The best Mets trade with Cleveland

The New York Mets haven’t had a chance to make a deal with the Cleveland Guardians yet, the new nickname of the former Indians. In this project of looking at the best trades the team has ever made with each organization, it can be tricky to know what to call them. Will the Marlins represent all of Florida or only Miami? Wait until we get to the Washington Nationals and talk about the Montreal Expos.

Today, we’ll discuss the best trade the Mets made with the Cleveland organization, regardless of what they were called at the time. The Mets haven’t made too many good ones. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the 2021 deal for Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco is the best.

Too soon to fully tell the impact of this deal, it should still probably be the favorite.

The best Mets trade with Cleveland took place only about a year ago

Lindor was not very good in his first season with the Mets. When analyzing trades, it could look like a bust to those who read about it in the record books. Add in the way his thumb behaved and some may look at this deal as a disaster.

Plus, Lindor was only signed for one more season before he got his massive contract. In a sense, his part of this trade is over.

We can’t really consider that because if the Mets didn’t trade for him they wouldn’t have had first dibs at extending him. So, depending on where this goes, we’ll need to take a leap of faith to call this such a great deal for the Mets.

The same goes for Carrasco. He missed most of 2021 and was bad when he did pitch. Leaning heavily on optimism, he also needs to play better to salvage this deal.

It’s what the Mets gave up that makes me confident enough in this trade. Amed Rosario played well last year but was expendable given the chance to add a player like Lindor. The same goes for Andres Gimenez except remove the part about playing well. He seems like a part-time infielder at best with gifts on defense and a few tools on offense. Unless Isaiah Greene or Josh Wolf turn into superstars, the Mets need not worry. This will probably end up as a win for them. The good news is they’re actively looking to improve around those players.

Honorable mention Mets trades with Cleveland

The Roberto Alomar trade and the one that brought us Carlos Baerga aren’t getting on this list. The Mets have amazingly made a lot of poor deals with Cleveland.

One that stands out in a positive is the March 31, 1996, trade for pitcher Mark Clark. In exchange for Reid Cornelius and Ryan Thompson, the Mets picked up a very solid pitcher for the 1996 season. Clark would then get traded to the Chicago Cubs the very next summer in what I consider the best trade the franchise has ever made with the team from Wrigley.

With some teams, it’s obvious what the best trade was. With Cleveland, we need to wait a little longer for confirmation.