The last time the NY Mets traded a player at the deadline and re-signed him in the offseason

It’s been a while since you heard Staind’s “It’s Been A While” but maybe even longer since the New York Mets did something that fans often crave. The idea of trading a player at the deadline and re-signing him the following offseason is romantic. One of the more popularly discussed examples of this was the New York Yankees trading Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs in 2016 only for him to re-sign after winning them a championship.

The situation with the 2026 Mets could have them circling back to a couple of their pending free agents, Clay Holmes being one of the more obvious choices.

How often does this actually happen when a player makes a pit stop with another club for two months and returns? The last time it happened was a Brodie Van Wagenen decision.

Jeurys Familia was the last Mets player traded at the deadline who signed as a free agent in the offseason

This one is a little different than what it would be like if Holmes is traded then re-signs. In 2018, the Mets went through several general managers. It began with Sandy Alderson and after he stepped away, it became more of a faction leading the way. The trade deadline was mostly ineffective with some minor sales of players like Familia. Asdrubal Cabrera, Jose Bautista, and a couple others found new homes.

The Jeurys Familia trade to the (Oakland) Athletics didn’t result in anything more than the Mets shedding salary. This was a theme in the 2017-2018 summers when the Mets found themselves on the wrong side of the playoff picture. Rather than pay down any money, they were regularly trading players away for fringe major leaguers whose most memorable moments involved giving up home runs or abruptly disappearing from minor league rosters.

With Familia, the Mets brought back one of their best closers only to have him not close. It turned out to be as a set up man for the newly acquired Edwin Diaz.

The Mets paid Familia $30 million over three seasons to give them a 4.62 ERA performance. It’s a little slanted because year one was by far his worst with the second and third seasons including an ERA under 4.00. Nevertheless, he gets a lot of the blame for the team’s poor performance in 2019 pitching in front of Diaz. The 2020 Mets had less road to ever formulate a comeback nor did they ever look capable of one. As for 2021, the 3.94 ERA was better than the expected statistics. Familia earned one save in those three seasons but remained the same “hold your breath and pray” reliever.

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