For all of the attention the Javier Baez/Trevor Williams for Pete Crow-Armstrong trade gets, nothing quite compares to how we felt about the New York Mets trading for living humans for Darin Ruf. Already a strange fit for the sole purpose of leveling out the DH spot with Daniel Vogelbach already in town, it seemed like an extreme overpay for a guy who supposedly did one thing well: hit lefties.
Ruf hit only .152/.216/.197 for the Mets without a single home run. He was far from a solution against southpaws. He slashed .149/.216/.213 against them.
The trade was a despicable one in terms of what the Mets got. As far as what they gave up, it doesn’t look like the San Francisco Giants are going to benefit.
The pain of the Darin Ruf trade was short-lived for the Mets
As it turns out, trading J.D. Davis might have been the biggest loss in this deal. He finished the 2022 season strong, posting an .857 OPS. The Mets weren’t “wrong” to pull the plug on him but to interchange him with Ruf was worthy of an immediate eyebrow raise. He had only a .683 OPS at the time of the trade. Ruf was only slightly better at .701.
Davis flamed out quickly with the Giants. He was cut loose shortly before the 2023 season. What about the prospects from this trade?
Three went to the Giants. Thomas Szapucki with a 60.75 ERA in 2022 pitched 10 games for the Giants down the stretch and came away with a 1.98 ERA. Injuries have limited him to only 14.1 innings since. He’s not even pitching in 2026.
Carson Seymour was the prospect who looked most likely to give the Mets regrets. However, after 49 big league innings in 2025 and 2026, he has a 5.14 ERA. He turns 28 in December. Outside of becoming a late-bloomer who might transition into a bullpen role, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to turn into another ex-Mets prospect the team failed to internally scout well enough to hold onto.
Finally, there’s Nick Zwack. Yet to appear in the majors, he has a 7.98 ERA through 44 minor league innings. He recently turned 28. He has been prone to the home run ball, walks, and hits in general during his time in Triple-A.
All bad trades are created differently. This one appears to be solely based on return, not cost.
