2 Mets Winter Meetings rumors we wish happened, 2 we're glad never did

The New York Mets have not been shy of creating headlines from the winter meetings. This is when all thirty Major League Baseball general managers and every agency representing the players come together and negotiate with one another. Some moves occur right on the spot, while some are finalized in the weeks to proceed. The only guarantee that comes from the winter meetings is that Scott Boras will take his annual jabs at the Mets- and everyone will pretend he's funny.

The Mets have been in free agent and trade speculation every year at the winter meetings since they won the National League pennant in 2015. Much of that has had to do with the rise in expectations for the team to contend every season. Some of those rumors are also in consideration of Cohen's endless resilience to build a World Series contender. Some are in regard to the words of Brodie Van Wagenen, "We will win now, and in the future". Regardless of the offseason, baseball writers have had much to cover surrounding the Mets. Considering all of the rumors we have debated, which ones do we wish happened and which ones are we glad did not?

1. Trading Amed Rosario to Miami for J.T. Realmuto

Heading into the 2018-19 offseason, the Mets had a clear hole at catcher. Travis d'Arnaud was coming off of Tommy John surgery, and the tandem of Kevin Plawecki and Devin Mesoraco was ineffective. The Miami Marlins were still in a full rebuild having dealt Stanton, Yelich, and Ozuna the offseason prior, leaving just J.T. Realmuto as the last notable name on the team. He was without question the best catcher in baseball having hit for a .277 batting average with 21 home runs and threw out a whopping 38% of base stealers in 125 games.

Knowing Realmuto was on the trade block, rookie general manager Van Wagenen did everything he could to pursue him. Having just traded two of the organization's best prospects to the Seattle Mariners for Cano and Diaz, the Mets' farm system was depleted of high-end talent aside from Pete Alonso and Andres Gimenez. This meant Van Wagenen would either have to deprive the Mets of any talented prospects or trade a young major leaguer off the roster plus some mid-level prospects. The young major leaguer Miami requested was Amed Rosario.

Mets fans in 2018 were mixed on trading Rosario to the Marlins for Realmuto. On one hand, Rosario was coming off a disappointing 2018 where he hit .251 with 9 home runs and 16 errors at shortstop. On the other hand, Rosario was the second-best prospect in all of baseball and was still just 22 years old. In hindsight, the Mets would have maximized Rosario's value had they made this trade. He never lived up to his prospect expectation, while Realmuto would go on to win 2 gold gloves, 2 silver slugger awards, and earn MVP votes with the Philadelphia Phillies. Add this with Gimenez's development in Cleveland, the Mets should have made this trade in 2018.