Jeff McNeil trade seems familiar to ones we saw in recent NY Mets history

When thinking of trades the New York Mets could make involving Jeff McNeil, no one picks a teenage pitching prospect on the Athletics. If you did, and you’re not buying lottery tickets, you’re doing life wrong.

Getting anything of value, even if it’s a kid still in the infancy of his career while the Athletics are paying a big part of his contract ($10 million in 2026) feels like a victory. Yordan Rodriguez can become the next notable Mets prospect or a complete afterthought within a year or two. The latter has, unfortunately, been the direction with some similar recent trades the Mets have made for lower level prospects who did well at first then began to flame out.

Trading for low-level prospects hasn’t worked out so well for the Mets in recent years

The Mets haven’t done too much trading away of MLB players with the 2023 trade deadline being the biggest exception. Two separate trades netted them young players who were notable at first only to fall off the top prospects list for the ball club.

In 2024, MLB Pipeline had Marco Vargas ranked 8th, Jeremy Rodriguez ranked 12th, and Ronald Hernandez 20th. None are currently on the list of top 30.

Vargas and Hernandez came to the Mets in the David Robertson deal to the Miami Marlins. Rodriguez was the lone soul from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Tommy Pham.

Vargas made it to High-A this year, batting .239 with a home run in 408 plate appearances. He is a huge base stealer, but lacks in other offensive departments. Hernandez hit .224 for Brooklyn with 6 home runs and 23 stolen bases (for a catcher!). It’s easy to understand why each of them fell.

Rodriguez had the worst season of all in 2025. Hitting just .202 with a home run for St. Lucie, he could afford another year there to figure out the pitching. He’s only 19 so it wouldn’t be the worst idea to hold him back.

Just because those trades flamed out quickly doesn’t mean Rodriguez is a year or two from becoming an afterthought. This is a new regime, with new scouting, and when it comes to trading a player like McNeil, you’re probably better off taking a player with the capabilities of improving a lot rather than being predictably unimportant to the team’s future plans. The fact that he’s a pitcher doesn’t hurt either.