Year 3: November 2018 through October 2019
Continuing the Who Won the Trade series, we've gotten back the beginning of the age of Van Wagenen. After the hiring of "BVW" in late October 2018, there were several trades prior to the beginning of the 2019 season, along with three more in-season moves. The initial trade of December 3, 2018 is probably in the top 5 of the Mets fans least favorites.
(1)
New
York Mets traded Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, Gerson Bautista, Justin Dunn and
Jarred Kelenic to the Seattle Mariners for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz. (12/03/2018)
There were three other trades just after the New Year began, two of them pretty
insignificant, the other a seemingly big win for the Mets:
(2) New York Mets traded Bobby Wahl, AdamHill and Felix Valerio to the Milwaukee Brewers for Keon Broxton. (01/05/2019)
(3) New York Mets traded Scott Manea, RossAdolph and Luis Santana to the Houston Astros for J.D. Davis and Cody Bohanek. (01/06/2019)
(4) New York Mets traded Kevin Plawecki to
the Cleveland Indians for Walker Lockett and Sam Haggerty. (01/06/2019)
Once the season started and they needed a starting pitcher,
they swung a trade in early May to get one:
(5) New York Mets traded Neraldo Catalina
to the Tampa Bay Rays for Wilmer Font.
(05/06/2019)
When Wilmer Font wasn't the answer, the July trade deadline came
around and they made the final two trades of the year.
(6) New York Mets traded Anthony Kay and
Simeon Woods-Richardson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Marcus Stroman. (07/28/2019)
(7) New York Mets traded Jason Vargas to
the Philadelphia Phillies for Austin Bossart.
(07/29/2019)
Who Won?
Remember's thoughts: Obviously the "Kelenic" trade was the biggest and most controversial trade of this group, but overall, while most of the players involved have either yet to really start their careers or have not finished, the year of trades was probably not the disaster that many made it out to be.
In December 2018, most Mets fans were ready to vote Jarred Kelenic into the Hall of Fame. He has had a somewhat rough major league start and may yet prove to be an exceptional major league player, but it is also possible that he has an average Gregg Jeffries (perhaps a touch better than average) career, or even a Shawn Abner type career. The jury is still out. On the other hand, Edwin Diaz, despite his 2019 troubles is a solid option at closer for the Mets. I was not fond of giving up Kelenic at that point, but I also was not on the 'this was a terrible trade' bandwagon from the beginning either. I am still not.
As far as the rest, I was hopeful that Keon Broxton might have resurgence in New York and provide the defense and speed in centerfield that they need. Unfortunately, it never happened.
J.D. Davis was a definite win for the Mets.
Kevin Plawecki is the definition of an 'OK' back-up journeyman catcher. Walker Lockett made a few starts and Sam Haggerty was a pretty useless back up infielder whose 2019 claim to fame was having the same batting average as the higher paid Jed Lowrie.
Marcus Stroman gave the Mets two and a half years (sort of) of decent pitching before leaving in free agency. In limited action Anthony Kay has a 5.50 ERA across three years in Toronto and Woods-Richardson did not pitch in 2020 and showed about a 6.00 ERA in AA level in 2021. I was a fan of Woods-Richardson, and still root for him - he will not be 22 until September, so he is still a young guy who may make it.
Vargas gave the Phillies a 1-4 record with a 5.37 ERA in 11 starts in 2019 and has not pitched since. Bossart has not played since finishing 2019 in Binghamton.
Most of the minor players the '18-'19 trades are just that - minor. A particularly ugly pitching line is available if viewing Neraldo Catalina's profile.
I don't see much need to discuss Cano at this point (or the salary dump of Bruce and Swarzak).
Overall, the first year of Brodie Van Wagenen was not only not a disaster, it is possible that it turns out to be one of the better years on the scale of trades.
10 comments:
Staying with my theory that ALL trades must be evaluated n MAJOR EAGUE RESULTS...
#1 - still WAY in our favor
#2 - zzzzz
#3 - BIG win for Mets
#4 - win for the INDIANS
#5 - zzzzz
#6 - BIG win for Mets
#7 - zzzzz
Mack, from that point of view, I cannot disagree. So far, getting JD Davis and Stroman are pluses, losing Plawecki a minor minus, and Cano et al is still up for grabs.
Funny that most Mets who go to Seattle excel, but Kelenic did not hit for Seattle - maybe he needs to return to NY to achieve star status. I wonder if Baty or Vientos for Kelenic might be of interest to anyone.
6 was a win but wish they had re-signed Stroman this Winter. I think he will be missed.
Respectfully, it's hard to not talk about Cano because the liability of BVW taking on 5 years of Cano at $20 million per was f***ing crazy. Also, if the Mets had held onto Kelenic for another year he could have been a key piece in a bigger deal, such as for a young controllable pitcher. The sin wasn't trading him, it was trading him too soon and for an aging infielder who already had an 80-game suspension. Whatever Kelenic does or doesn't do in his career is just fodder for the press.
Brodie Van Wagenen's strength may have been his drafts during his two years.Those drafts, however, may have been simply good because he let his draft personnel do their job.
@Mike, I have to disagree with you. The key to the trade was Edwin Diaz who put up otherworldly numbers and cost nothing in payroll. You were forced to take Cano to get Diaz. Although he's had ups and downs, he's certainly been a better reliever than many others the Mets have tried. Cano is too controversial to call good or bad. If the Seattle numbers were there regularly, it would have been an outright steal for the Mets. Even without, it's still favoring the Mets right now, but Kelenic could improve.
My view of the trade is to break it into two pieces: Kelenic for Diaz, everybody else for Cano. In this way, Kelenic was really traded for a prime cost controlled proven pitcher. Diaz in 2018 was pretty untouchable and perhaps the majors top closer. I am never a fan of trading your #1 pick before he has had a chance to show anything, but in this case 5 years of a top closer was in my mind not the horrible deal many made it out to be.
Reese, good point - we got the exciting, if sometimes scary, Edwin Diaz for barely more than a very cheap $10 million total over the last 3 seasons, and he is due $10 million this year, still relatively inexpensive by today's standards for a top quartile closer.
Back to John's point - I was hoping they would sign Stroman as well, but the complete lack of effort they put in tells me there was something else going on. I certainly cannot sit here in my living room and say or really even guess that he was a clubhouse cancer, but for the innings and results he provided on the mound, you would have thought there would have been some chatter and at least numbers exchanged (which certainly would have leaked out somehow). I think the Zack Wheeler 'crickets' quote applies here. There must be something else going on.
Bill, I felt the exact same way on Stroman.
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