NY Mets: Five worst December trades the team has ever made

4) Mets get the bad end of Roberto Alomar

A little more modern, this next awful December trade took place on the 1tth and helped define the era of Mets baseball it took place in. After 12 All-Star appearances, a Hall of Fame future ahead of him, and a whole lot of other awards, the Mets managed to pick up second baseman Roberto Alomar in a trade with the Cleveland Indians.

Only a few years earlier, the Mets made a trade for another Indians second baseman, Carlos Baerga. That deal was a mess. This one may have been worse because of how great Alomar was before going to New York.

Coming off a year where he finished fourth in the MVP vote, Alomar seemed to age quickly in orange and blue. He hit .266 in his first year with 11 home runs and 53 RBI. Those numbers were only slightly more than half the total (20 home runs, 100 RBI) he had in his final year with Cleveland.

Alomar was one of the top second basemen for years in the American League. Regardless of the city he played in, he seemed to always excel.

This wasn’t the case with the Mets. In his two seasons, Alomar slashed .265/.333/.370 with 13 home runs. He didn’t even make it through the 2003 season as the team traded him to the Chicago White Sox.

The cost to land Alomar didn’t hurt the franchise all that much. The Amazins even managed to pick up a pair of prospects in the deal. The Indians’ prospects appeared to have a brighter future, but none ever did anything close to what Alomar accomplished—before he got to the Mets.