Longtime Mets trade candidate Manuel Margot finally dealt from Padres

New York Mets rumored trade candidate Manuel Margot won’t be coming to Flushing in a Noah Syndergaard trade after all despite regular mentions over the last year and a half.

Since at least the end of the 2018 season, outfielder Manuel Margot was viewed as a possible New York Mets trade target. Usually, Margot would be mentioned in the plethora of fictional trade proposals written up in reference to the San Diego Padres’ interest in pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

Well, at least for now, Margot isn’t heading to Flushing in anything other than a visiting team’s bus. Margot was traded by the Padres on Saturday to the Tampa Bay Rays in a trade that makes it quite clear he was never a realistic headliner in any deal for Syndergaard.

Along with prospect Logan Driscoll, the pair of now-former Padres will go to Tampa Bay in exchange for relief pitcher Emilio Pagan. While Pagan had an impressive year out of the bullpen in Tampa Bay last season, he hardly measures up to what Syndergaard has accomplished and could continue to in the future.

This probably doesn’t put an end to the Padres’ interest in Thor. If he ever was to become available, I would definitely expect them to pursue him even without Margot in the deal.

It’s interesting to see the return San Diego was able to get for Margot was far less than what some speculated in the past. Surely just one piece in any possible Syndergaard trade, this deal shows the Mets were right all along not to let him be the top player acquired for Thor.

Something this doesn’t answer is the Mets’ long-term solution in center field. In 2020, we should expect a combination of Brandon Nimmo for the majority of the time with occasional starts from Jake Marisnick.

In many ways, Marisnick is level with Margot. The biggest difference is age and the years of control remaining.

Hopefully, this does provide the team with a suitable option for this year and even beyond. Nimmo isn’t a “natural center fielder” as critics claim. He’s not a butcher out there, either. If his bat can make up for the below-average defense, this team should be just fine.

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They’re even better now knowing they never traded Syndergaard for a guy like Margot. This verifies a lot of what Mets fans said the first time we heard rumblings of the Syndergaard for Margot trades: it’s not nearly enough.