it gets ugly real fast.  There is, of course, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, then David Cone, Scott Kazmir, and World Champion Collin McHugh.  We picked up in return for this killer rotation Jim Fregosi, Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Jeff Kent (good but not yet great and sent packing before he flourished), Victor Zambrano and Eric Young, Jr.  That’s enough to make you cry.

RPs

Well, they gave up early for personality rather than performance reasons on Frankie Rodriguez.  They traded Jeff Reardon, Roger McDowell, Heath Bell and Randy Myers.  Now the last one is somewhat debatable since Franco endured 14 years as the resident tomato farmer and delivered a 3.10 ERA over the span along with 276 saves.  However in just 8 years Randy Myers produced 291 saves.  For the others the Mets got Juan Samuel, Jon Adkins, Ben Johnson, Danny Herrera and Ellis Valentine. 

Conclusion

So this trip down memory lane was not to throw gasoline on the fire.  It is a cautionary tale that just as FA contracts are fraught with risk, so too are other personnel decisions.  Non-tendering players like Justin Turner can come back to bite you and questionable rationale for trades can hurt, too.  As the Mets go into the winter meetings they have very few appealing trade chips they can offer up to other teams.  Some of them most definitely have the prospect of biting them in the butt.  The never-given-a-full-season-to-start Wilmer Flores is probably exhibit number one.  Close behind, take a look again at what Amos Otis did at age 22 and then reflect once more on the noise we’re hearing about giving up already on Dom Smith.  If Seth Lugo, Rafael Montero or Robert Gsellman get dealt away and flourish, so be it.  Hopefully if they do the return is better than a speedy one-trick-pony who played every day but couldn’t even stay in the majors once he was dealt away.  The club is going to have to use every trick in the book to try to acquire talent with limited funds and dubious appeal to free agents.  Consequently we might actually see trades take place.  Perhaps Sandy Alderson should keep Omar Minaya on speed dial before pulling the trigger, however.