Mets Monday Morning GM: The poorly-aged Sean Manaea trade idea by Jim Duquette

How badly could this have turned out for the New York Mets? The brilliance of Sean Manaea has us all wanting him to remain in Flushing for as long as reasonably possible. He has been the closest thing to an ace the team has had all year.

Back on July 11, the thought was the Mets could swap a starting pitcher for some relief help. Duquette turned to the Cleveland Guardians as the trade partner for the Mets and suggested swapping Manaea for Scott Barlow, Sam Hentges, and a prospect.

You already know how badly the Mets have needed Manaea. What about the players they could’ve gotten in this mock trade?

This mock trade could have ruined the Mets playoff chances

Let’s say everyone still did what they actually accomplished but with a new team. Then what?

On July 11, Manaea was 5-3 with a 3.43 ERA. He won the next day, tossing 7 innings against the Colorado Rockies. Since this mock trade, Manaea has made 14 starts and finished 7-2 with a 3.15 ERA. In the 5 games where he didn’t factor into the decision, the Mets still won.

This trade is impossible to completely evaluate because it includes “a prospect” which doesn’t specify. In either case, losing Manaea is already a misdirection for the Mets.

In classic hindsight hilarity, Hentges didn’t pitch again after July 10 before landing on the IL in what was a very productive year for the lefty reliever. Barlow did manage to stay healthy. However, he ended up released by the Guardians on September 11. At the time of this trade proposal, he was 3-3 with a 3.58 ERA. After Duquette’s pitch, Barlow had a 5.71 ERA in 17.1 innings of work.

Tattoos on the lower back age better than this trade. We all have our misses when it comes to creating some ideas to help our team. This one was so wide right, Scott Norwood would feel some acid reflux reading about it.