11) NY Mets Worst Trade Deadline Deals: Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians for Ryder Ryan
Back in 2017, the Mets underwent a firesale at the trade deadline. Every veteran approaching free agency became available. The team had multiple misses. One of the absolute biggest is what they were able to get in return for Jay Bruce and the eventual future player the Mets would acquire for the prospect several years later.
Bruce was awesome for the 2017 Mets. When he was traded to the Cleveland Indians, he had 29 home runs in only 448 trips to the plate. He was well on his way to challenging for the franchise record which sat at 41 in the pre-Pete Alonso days.
The lone player the Mets picked up in the deal was minor league pitcher Ryder Ryan. Ryan has yet to reach the big leagues and is actually now a member of the Texas Rangers organization as of 2021.
What makes this trade so bad for the Mets is that Ryder went to the Rangers in 2020 in exchange for a reunion with Todd Frazier. Frazier, a guy we often link with Bruce as a bust brought to town as a free agent for the 2018 campaign, didn’t do much at all in September of 2020. Hypothetically, what if the Mets traded Ryan somewhere else for a more productive player than this poor rehash?
We can only wonder.