Brodie
Van Wagenen once
again has flipped Major
League Baseball on
its head with a trade that leaves Mets fans wondering what the novice general
manager's true intentions really are.
The
Mets stunned the entire baseball world on Sunday by landing Toronto Blue Jays ace Marcus
Stroman for
pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson. Kay and Richardson
were ranked fourth and sixth among the Mets top 30 prospects according to
MLB.com.
At the same time
rumors are swirling the Mets will trade their second best pitcher, Noah Syndergaard in
a deal by Wednesday, according to Bob Klapish. Klapish added that it doesn't
look like the Mets will deal Zach Wheeler who is a free agent.
On
the surface the Mets acquisition of Stroman gives them a solid starting
pitcher who has been fairly successful in the toughest division in
baseball, the AL East, over the past five and a half years. In fact Stroman's
2.96 ERA this year is ranked fifth in the American League, in spite of a
win-loss record of 6-11. At the same time Stroman is a free agent after the
2020 season. That's a risky gamble, especially by a GM who has become infamous
for poor deals, i.e. Edwin
Diaz and Robby Cano.
It stands to reason that the Mets are sending the message
that they intend to contend not only for the rest of this year (as unlikely as
it is that this team can make a playoff push in 2019), but contend for
2020.
Thus
lends to the confusion of this move. The Mets are 50-55, six games out of a
wild card, and must leap over seven teams to get there. Most of those teams
have either a winning record against, or have won the season series against the
Mets. The Giants are 4-3 against the Mets. The Phillies 9-4. The Brewers 5-1.
The Cardinals are 5-2. The Cubs 2-2. In short even if the Mets were to rally
and end up tied with the second wild card team in the National
League, they would be on the outside looking in based on head-to-head
record.
As New York Post writer Joel Sherman points
out, the last time the Mets did something like this, they dealt Scott Kazmir to the Tampa Bay Rays for Victor
Zambrano when the
team tried to compete for the 2004 wild card. The Mets didn't make the
playoffs. Zambrano was a flameout and Kazmir did okay for himself until the
injuries caught up to him. This is not to say that Anthony Kay is a stud in the
making, but one can see the point.
The
Mets contender theory would hold a lot of merit if they were to keep
Syndergaard in the fold.
Trading
him after acquiring Stroman adds more confusion to the Mets thinking.
Syndergaard, while he has struggled this season, is on pace to strikeout 175 batters,
can still clock a fastball around 95, and has instant star power. One can
understand the attraction to other teams. The other attraction to Syndergaard:
he has a few more years of control left on his deal and has an affordable
contract. It's hard to understand why the Mets would want to part ways with
such collateral.
Add the fact that Wheeler is a free agent after this
season, and it would have made more sense to trade him, even if he is one start
removed from a right shoulder impingement. Teams are probably balking on
Wheeler because of that barking right arm and his inconsistent resume.
If
the Mets keep Syndergaard and Stroman together they could have a formidable
rotation with those two and Jacob
deGrom. Then again, the Mets could use Stroman as a trade
chip and flip him to a more desperate team for their top prospects.
That
sounds like a pipe dream though. Mets fans will remember this as the week they
basically traded Noah Syndergaard for Marcus Stroman.
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