NY Mets News: Trade for Rich Hill is straight up thievery

The New York Mets kicked off their attempt to add before the July 30 trade deadline with a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. One day after acquiring Nelson Cruz in a trade with the Minnesota Twins, the Rays went in a different direction and traded one of their starting pitchers to the Mets, Rich Hill.

Hill can’t get to the Mets fast enough. A rotation currently consisting of Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker, Tylor Megill, and any of the first 10,000 fans in attendance at Citi Field, desperation has been there for quite some time.

The 41-year-old southpaw joins the Mets with a 6-4 record and 3.87 ERA on the season. One of baseball’s most unique starters in recent years because of how late he bloomed and how successful he has been, it’s going to be easy rooting for him.

But wait, what did the Mets give up in this trade?

The real takeaway I get from this deal is how little it took to land Hill. For his services, the Mets gave up Tommy Hunter and minor leaguer Matt Dyer. Hunter has been injured for several weeks now and didn’t necessarily have a role with the big league team when/if recovered.

As for Dyer, he was hitting below the Mendoza Line in Single-A this year. Unless the Rays can use some magic potion on him, it’s a trade with very little to be upset about.

It’s straight up thievery how little the Mets had to give up to acquire Hill. A quality arm with the biggest knock against him coming from the fact that he has never pitched more than 135.2 innings in a season since blossoming in 2015, this is a trade well worth the little amount of risk that may come with it.

One question does remain. This year, it’s quite laughable. What happens when all of the Mets starting pitchers are healthy?

In the words of Cher Horowitz, “As if!”

Starting pitching depth is hardly a problem for this team. David Peterson can easily be demoted and who even knows about Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard at this point?

We need to think about the Mets from a game-to-game basis when it comes to the rotation. Adding Hill gives them an extra arm we can have a little more faith in.

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With this deal, the Flushing front office once again proved they are run by a group of smooth criminals.