Mets Offseason Review: A championship will cure any doubt of trading Jarred Kelenic

Some New York Mets fans will continue to stew over the trade which sent Jarred Kelenic to the Seattle Mariners. There’s only one way to ensure it doesn’t come back to bite them: win it all.

When the New York Mets got the offseason officially underway with their big blockbuster trade with the Seattle Mariners, a major concern was about what they gave up. Specifically, it was parting with the 2018 first-round pick Jarred Kelenic that upset many.

Ghosts of trades past have haunted the Mets before. Dealing Nolan Ryan before he became a star definitely doesn’t sit well with many. Like any team, there’s only one way to exorcise these demons: win it all.

For sure, even if the Mets do win a championship in the next four or five years with Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz contributing, there could be those who still wanted Kelenic to stay. Cano can have a bad postseason and someone may argue “they’d win it in 5 instead of 6 with Kelenic.”

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We need to wait until the kid actually gets to the big leagues for this. More importantly, we need to wait until the Mets win it all.

Baseball prospects are an interesting group of men. I’m not sure any other industry outside of sports has an equivalent. Is a child actor the same as a first-round pick in baseball? If so, Kelenic may be Fred Savage and peak in the minor leagues. Or perhaps he’s Jason Bateman who starts off well, slumps for a while, and finally becomes a star later on in life.

The thought that every notable prospect will be Leonardo DiCaprio is a little nutty. More often than not, they’re Corey Feldman.

In his first professional season, Kelenic batted .286/.371/.468 with 6 home runs and 15 stolen bases. The OBP is what really attracts me about this line. Speed and ability to get on base is exactly what the Mets need more of right now.

Kelenic is years away from playing in the major leagues. Those arguments about him fitting in with Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo are nice to think about, but not realistic. By the time Kelenic is a major league player, at least one of them will have likely left via trade or even free agency.

Whether you like the trade or not, we won’t know for a few years if it was a good or bad one. There’s a very good chance it’s a stalemate with none of the players positively affecting their new ball clubs.

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Trading Kelenic did some damage to the future, sure. For the price of a better present, Brodie Van Wagenen did exactly what he set out to do. He’s risking failure for an opportunity to succeed.