As for Fregosi I will counter with Piazza….

Sure there are examples of bad deals all over….

The Majority of the time the team that gets the ONE gets more and wins while the team that gets the Many gets a lot of guys they can’t use because none of them are as good as what they gave away even when combined because three roster sport were wasted to get what you used to get from ONE roster spot!

From Wikipedia by 1971 Ryan had become increasingly frustrated and was considering retiring from baseball. His record for the season was 10–14. He told Mets management that he was not happy in New York and requested a trade.: On December 10, 1971, Ryan was traded to the California Angels along with pitcher Don Rose, catcher Francisco Estrada and outfielder Leroy Stanton for shortstop Jim Fregosi who had been an All-Star in six of seven seasons between 1964 and 1970, and was only 29 years old. But Fregosi who is rated by Bill James as the 15th best shortstop in MLB history, played fewer than 150 games for the Mets, and never had a good season again.

These trades were multiple trades. Hey you never know with prospects that is a plus and a minus. Yes Bagwell and Smoltz were a prospect for a star pithcer like Dickey.

Dickey for Torontos sud catching prospect bloggers here and on metsblog say is a fair deal for both. Dickey can put the Jays into stong contention in tough AL East. They are set at catching. Yes Texas will try to get him too. We have to make the deal to rebuild.

You say:
“Reality dictates that the Mets are still a ways away”
Yet end with:
“RA is our only way way to the promised land!”

If reality says we are a way away WITH Dickey, then reality also says there is no “Promised land” no matter what you do with him.

Letting Dickey go is not going to help stock those minors. As I said the best you get is a younger Dickey and what good is that if the rest of the Minors is still not enough to make that equivilent work either.

If we want to REBUILD then we should stop looking for the BLOCKBUSTER trade our talent for multiple maybes and start trading packages of kids (multiples) for one kid who can help us get a Ring for Dickey while he is here.

The big issue here is Dickey was the big attendance draw this year.
If we trade him or Wright and if you thought we had financial difficulties before just wait to see how bad finances get after those trades.

And then poof goes all the money you think is coming off the books after Santana and Bay are done!
ALL that money will go to paying the bills attendance couldn’t cover and we could even go back to losing 50 Mil in a season.

How will you rebuild the team then?

In 1981 (with Carter) they made the NLCS and lost….

They did not make the playoffs at all after the trade in fact many say that was the trade that killed the Expos. After that trade they never broke 2Mil in attendance again!

They were both at best Wheeler type deals thats all! One for One…

So your examples really do not fit what everyone seems to think should happen with Dickey and Wright…

And does NOTHING to fill “All the Holes” people seem to think they are going to fill by trading Wright and Dickey…

All that really does is create a hole at 3B or SP to fill a hole someplace else!

WHACK A MOLE!

Now lets just run through a Hypothetical here and follow your logic to it’s conclusion…

Say you trade Wright for a really good Power Hitting RF, Does he hit 25+ HRs or does he hit about as many as Wright does?
Who pays third? Murphy? Flores? What if they are no good at all? What then? did you improve the team or did you just move your Power Hitting 3B to RF when it comes right down to it?

Not saying doing that is not sometimes a great move but I AM saying don’t fool yourself into thinking your actually rebulding anything by doing that!

Dickey age 38 (close to 37) for either Bagwell or Smoltz.

Hey you never know what rebuilding can bring.

if you Metsie are correct and ask “what did SA do to rebuild them” and we all say “He did not rebuild them” he extened Wright and Dickey to appease the fans ala Minya. Then I will be driving SA to the airport and send him out of here.

John Smoltz traded to Braves for Doyle Alexander also 37 years old.

These trades look like busts which they were. However for the Red Sox and Tigers the trade helped both respective teams make the playoffs.

Can’t forgot Nolan Ryan was traded to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi only 29 years old.

just because that trade didnt end with an expos pennant doesnt mean it didnt help them. they got an all-star shortstop and a very good defensive catcher who was a starter for years. Carter was near the end. after 2 great years as a met he declined quickly, He was also going to cost them alot of money which also factored in of course.

Did the Expos build a winner around those guys we gave them?

NOPE!

Those deals almost never work out better or wind up in a better build situation for the team getting the multiples.

The few that do manage to get one of of three players they got in return doing well never really gets one as good as they gave and the others are just AAAA fodder in most cases.

And for those who think working out these kind of deals/3-way deals are too complicated that is exactly the point. The Mets will have to do a lot of research, feel for other teams, all kinds of things should be explored that we as fans are not privvy to but GMs are, and try to work these kinds of deals out to get better.

It’s extra work but it applies to this type of team. But you’re right. This HORRENDOUS front office won’t do that. They’ll spend plenty of hours though going through USELESS data like PPPA, F12, B12, and ISO though