eMailbag: Trading Away Young Talent
Nathan K: After hearing Yusmeiro Petit was released and Phil Humber gave up 10 runs in two innings yesterday, it occurred to me that most of the guys the Mets traded away in the last four to five years have turned out to be duds. We always hear about Heath Bell, but we rarely hear about all the flops we’ve pawned into great players.
Matthew Cerrone: Yes… Bell and Matt Lindstrom, and maybe Xavier Nady and Jeff Keppinger, are players the Mets might wish they could have back. I do think they’ll eventually regret trading Mike Carp, Ezequiel Carrera and Maikel Cleto to the Mariners. But, all in all, Omar Minaya has traded away a TON of minor leagues, very few of which he regrets.
For instance, in the five years he has been at the wheel, he’s traded away: Ian Bladergroen, Petit, Grant Posmas, Gaby Hernandez, Dante Brinkley, Jae Wong Seo, Evan Maclane, Victor Diaz, Brian Bannister, Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Humber and Kevin Mulvey – very few of which would even have helped with adding depth to last season’s injury-plagued roster. He traded away Mike Jacobs, who signed with the team as a free agent a few months ago; and he traded Henry Owens, who was auditioning for a minor-league job at Tradition Field last month.
Yes, I do trust Minaya’s ability to asses his young talent, which is also a credit to his staff.
The question is: will he acquire the right talent, as the business of baseball continues to change.
