Reese Kaplan -- While Baseball Does Real Business, the Mets Don't

Nearly 40 years ago Jimmy Buffett recorded a song entitled “Come Monday” which contained the chorus, “Come Monday, it will be alright...” It also contained, “Yes, it’s been quite a summer.”

This popular music entry came to mind when thinking about the soon to be finished trading season for 2023. Anyone who crosses from one team to another after August 1st will not be eligible to play in the post season (not that post season baseball has anything to do with the Mets, of course).

Now this year Billy Eppler opened the door a bit earlier than other general managers when he sent Eduardo Escobar geographically about as far away as you can banish a ballplayer short of forcing him onto one of the Asian ballclubs. That move seemed to signal the beginning of the end for the failed 2023 team as we now know it.

Then came the loud chorus, not of Jimmy Buffett, but of crickets as nothing else happened. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if all of baseball shut down. Other clubs actively traded other players in the hopes of improving this year or next, but Billy Eppler seems to think his minor league prospects for Escobard and his prepaid salary was quite enough, thank you.

Wednesday word filtered out that two noteworthy former New York Mets changed ballclubs for one another. Given that there’s nothing happening in Flushing other than the sound of toilets, Mets fans immediately jumped on this deal to give both the who won, who lost and why isn’t Eppler making any effort kind of beer-infused four-letter filled speeches.

First, let’s look at the deal in question. The Cleveland Guardians sent one of the pieces who helped land Francisco Lindor in New York — Amed Rosario — in his walk year to help the Los Angeles Dodgers fight to win a National League West pennant once again. In return, the Dodgers sent the man dubbed “Thor”, Noah Syndergaard, from his not-so-comfy-home at Dodger Stadium to see what he could do with the remainder of his overpaid 2023 season to the place where they built the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

Like Eppler, the Dodgers made the decision to pay down Syndergaard’s contract so that the marginal difference in salary obligations renders this deal financially negligible.

To many of us, Amed Rosario was the bigger infield piece that headed to Cleveland a few years back. After all, he had great baserunning speed and enough defensive reputation that it looked like he could be the shortstop of the future. By contrast, Andres Gimenez was regarded as a good glove/no bat kind of prospect. Gimenez surprised many folks by upping his offensive game though not to the level that would make headlines. Consequently the increasingly expensive free-agent-to-be Rosario made more sense to send packing.

The other side of the equation is even harder to process. Syndergaard has had a number of health issues during his career that both curtailed his aggregate stat sheet and sometimes left him pitching like a shell of his former self. However, if you look at cumulative numbers he’s got a winning record supported by more than a strikeout per inning pitched and a respectable if not stellar 3.65 ERA.

In 2023 for the Dodgers nothing has gone right for Thor. He’s leaving Los Angeles with a 1-4 record over 12 starts with a 7.16 ERA and his strkeout/walk ratio is ugly. As bad as Carlos Carrasco has been for the Mets this year, he’s a bonafide starting gem compared to the current version of Syndergaard.

In this particular deal there don’t appear to be winners on either side as Rosario is of short term benefit while Syndergaard needs to operate on past reputation to try to justify the deal happening at all. No, neither the Dodgers nor Guardians are going to be lighting celebratory fireworks over this trade.

Mets fans, of course, won’t be lighting anything except torches to accompany their pitchforks because for better or worse at least these two teams tried to take roster action. How about the Mets? What have they done...Bueller???