Mets Trade Deadline Deal Battle: Marcus Stroman vs. Javier Baez

In 2019, the New York Mets brought us Marcus Stroman from the Toronto Blue Jays. Two years later, Javier Baez became a member of the Mets after a trade with the Chicago Cubs.

These were the two biggest additions the Mets made at the trade deadline post-2015. The 2016 trade deadline centered on Jay Bruce, an underperforming for the team down the stretch that season. They followed it up with two straight years of selling at the deadline before buying again in 2019.

While they bring different talents to the field, Stroman and Baez have a lot in common.

Which Mets trade deadline deal will turn out better: Marcus Stroman or Javier Baez?

Stroman spent two and a half years with the Mets but only placed a year and a half for them. He missed all of the 2020 season after opting out following an injury he had suffered in the preseason.

Baez’s time with the Mets was far shorter. Acquired ahead of his free agency, he left the Mets after only two months with the team in 2021. Now a member of the Detroit Tigers, fans of his are surely wishing they had gotten to know him better.

These two big personalities came to the Mets with a lot of hype. They gave us some important moments and each has now fled Queens.

With only a little bit of time on their resumes as a member of the orange and blue and a lot of directions the legacies of these trades can go, I’m curious as to which deadline deal will go down as the better one for the Mets. Considering neither helped win them a championship, maybe it’s as much a matter of which one ends up worse.

Was the Mets trade for Marcus Stroman worth it?

Stroman did help turn the Mets around in 2019. Although they missed the playoffs by a couple of feet, he helped excite the fans and make the club unexpected contenders late. August of 2019 had a playoff atmosphere at Citi Field. Unfortunately, the team ran out of road and couldn’t win enough in the final weeks to make it to the postseason.

Stroman’s time with the Mets included 44 starts, a 14-15 record, and 3.21 ERA. I feel like these numbers don’t do him justice for how reliable he was this past year. Stroman led the league with 33 starts and while we would have liked him to go more than 179 innings, having him available every fifth day was more important than getting deeper into individual starts.

Acquiring Stroman was a success for sure. But we need to look at what the Mets gave up.

In exchange for Stroman, pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson went to Toronto. Kay has not been an effective major league pitcher. He had a 5.50 ERA in his first 68.2 innings of work as a starter and reliever. Approaching his 27th birthday in March, there shouldn’t be too much concern that the Mets gave up a gem.

Woods Richardson is a much different story. A freshly turned 21 from this past September, he is already making many Top 100 prospect lists. This, despite having a 5.91 ERA in Double-A last year, could sway the trade the Blue Jays’ way.

Woods Richardson is, however, no longer a member of the Blue Jays. He was dealt to the Minnesota Twins in the Jose Berrios trade. So, for Toronto to actually win this trade, they need to get a lot from Berrios. Already signed to an extension for the next several seasons, there’s a chance they very well could.

Was the Mets trade for Javier Baez worth it?

There are far fewer moving parts in this trade than the former. Baez was acquired along with pitcher Trevor Williams for only one prospect, outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Despite a slow start and a brief feud with the fans, Baez’s time in New York was quite remarkable. He hit .299/.371/.515 with 9 home runs and 22 RBI. The offense was alive with him around. If only it could have woken up the rest of the team, including the pitching, this may have gone down as one of the best Mets trade deadline deals of all-time.

The idea of keeping Baez around beyond 2021 was possible but that won’t be the case. The Mets still do have Williams for the coming year, adding a few extra points to the score of this deal.

Ultimately, our perception of this deal depends on how Crow-Armstrong performs. He’s a few years away from getting anywhere close to the big leagues. Like all prospects, there’s plenty of uncertainty.

Thus far, only the Mets have gotten anything out of this deal. Crow-Armstrong only had 6 games of professional baseball experience before going down for the year in 2021 with an injury.

Eventually, maybe he does make the major leagues. And when it happens, there’s a possibility he’s playing behind Stroman, one of the newest members of the Cubs franchise.