After a 2-9 west coast road trip, the Mets (50-49) are reeling. With four days until the July 31st trade deadline, most fans are wondering when the team will make a move to either sure up their rotation or add a bat to their streaky lineup.
As tweeted by Buster Olney, the Mets are reported to be in a “wait and see” mode at this point. My suggestion to the Mets’ front office is to wait.
As a Mets fan, it is hard for me to say they should not make a trade before the deadline, but hear me out on this. This 2010 Mets squad has been extremely streaky; especially the bats, and now with Mike Pelfrey struggling, there are many more holes in this team than there seemed to be three weeks ago.
It would take trading away many of the Mets top prospects such as Jenrry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, and Fernando Martinez to bring back impact players that might help the club out this year. But is it worth mortgaging the future to try to win now? The answer is no and there are two reasons why.
The first reason why it is not smart to trade prospects away for the chance of winning in 2010 is that keeping young home-grown players is a successful strategy. It’s hard for Mets fans to give credit to rivals, but looking at the 90’s Yankees, and the Phillies and Rays of the last couple years, you see great examples of what happens when an organization develops and builds around young talent.
The second reason why they shouldn’t make a trade by the deadline is because it would be awesome to pencil in an infield that includes David Wright, Jose Reyes, Ike Davis, Josh Thole, and Ruben Tejada for the next five plus years. Say what you want about these five young guys, but an infield like this brings a mix of solid defense, speed, power, and contact at the plate.
The major argument against this strategy is that sometimes these prospects don’t ever pan out to be what we expect. Over the last 20 years, this has happened to the Mets countless times, from Generation K to Lastings Milledge, and there is no way to tell if the same will happen with this group.
My suggestion to the Mets organization and the fans is to be patient because winning this year is not as important as winning consistently in the near future.
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