3 NY Mets trades made with the Brewers while David Stearns was in Milwaukee ranked

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Among the 29 teams in MLB, the Milwaukee Brewers have a distinction as one of maybe two (the other being the Seattle Mariners) where they New York Mets don’t have a clear winning trade with. The Edwin Diaz-Robinson Cano deal may now look like a Mets victory and we should be hopeful that the addition of Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor becomes a satisfying transaction for the Amazins.

The Mets and Brewers haven’t been especially good trade partners over the years. Many of the moves were smaller or involved the Mets sending a guy on an expiring contract to Milwaukee. We have Francisco Rodriguez going to Milwaukee in 2011 as one example. More recently, Mark Canha was traded there in 2023.

David Stearns would manage to make only three trades with the Mets while working for Milwaukee. Excluding the Canha trade because he was no longer in the general manager role at the time, these are those three trades ranked from worst to best.

3) The Mets trade three prospects for Keon Broxton

This is one of those trades which belongs alongside the Darin Ruf deal. On January 5, 2019, Brodie Van Wagenen undertook what feels like an annual tradition of the Mets adding a fourth outfielder to the roster. He chose Brewers outfielder Keon Broxton. It cost the Mets prospects Adam Hill, Felix Valerio, and Bobby Wahl.

The 2019 Mets turned out to be a fun team that would narrowly miss the postseason. If not for such a rocky start to the year, they would’ve been in the postseason. This trade hardly factored into the team’s performance. Broxton was their fifth outfielder, but voiced how he thought he would’ve been playing more.

Only a few days later, Broxton and his .143/.208/.163 slash line were traded to the Baltimore Orioles after being designated for assignment in May. The poor performance wasn’t much of a surprise to the fans. Broxton had just hit .179/.281/.410 the year prior with Milwaukee. What did BVW see in him?

Although none of the prospects have gone on to have illustrious careers (at least not yet), it was a waste of time to have Broxton on the roster. Those pieces could’ve been used for a different addition. Hill, alone, was able to land the Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez in a deal with the Seattle Mariners. Mets fans may not think highly of Narvaez, but he did make an All-Star team during his stint with Milwaukee.

2) The Mets trade Neil Walker for Eric Hanhold

The notorious 2017 Mets trade deadline was all about saving the Wilpons money. Imagine if we had an owner like Steve Cohen willing to eat some salary. They would’ve set themselves up brilliantly for the future. Many of the regulars were sold off in July and August of that year. This included second baseman Neil Walker. He was swapped for pitcher Eric Hanhold.

Unless the goal was to create some roundabout joke for a Hanhold-Walker trade, the goal of the deal was a failure.

Walker was hitting .264/.339/.442 for the Mets at the time of the trade. He’d put up similar numbers for the Brewers down the stretch. It’s not problematic that the Mets traded him away—a must given his expiring contract and a deal with the benefit of hindsight looks better with how much he declined in 2018 when he returned to New York to play for the Yankees.

Getting so little in return for Walker is what makes this a trade that falls in the more bad than good category. This was contagious for the Mets at the 2017 trade deadline. The only significant piece of any value they picked up was Drew Smith from the Tampa Bay Rays for Lucas Duda.

Hanhold would appear in only 2.1 innings for the Mets in 2018, giving up a pair of earned runs in them. It definitely seems like the Mets used him a lot more than three times. This was an era of forgettable relievers on the roster.

For those curious, Hanhold did pitch in 2023 for the San Diego Padres in Triple-A. An 8.44 ERA in 53.1 innings and 7.3 walks per 9 doesn’t affect this trade at all but it somehow still reminds us of how little the Mets got back in return.

1) The Mets trade for Billy McKinney to save an ailing outfield

The story of the first few months of 2021 was how hurt all of the Mets players were. The shortened 2020 season seemed to have an effect on many. The Mets were willing to do whatever they could to fill the outfield with a warm body. One of the better solutions came when the Mets traded for Billy McKinney on May 26.

McKinney would actually have one of his better major league stints for the Mets in the 39 games he appeared. A .220/.304/.473 slash line doesn’t seem like much. Going from Cameron Maybin and Khalil Lee who gave them nothing offensively, it was welcomed with great pleasure. Playing mostly in right field during the absence of Michael Conforto, McKinney was able to fill the gap until the Mets starters got healthy and he was designated for assignment then traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in July.

In order to pick up McKinney to try to save their outfield, the Mets sent 17-year-old lefty pitcher Pedro Quintana to the Brewers. Quintana had yet to appear for the Mets in a game professionally. In fact, he only made his debut for the Brewers in 2023 with 11.2 innings in the Dominican Summer League. A “lottery ticket” addition for Milwaukee, this could very well turn out much the same as some of the trades the Mets would make at the 2023 trade deadline.

Quintana turned 20 at the beginning of March. On one extreme, he’s a future star. On the other, he’ll be a forgotten player including in a trade that only had consequences for a few weeks. In either case, the Mets weren’t able to pull any wool over Stearns’ face in the three trades they made with Milwaukee. At best, this one can be considered throwing the Mets a bone.

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Ranking the 3 Mets trades with the Brewers made by David Stearns from Milwaukee

3) The Mets trade three prospects for Keon Broxton

2) The Mets trade Neil Walker for Eric Hanhold

1) The Mets trade for Billy McKinney to save an ailing outfield

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