NY Mets should feel better about the Jeff McNeil trade after what the LA Angels did

When the New York Mets traded Jeff McNeil to the Athletics for a teenage pitching prospect, Yordan Rodriguez, one of the first thoughts a lot of fans had was “that’s it?” As much as we were fed up with McNeil, his value was never going to net them a whole lot. They could’ve gone after a fringe major league player or reliever coming off of a so-so year.

Instead, the Mets managed to trade McNeil and $5.75 million to the Athletics while relieving themselves of the remaining $10 million owed to him in 2026. McNeil’s procedure for thoracic outlet syndrome made him a less desirable trade candidate and yet the Mets found a taker with a return for a warm body.

We should feel good about it. Feel even better when you see what the Los Angeles Angels just did.

In this market, the Mets probably should have gotten less and paid more of Jeff McNeil’s contract

Before we celebrated the minor league signing of Mike Tauchman, another well-known veteran major leaguer ended up with an invite to camp and no guarantee of a major league deal. Adam Frazier signed with the Angels, another minor league deal. Coming off of a .267/.319/.365 performance, he wasn’t all that far behind McNeil who slashed .243/.335/.411.

If McNeil suddenly became a free agent, a major league offer would probably come his way. He has regularly been a better player than Frazier. For as painful as the McNeil experience has been at times, Frazier hit only .202 in 2024.

A $10 million deal in free agency seems like a wide gap for McNeil versus Frazier in this market. When players like Tauchman coming off of objectively good years are settling on minor league deals, we can reason that McNeil might come at a $5-8 million price tag. The Athletics were willing to pay more while also giving up a prospect albeit not one guaranteed to do anything other than get our hopes up with any positive signs.

Willi Castro, another more statistically comparable player to McNeil with a 3.5 fWAR over the last two seasons in comparison to McNeil at 3.4 fWAR was given a two-year deal worth $12.8 million. It’s probably a close estimate to what McNeil would receive. We can get real fair and say the $5.75 million the Mets are paying is close enough to his AAV he’d get as a free agent.

The Athletics had to overpay in that trade because the idea of convincing a lot of players to come to them right now is unreasonable. It was a deal the Mets had to make. Almost two-thirds of the salary off the books plus a chance on a young arm? The Athletics may get a good year out of McNeil. We’ll feel better with the realization he’s not all that much better than guys barely getting major league contracts.