6 best Mets trades for a minor league player

When it comes to the best trades the New York Mets have ever made, there aren’t a whole lot of wonderful deals where the team sold midseason and landed some valuable prospects in return. The club has not had all that much luck at acquiring top talent via trade for a minor league player with the exception of these six instances.

You know these Mets players well. And while we’re not ranking them in terms of how the trade worked for the other team involved, it is a small factor. More important, we’re looking at what they gave to the blue and orange during their tenure with the club.

Players who had already seen some big league action will qualify for this list. Even if they had only a few sips of coffee and saw minor league action with the Mets following the trade, they should be considered a minor leaguer. Maybe one day Drew Smith makes this list. For now, these are the six best Mets minor leaguers acquired in a trade.

6) NY Mets trade for Zack Wheeler

This is the only trade deadline deal where the Mets sold and came away with a pretty good prospect in return.  On July 28, 2011, the Mets traded outfielder Carlos Beltran and cash to the San Francisco Giants for the sixth overall pick from the 2009 draft, Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler was a quality pitcher for the Mets in the five seasons he was able to take the field for them. He went 44-38 with a 3.77 ERA. Injuries were the biggest problem for him. He missed all of the fun in 2015 and 2016 only to return with his poorest big league season of all in 2017—a season where all of the starting pitchers lacked the firepower they had in previous years.

Wheeler’s time with the Mets was short-lived and a lot of great moments were missed because of it all of the time he missed in two seasons. If there truly are multiverses out there, one has Wheeler pitching in the 2015 World Series and re-signing with the club after 2019. Instead, he’s pitching for the rival Philadelphia Phillies and reaching his full potential.