The best Mets trade with the Angels

There is no single significant trade we immediately think of when talking about deals between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels—at least to the benefit of the former.

The biggest deal of all time between these two clubs is one of the worst. It was the Nolan Ryan and more for Jim Fregosi swap.

The Mets have actually not made any incredible deals with the Angels. Frankly, I had a hard time finding even a single good one. Fortunately, one did stand out. In mid-2016, the Mets picked up Fernando Salas from the Angels in a trade.

The best Mets trade with the Angels is a forgotten one from 2016

When we think about big trade deadline deals from the last decade, we generally will look at the 2015 season. It’s the season where the Mets were most successful. A big reason for it was because they were able to add some impact players at the deadline.

A year later, the Mets made a few successful lesser moves. One took place on August 31, 2016, when they picked up free-agent-to-be reliever Fernando Salas in exchange for Erik Manoah.

The right-handed veteran may have been abysmal for the Mets in 2017 but in 2016, he was pretty good. He made 17 appearances, logged 17.1 innings, and gave the team a 2.08 ERA performance.

If things went differently for the Mets, maybe we would have remembered this deal a little more fondly. Instead, it’s a quiet yet forgotten pickup by a team that was hoping to repeat as National League champions.

Honorable mention trades between the Mets and Angels

Originally, I had a different trade to discuss. On April 12, 1992, the Mets picked up shortstop Dick Schofield and a minor leaguer from the Angels in a deal for Julio Valero.

Valero would have only one good big league season, the 1992 campaign with the Angels. Over in New York, Schofield played solid defense but gave the Mets only a .205/.309/.286 performance at the plate. It wasn’t a good trade. It wasn’t a particularly bad one either.

Fortunately, we have the Salas trade from 2016 to lean on as the default winner.