NY Mets history gets really ironic with one blockbuster trade

Stop when you’ve heard this before. The New York Mets miss the playoffs and some big changes to the roster are coming. What year is it? Definitely not only 2025. This was what happened in 2018. An early offseason trade which brought us Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano in exchange for a couple of major leaguers and prospects became the most highly-debated transaction of the Brodie Van Wagenen era.

Now, the Mets may be about to do something similar. Rumors of a trade for San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller feels familiar. He’s at the top of his game, regarded as one of the best in baseball, and controllable. In fact, he might even require the Mets to take on a bad contract such as Jake Croneworth although that feels a bit doubtful they would.

In any regard, replacing Diaz via trade for Miller is Mets history repeated.

Mason Miller should cost even more than Edwin Diaz did back in 2018

A monster season in 2018 with the Seattle Mariners had Diaz finishing 8th in the Cy Young vote and put squarely on the Mets’ wish list. The trade was a bit complicated with the inclusion of Cano, Jay Bruce, and Anthony Swarzak. Essentially, it boiled down to, in part, Diaz for Jarred Kelenic, Gerson Bautista, and Justin Dunn. How’d that work out?

It was a massive price at the time to give up Kelenic so early. It’s going to cost even more for Miller in today’s world. The Padres just traded Leo De Vries, a top 5 prospect in all of MLB, for him and more over the summer.

With this thought, the Mets would have to fold on Nolan McLean to acquire Miller. They wouldn’t dare. This would mean one of the other coveted Mets prospects, namely Carson Benge or Jonah Tong, would be a must. Elian Pena, a young international free agent signing by the Mets in 2025, is a good comparison to De Vries and likely a demand for the Padres to try to even things out. Good luck doing so.

The Mets have a big call to make. Do they stick with Devin Williams as the closer or try to create a new plan around a player like Miller? The Padres have a lot of other intriguing relievers who shouldn’t cost nearly as much in terms of prospect capital.