Reese Kaplan -- Yankees & Mets Rarely Trade Stars

With the Internet going absolutely crazy with the idea of a trade between the Mets, Marlins and Yankees that might include J.T. Realmuto, assorted Yankee prospects and Noah Syndergaard, I was quick to scoff at the notion due to the history between the clubs.  There is always a need to own the back page of the newspapers and no one wants to risk being on the losing end of a high profile trade. 

If you go back through the limited 16 trade history between the clubs since 1966, the players in question were not on the Cooperstown path (no with rare exception even an All Star pedigree).  The most recent deal sent the son for former Met and Yankee Lee Mazzilli, L.J. Mazzilli, to the Yankees for Kendall Coleman.  The younger Mazzilli turned 27 last season and owns a .265 career batting average.  Kendall Coleman’s career numbers are even worse.  He’s younger, but a .205 minor league batting average with neither speed nor power suggests it may be time for the man to consider another line of work.  Unfortunately, it’s these types of trades that have typified the transactions between the crosstown rivals.

For people still reeling from the big Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade that sent prospects Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners (along with salary dumps of Anthony Swarzak and Jay Bruce), take heart in that trading proven talent for prospects is not a roll of the dice that’s guaranteed to come up with 7s.  The Mets once sent usually credible but certified meltdown specialist Amando Benitez to the Bronx Bombers for three prospects – Ryan Bicondoa, Jason Anderson and Anderson Garcia.  None of these youngsters ever amounted to anything combining to spend less than 15 IP in the majors. 

By far the highest profile deal ever executed was sending the popular Robin Ventura from the Mets to obtain Mr. Halle Berry (David Justice) .  Both had All Star credentials on their resumes but both were very much near the end of their careers.  Justice didn’t even get to unpack as he was flipped to Oakland for reliever Mark Guthries and Tyler Yates.  Guthrie turned in a strong season out of the bullpen, finishing with a 5-3 record and a 2.44 ERA over 68 games.  Justice finished up one lackluster year for the A’s.  Ventura fared pretty well in his year and a half in the Bronx, hitting about .250 with 35 HRs before he was flipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bubba Crosby and Scott Proctor.  Crosby spent parts of three seasons with the Yankees, only compiling 4 HRs and 19 RBIs with a .223 AVG over 257 ABs.  Proctor was terrible as a rookie but in year two in the Bronx he appeared in a league leading 83 games and finished with a respectable 3.52 ERA.  Considering it took 1.5 years for Ventura to compile noteworthy numbers, at best this trade was a push with Oakland winding up the big loser. 

Back in 1972 the Mets and Yankees were involved in a 3-way trade with the Montreal Expos but none of the players involved are going to get into Cooperstown unless they buy a ticket.  It’s hardly a blueprint for success.  For the Mets and Yankees now to be considering such high profile people as the flamboyant would-be superhero Thor and the All Star catcher J.T. Realmuto, it would indeed break new ground and cause even more controversy than the recently completed Mariners deal.