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Joel Sherman Proposes Dumb Mets Trades

It’s a good thing that New York Post columnist Joel Sherman is not the Mets GM. If he were, the 2015 Mets might have the likes of Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins and Marlon Byrd on the team, and Daniel Murphy would be traded for a reliever.

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Sherman wrote one of those “how to fix the Mets” columns Sunday that every Mets commentator will pen this off-season. Many of those articles contain unobtainable fantasies such as Giancarlo Stanton. Sherman took the realistic approach, which is obviously more constructive. Still though, his ideas are just plain dumb.

First he advocates signing Michael Cuddyer. Sherman is not the only one in favor of this; it is the trendy thing to say these days. But a player who will be 36 when the season starts, whose numbers were inflated by the thin air in Colorado and who only played 49 games in 2014 because of injury? There are red flags all over this. The fact that he is David Wright’s buddy and that he probably will be affordable are not good enough reasons to sign him.

Then he proposes Boston’s Victorino for Bartolo Colon. Now, I am in favor of taking any offer for Colon. But not for Victorino, who costs even more than Colon ($13 million/$11 million). Victorino will be 34 next month and played even fewer games than Cuddyer (30) because of injury. He’s got very little power and would be of no use to the Mets.

Speaking of Boston, Sherman thinks trading Murphy along with Noah Syndergaard or Zack Wheeler for Xander Bogaerts would be a good idea. Bogaerts is only 22 and has a ton of potential, but he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with his bat, hitting just .240 last season, albeit with 12 home runs. In Citi Field as opposed to Fenway, that would translate into six-to-eight homers. Wilmer Flores can do that without giving up Syndergaard or Wheeler. Those guys should only be traded for sure things, not potential.

To solve the Mets power problems, Sherman turns to the 37-year-old Byrd. Byrd hit 25 homers this season after hitting 24 with the Mets and Pirates in 2013. If Sandy Alderson had any interest in Byrd he would not have traded him and would have re-signed him. Why trade for him now? Sherman thinks Rollins should be part of the trade as well. Rollins will be 36 next month and while he is still good, he is not the player he used to be. Besides, Rollins is a 10-and-5 guy and despises the Mets. He would never approve a deal and if he did, I smell another Richie Hebner. Oh, and Sherman wants to give up Rafael Montero and Cory Mazzoni for these two baseball elder statesmen.

He offers up the same package for White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez. That may not be a bad idea.

But it is a bad idea to trade Murphy for a “high-end lefty reliever.” It is arguable whether trading Murphy at all is a bad idea, but for a reliever? The Mets bullpen is pretty good as is, so sacrificing Murphy for a bullpen arm, regardless of how good he is, does not make sense. Go ahead and trade Murphy as part of a deal for a power hitter, but not for a disposable bullpen piece.

Sherman does propose one good trade — Yoenis Cespedes for Jonathon Niese. I think the Mets would and should jump at the chance to make this deal. I’m not sure the Red Sox would, though.

Joel Sherman usually does a fine job writing about the Mets and baseball. This was not one of his better efforts.

One thought on “Joel Sherman Proposes Dumb Mets Trades

  • my main problem with cespedes is that he’s probably not resigning so he hits free agency next offseason

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