The Jeff McNeil trade doesn't deserve to be lumped in as a NY Mets offseason mistake

Two types of New York Mets fans exist right now. One is bleak, pessimistic, and doesn’t see any rainbows in the sky. The other is waiting patiently, putting trust in David Stearns, and understands Opening Day isn’t tomorrow.

What about the rest of the league? The perception seems to be full-on LOLMets right now with fanbases in other places believing just about everything they’ve done was a mistake. Some of it may be unfamiliarity with the way Stearns has operated or even said he would this offseason. Another part is just looking for any scab to pick on.

Over at House That Hank Built, our sister site for Atlanta Braves fans, they took a look at the mistakes the Mets have made this offseason. Surely, some of the roster dismantling the Mets did will come back to bite them. Suggested within is how unfavorable it looks to let Pete Alonso walk away as well as the Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien swap. More notable is replacing Devin Williams with Edwin Diaz when the biggest mistake was probably how the Mets handled the negotiations rather than decision-making process. In addition to those moves, the Jeff McNeil trade was unfairly called into question.

Trading Jeff McNeil for a 17-year-old prospect is no Mets mistake

Here’s what HTHB had to say about the McNeil trade:

“Finally, we arrive at their most recent trade where they sent Jeff McNeil to the A's for next to nothing. McNeil was the NL Batting champ back in 2022, and waiting until this offseason to trade him is the definition of selling low.”

There never was a chance of the Mets trading him midseason, but we’ll let that notation slide. It’s not important.

Fans were a bit surprised to see McNeil only land the Mets a 17-year-old prospect. That tends to be the feeling whenever any trade goes down. Remember how surprised we were when all the Mets got for David Robertson were two young Miami Marlins prospects? By the end of the year, each was a notable member of the farm system.

Right now, that pairing of Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez have taken a bit of a step back. But there’s time to get them right. This wouldn’t be the case if they were older prospects.

McNeil was never going to fetch the Mets a haul of players. His 2022 batting title, as referenced by HTHB, is irrelevant. McNeil has been trending downward and with the moves the Mets have made this offseason, they weren’t going to have much use for him. If 2022 statistics are relevant right now, the Braves need to go out and sign 21-game winner Kyle Wright, a guy who has pitched 31 big league innings since.

As Rising Apple’s Steve Parrello covered, the Mets had essentially two choices with McNeil as far as a trade goes. They could have gone after a fringe major leaguer such as a weak hitter who can play center field well or targeted a teenage prospect they can develop. The Mets went the direction of helping themselves out in the future rather than bring in someone’s Cristian Pache with minor league options. The goal was never to award themselves with a strong return. The Mets needed to dump the player and as much salary as they could.

Do fans in other cities actually think trading an overpriced utility player trending downward was a bad thing? It doesn’t even account for his thoracic outlet syndrome surgery from back in November. The Mets have fumbled a few things this offseason, more perceptually than factual.

The Mets are bound to make plenty of mistakes this offseason with some already coming to pass. One won’t be trading away McNeil.