By David Groveman January 11, 2021
As everyone knows by now, the Mets traded four players to Cleveland for Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. The Mets pick up a major upgrade at shortstop and a vital frontline starter for the next three years. While I didn’t consider upgrading from Gimenez to Lindor a necessary move (especially considering the money) there’s wisdom in making the trade when it comes to Carrasco. With Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman likely to leave after the season the Mets needed to acquire some backup for Jacob deGrom for 2021 and beyond.
My view as the minor league guy is always against trading prospects. I will forever bemoan the trading of Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn for Edwin Diaz and the steroid shell of Robinson Cano but, this is not that trade. Both Lindor and Carrasco are still at the height of their careers and proven players while Diaz was unproven and Cano was in unmitigated decline. So long as the Mets still sign an everyday center fielder so Brandon Nimmo can play in left field, this works for me.
Yet, with any trade, we have to sift through the information of who was sent away and the futures that might have been. Let’s wish the former Mets well in their baseball futures and hope their successes will come against teams outside of the Mets.
Amed Rosario, SS – The #1 Prospect
After following the Mets and their prospects for almost 20 years (which seems impossible) memory only recalls one Met prospect achieving the vaunted #1 spot on the MLB prospect rankings. Back in 2017 Rosario achieved that honor. Back then people had begun to sour on Dominic Smith and had (rightfully) given up on David Thompson, so Rosario seemed to be the greatest hope for a bright future.
The key to his ranking was in that his solid offensive numbers seemed to come along with excellent defense. Sadly, the defense seemed the part of his game that never came up from the minors. With just glimpses of greatness at the MLB level, Rosario is looked at as a disappointment but, perhaps he’ll get the last laugh at the fans who think his rankings were completely overblown. If he ever puts both parts of his game together, he has the talent to make good on that 2017 ranking and prove to be the “prize” of this deal for Cleveland.
Andres Gimenez, SS – Only 22 Years Old
At 22 most MLB prospects are still below AAA but Gimenez is not most MLB prospects. Gimenez has always seemed to play heads and tails above the level of the competition of other prospects his age.
No comments:
Post a Comment