NY Mets Monday Morning GM: The perfect trade situation
The New York Mets have players to trade yet many of them are coming off of down years with the club in 2021. The organization is at a point where they should be holding onto all of their best players, only trading away those that are no longer a fit for what they need.
As our focus shifts to full offseason mode, trades talks are going to absorb our consciousness. There are plenty of trade candidates on the team, but is there a perfect trade out there?
In theory, the perfect trade is out there. Theories aren’t always true. In which, I am sad to report that the perfect trade for the Mets is not out there.
The perfect Mets trade doesn’t exist
Before even searching through the rosters of the other 29 teams, diving into their minor league depth, and researching what their biggest needs will be, it’s easy enough to declare that the perfect trade for the Mets does not exist. That’s because they never do.
The situation itself might be fictional. Just because it isn’t a reasonable expectation doesn’t mean we can’t analyze exactly what the Mets should aim for: a big package. Stop giggling. You’re too mature for that.
I’ll spare you the innuendo any further. The Mets’ best trade they could make this winter wouldn’t be to swap Dominic Smith for a middle reliever or move Jeff McNeil for some prospects. The greatest trade the Mets can possibly execute would be one where they trade away multiple quality players for something otherwise thought of as unattainable.
These types of trades are what you might have seen in the past. I think the Herschel Walker trade between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings ruined these types of deals for everyone. Too much can go wrong for the team selling away the future.
From that trade, all we got was a whole new generation of chest-pumping Cowboys fans that cite a championship from 25+ years ago on a way too regular basis.
The unattainable types of players for the Mets to look for
Under Steve Cohen, the Mets have yet to take on any huge contracts signed with other teams. Frankly, they didn’t have much room under the luxury tax to do so. There’s a question remaining about whether or not they’d be able to at all in 2022 with Robinson Cano’s salary added back onto the books.
Outside of the money, there are plenty of other unattainable players for the Mets to target in the perfect trade. Anyone who first fits with what the Mets need but is on a team going nowhere would make sense for them.
To put it another way: find a superstar player on a really bad team and trade him for several quality major leaguers.
Those types of trades just don’t happen in baseball, particularly in the winter months. When superstars are traded it is generally for one or two purposes. There are deals where you clear salary and take back whatever you want. Then there’s the more familiar one where you see a star player traded to another team for some superb prospects. The Mets have balked at tearing apart their farm system in any way since the current regime took over. Add in the payroll situation and it’s probably not going to happen.
Theoretically, the Mets could still pull off this impossible perfect trade. It’s a very NBA-style deal where salaries have to match closely enough and the number of people involved is plentiful.
Why this would actually benefit the non-Mets club
In dealing with the Mets, the team sending the star player gets the benefit of adding average or maybe even slightly below or above players to their roster. These guys would help add depth. Is a baseball team better with the league’s MVP or three guys that barely made the All-Star team? I would argue the latter.
I’m going to use the names of three guys I think we all expect to get shopped this offseason. J.D. Davis, Dominic Smith, and Jeff McNeil. McNeil is the only new addition to the list of possible trade candidates. The other two have been mentioned in rumors since 2019.
The Mets could trade each of these guys in separate deals or even pair up two. What about all three?
A team that went through a major rebuild last year can suddenly take a few steps closer rather quickly. An even better example, what about a club that fell short but still has a ton of superb players?
It’s not happening but trading these three Mets to the San Diego Padres for Manny Machado isn’t so bad in a fictional simulation of a baseball season. The Padres get three guys who have hit in the major leagues before. Each could find a major role with the club in 2022. David or McNeil plays third base. The other ends up in the outfield. Smith is in left field or gets innings at first base when the Padres are finally able to unload Eric Hosmer’s contract. Or maybe the addition of the DH to the National League helps solve the problem.
You get the point. The Mets shouldn’t have to make small moves and hope they work out. The perfect thing they can do is gather together their best trade assets and throw them at a team looking to move a single player that’s as much of a sure thing as you can find.
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That’s the perfect trade situation. And it’s never going to happen.