The Mets won! Jake won! YAY! Now, on to my article:
The Mets have dealt a lot of prospects the past few years.
Let's cut to the chase...
I see one acquisition where the Mets did really well: JD Davis.
The rest? Bad.
See if you agree.
Of course, JD is a bat-first, fielding-last guy who Houston did not need.
They could afford to move him out for prospects. Maybe the 3 the Mets gave up (Ross Adolph, Scott Manea and another lower minors guy, Luis Santana) might someday turn into something, but we'll chalk this one up for the Mets.
Of course the Mets dealt with Houston again, getting defense-first, ourse, but weak bat Jake Marisnick for former 2nd rounder Blake Taylor. Given Houston's sign stealing fiasco, who knows if Jake's weak hitting was helped in any way by that.
I was very high on Taylor last year, a voice crying in the wilderness. Everyone else wasn't saying much.
Before I tell you how Taylor is doing, let me ask you, what is the Mets' area of greatest weakness? The bullpen - I see all those hands. Now I'll answer the question:
Taylor for the Astros, through Sunday, was in 5 games, going 7 2/3 IP. 2 hits, 2 walks, 9 Ks, 0 runs. Looks like a terrible Mets deal, losing a guy they needed in the area of greatest need.
Jarred Kelenic? well they got unpredictable Edwin Diaz and aging Robbie Cano for him. Well, Robbie was scorching at 12 for 32 - until his left groin tightened (you could almost hear Mets fans groin - err, groan - right there.
Trade Mistake? Let's consider this recent update from Seattle:
"How fast is too fast for 21-year-old outfielder Jarred Kelenic? That was the question facing the Mariners at summer camp, because Kelenic turned what should have been the prudent decision to leave him off the 30-man Opening Day roster into a tempting one when he showed up even more filled out than he was in spring training. “We need to be smart here,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of their outfielder “There’s no question he’s going to be fun to watch in a Mariners uniform for a long time."
As it looks now, chalk the Kelenic deal up as a HUGE Mets blunder. How huge? Only time will tell. Perhaps historic.
Of course, before moving past this trade, they got first round righty Justin Dunn from the Metsies, too. The 24 year old righty has had limited MLB pitching time - but my guess is he will be a solid back end starter or solid bullpen arm.
Moving on, the Mets last year got Marcus Stroman, a free agent to be after this year, for the stretch drive, for Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson.
Kay has gone just 2.2 IP in one game in 2020, allowing 1 run. Time will tell how good the former Long Islander will do. He should be solid.
But a recent article noted this about Simeon Woods Richardson: "doesn’t look, talk or throw a baseball like the only teenager at the Blue Jays’ Summer Camp in Toronto.
The club’s No. 3 prospect, now 19, has already come further than anyone expected by this point after being acquired from the Mets in the Marcus Stroman deal nearly one year ago. The Blue Jays surprised many with an aggressive assignment to Class A Advanced Dunedin at just 18 last season, but Woods Richardson didn’t blink."
It also got into his impressive maturity and laser focus to get better.
This trade strikes me as the Mets overpaying, perhaps by a lot - but time will tell.
The Mets also traded RHP prospect Adam Hill and diminutive, super-young IF Felix Valerio for...yes...Keon Broxton. Trading a box of Kleenex for Keon Broxton would have been a bad trade. Brox fanned more than a geisha girl in his time with the Mets.
Valerio is still a teenager, and not in the Brewers' top 30. Hill was the Brewers' 24th ranked prospect after his first full minors season, and was traded for C Omar Narvaez. Narvaez hit 22 HR, knocked in 55 and hit .278 for Seattle last year. Besides Hill, they parted with their 2020 Competitive Balance Round B Draft pick to get Narvaez.
All told, it makes the trade of Hill for Keon a BAD TRADE.
Overall conclusion:
Tell Brodie to STOP, CEASE, AND DESIST from trading away prospects. Someone, please remove the phone from his hand.
Because the collective trades above, as I see it, severely damaged the Mets going forward.
After all, imagine for a minute a system that included Anthony Kay, Simeon W-R, Jarred Kelenic, Adam Hill, and Blake Taylor. I don't know about you, but having those 6 guys would make me so much more hopeful for the Mets' future.
IF YOU WANT YOUR PROSPECTS AS A TEAM TO BE GOOD...KEEP YOUR DARNED PROSPECTS.
11 comments:
Tom. Disastrous trades indeed and you didn't even mention the Wilmer Font trade - Rays acquired right-hander Neraldo Catalina.
Catalina, 19, is already a massive 6’6″ and 205 pounds with a fastball that reaches 95 mph and a power slider. he seemingly makes a nice lottery-ticket arm to add to the minor league ranks in Tampa.
Also there's the Jordan Humphreys for Billy Hamilton trade.
We could of still had Taylor and Humphreys on our team and picked up Hamilton as a free agent. It seems he is just making moves just to make moves. Yes please stop.
I Agree with your article. I feel it is their win now attitude at all costs. It is probably because Brodie and The Wilson’s have no long term ties to the team. I did not understand why they DFA’d Humphreys versus someone like Oswalt or Lockett who we already tried and probably are NOT in the long term plans for the Mets.
Brodie is a disaster and put the Mets back years in developing a core. Everyone knew a couple of years ago the Mets needed to rebuild and they should have hired Bloom but Brodie convinced the Wilpons they could win now. In the process they won nothing and blew up the farm system
There have been a number of bad FA deals and bad trades. Yet the club was over .500 last season and despite Mickey Callaway were looking like they'd taken big strides forward.
Thank you, John, for your comments. Completely forgot about the Wilmer Font trade, and I brain-farted on the Humphreys trade. Although without a normal 2020 season in the minors to actually see how the heck Humphreys would be doing, it is hard to judge. He might only have become the next Whelan.
Aptoklas, you are so right about Bloom. Wilpons were also probably concerned Bloom would want to drive the Mets mobile without Wilpon Assist.
Raw, very good point. Again we do not get to see how Humphreys was doing this year, but Oswald and Lockett are very fungible and marginal pieces.
The trade that sent Humphreys to SF bothered me. We don't need another no hit good field outfielder. Hope new ownership comes in and dumps the current management team.
RDS, if Humphreys turns out to be legit, it was dumb indeed.
But you may have heard Jared Hughes asked about his 1.94 ERA in 2018. He attributed it to...Billy Hamilton's stellar defense. Of course, time will tell.
Keeping the prospects is the best strategy to build a good team, I recall one day hearing that the Twins usually don't like to trade prospects.
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