Okay - admittedly yesterday was NOT June 15, 1977, and our current superstar, Jacob deGrom, was not traded away. There is also something else that did NOT happen yesterday - the New York Mets and GM Brodie van Wagenen did NOT bolster the team's drive towards a play-off spot and, if anything, hurt our long-term progress.
We all know that this team has needed additional starting pitching - for this year, for the near future, period. NOT up for discussion. So what did Brodie do yesterday? He traded away a promising young left-hander, one Kevin Smith (NOT the movie director, LOL) to the Baltimore Orioles for a fire-balling reliever named Miguel Castro. Castro has similar numbers to Mr Diaz, and NOT in a flattering way; sure, he strikes out a ton of batters, but he also has a plus 4.00 ERA and doesn't exactly inspire confidence for the back-end of the bullpen. He has 2 more years of arbitration left, and the recent move of Lugo to the bullpen combined with Betances' injury and the well-chronicled struggles of Diaz had a lot to do with this deal. However, it's never advisable to trade a young, talented left-handed starting pitcher for a reliever, let alone one who is not a proven closer. Furthermore, this team never gave their 12th ranked prospect a chance to start in the bigs this season, even though he's been in Brooklyn all along (and to put THAT ranking number into perspective, David Peterson, our current number TWO starter, was our 13th-ranked prospect!!!) We all remember a time when our GMs were named Cashen and McIlvaine, and one thing they both did well was to actually ACQUIRE young arms, instead of trading them all away!!!
Moving forward, to continue Brodie's most (non) excellent day, he added Catcher Robinson Chirinos and (your returning champion) Todd "Toddfather" Frazier from Texas for either one or two Players To Be Named Later (different sources have reported different things as of press-time.) Now before you go thinking that life-time Met fan and current Texas GM Jon Daniels did us any favors, note that Chirinos, 36 years old and recently an effective catcher with the Astros, had an ankle injury earlier this season that he's not yet recovered from, and a batting line in .119/.224/.143 that even Mario Mendoza laughs at! At least Frazier has been hitting lefties well, as he usually does, and most likely the only reason for his return was the recent injury to third baseman JD Davis. Regardless of the reason, I've always like Frazier but he was NOT the type of return that we were expecting today - not by a LONGSHOT!!
Just in case you missed the flurry of moves on Monday, here is a list of players that Brodie missed out on acquiring:
RHP Mike Clevinger (at least a 2 year answer to our #2 starter role)
CF Sterling Marte (at least a 2 year answer to our CF issues)
LHP Mike Minor (yet another potential rotation solution)
RHP Archie Bradley (a solution for the back-end of our bullpen)
CF Kevin Pillar (a potential answer to this year's CF problems)
RHP Ross Stripling (yet another potential rotation solution)
OF Brian Goodwin (a far better back-up OF solution than Hamilton)
C Jason Castro (a much better, and younger catcher solution than Chirinos)
There you have it- multiple players were traded yesterday who could have done a FAR better job of moving us back into play-off contention than anyone Brodie imported yesterday. On top of this, I'm beginning to think that Brodie has an aversion to lefty pitchers, as he's moved Blake Taylor, Anthony Kay and now Smith!
Now - imagine Clevinger lining up behind deGrom in the rotation for the next 2 years; unlike in the Wilpon-era, with Steve Cohen as owner, you can believe that he'd pay Clevinger what he's worth to stay a Met once his free agency hit in 2 years. Same with any one of these blown acquisitions - money was not going to be a factor. And then you realize that the Rangers actually INCLUDED money in their deal, and you realize that, sadly, Mr. Cohen is not YET the team's owner, and his wallet is not yet guiding the way. You "almost" want to give Brodie another chance, as I recently advocated for, until you realize that once again he's traded yet another young starting pitcher for a dubious talent, and you start reflecting on the many other moves he's made (acquisitions of Stroman, Cano, Diaz, Lowrie, Betances, Familia, Wacha, Porcello, etc) that have not quite worked out and the odds against just start being too overwhelming to get around anymore.
The bottom line is this --- are the Mets any better AFTER this trade deadline passed???
Answer is --- NO!
Are the Mets now a lock to land a play-off spot?
Answer is --- NO!
Is Brodie the right man to bring the change to the organization from top to bottom that Mr. Cohen is going to need?
Answer now is ---NO!
Now I know what you might be thinking - just because those players were all moved, that doesn't mean that the Mets had a chance to acquire any of them. Really? Just recently, say over the past 10 years, both Omar and Sandy have pulled out last minute deals that nobody else saw coming, and when they weren't able to do it, like in 2005, we all KNOW what the season outcome looked like. I can guarantee, if Brodie was willing to go deep for any of these players, he would have been able to grab at least one, and maybe even 3 of them. It didn't happen, and we made next to no progress on the final day that we would have been able to do so.
To make things worse, Brodie was quoted in an article on The Athletic yesterday, shortly after the deadline passed, "We weren't motivated to move from the top of our prospect system...but we also wanted to show this team and show this market that we are far from quitting on this season." Well, Brodie, we think you've totally missed that chance as the return from your trades hardly motivated your fan-base and certainly won't light up your team on the field.
Brodie, I gave you a chance, WE gave you a chance, and sadly and in record time you have let us down. I think it's time to return to being an agent, and time to turn the team over to a true baseball executive, like David Stearns, Jon Daniels, Andrew Friedman, Theo Epstein...well, YOU get the picture!
We wish you luck in your future endeavors, you have been put on irrevocable waivers!
Moving forward, I have heard that the deal to sell the team to Cohen could be finalized as soon as the end of this week, and have also heard that it might take until the World Series. The most IMPORTANT thing that I've heard is this- Steve Greenberg, MLB legend Hank's son, as the guiding hand behind this sale would not have put the Wilponzi's in position to sell to an owner if he didn't know that person (Cohen) would pass with a majority of owners supporting him. You don't get this far if you can't, and Greenberg, a former MLB employee, has the connections to ensure it was so.
And finally, for those who thought that other owner's wouldn't vote for Cohen because of his deep pockets, that's ridiculous!!! Remember - there is a luxury tax in place, and if the Mets went over that threshold (we should live so long) then who is the beneficiary of the payments he'd be responsible for? Yes, you guessed it, those very same owners!!!!! So let's stop the nonsense, and I know it will be hard at first, but let's start getting used to having an owner who will actually put us in place to be competing for these players, for the top talent at all levels, and to become a perennial contender!!!! Goodness knows it never happened under the Wilponzi's, and Brodie sadly didn't do nearly enough to move that forward.
2021, you cannot get here soon enough!!!
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