2
2012
Should The Mets Trade Wright To The Dodgers For Ethier?
An article by 
In 2012, Andre Ethier hit .284 with 20 home runs, 89 RBI, and 36 doubles. He also had a .351 OBP and OPS of .812.
Over the past week some rumors from ESPN’s Buster Olney have surfaced that Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier might be available on the trading block. With the news today that the Mets and David Wright may have hit a snag in their negotiations, my mind began to churn up possible trade scenarios.
David Wright for Andre Ethier swap might benefit the Mets for a few reasons.
1. He plays right field, and the Mets desperately need a starting outfielder.
2. Ethier is locked up at a affordable 5-year deal worth $85 million. That is just $17 million a year. The deal Wright is rumored to possibly get could be in the range of $126 million over seven years. Add in his option for 2013 and the total value of his contract would be over $140 million dollars.
3. Both players will be 30 years old on opening day 2013. Ethiers contract would end when he was 35, while under Wright’s current proposed deal the Mets would be on the hook until he was 38.
4. The team could move Daniel Murphy over to third base, and put Jordany Valdespin at second base. Then they could look to sign a guy like Marco Scutaro as a stop gap until Wilmer Flores was ready to come up and play third. The Mets could then move Murphy back to second base.
5. Both Ethier and Wright are virtually equal offensively, with David getting the slight edge. Wright is a career .301 hitter, with an .883 OPS. Ethier is a career .290 hitter with an OPS of .838. They are both also gold glove award winners.
If you swapped these two players, the Mets would still have a very solid middle of the order hitter to replace David. Ethier is already signed, and plays a position we desperately need to fill. They Mets already have some in-house options for third base, while they really have nobody on the roster who can play right field. With a tight budget a move like this could be very beneficial to the Mets as they begin to prepare for this off-season.
It’s hard to tell if a deal like this would be done as a straight up trade, or if the Mets would have the upper hand and could end up getting a little more coming back in the deal. On the flip side it could be the Mets having to throw another player in because Ethier is signed and Wright is just a one season rental. If the Mets made this trade they could would save about $50 million while getting very close to the same production.
About the Author: Dan Valis
I am a staff writer for Mets Merized Online. I am a Mets team analyst with a focus on the minor league system, as well as the major league club. I am a lifelong New Yorker who was born and raised to be a Mets fan. The ups and downs of being a Mets fan is what makes following this team so much fun, but at times so frustrating. You can follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
Last updated: 06/19/2013
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Too bad he is not a Right handed hitter.
No thanks.
We have to maximize dollars if payroll is locked in at $100MM. Swapping similar contracts is not maximizing dollars. It’s arguable that Ethier helps the team more, but Wright means more because he is ours.
That said, trade Wright for prospects who are MLB ready and can play for good come June 2013. Sign two MLB OFs with the money freed up from Wright. Or even an OF and a C. That is how you maximize dollars AND improve the team.
Hank, Ethier makes less than Wright.
Wright makes $16MM a year with the 2013 option. But that’s probably going to go up.
Josh Thole is ours…
but if he is the only thing standing in the way of us getting a real catcher…
bye bye thole
EQUAL AS PLAYERS,,,,,OFFENSIVELY???,,,,,Hardly!!!!!!
IF he were traded it would be for a full embrace of YOUNG Plus READY Plus OOODLES…….Lot’s of young, some ready….all High Gain.
EVERYTHING you’ve written makes NO Sense….EVERYTHING.
Yeah lets trade our best trade chip for a fist full of Lotto Tickets, then all you need is a little bit a luck.
That worked out so well when we traded Seaver.
A fistful of lotto tickets is all we can afford
You trade 16 mil in salary for minor leaguers or guys making 400K for the next 2 years, with arb coming in year 3-4-5…
You dont trade David Wright for Robinson Cano…
Is Cano better than Wright? of course…
but Cano will be a free-agent we cant afford…
hope this makes sense
I only want prospects or players with less than 1 year of MLB service time.
Nice post Dan. Other things that make this deal worthwhile is this:
1. This is face-changer/overhaul change that would shake this team up for once and for all.
2. Ethier’s contract only pays $13.5 million in 2013 so the Mets would pick up an extra $3 million to spend elsewhere and fill other needs.
3. Mets right fielders were worst defensively in baseball, now they would be ranked near the top.
4. Ethier doesn’t go into the toilet in the second half, career second half line: .281/.362/.466/.827
5. BEST PART: RISP .290/.385/.482, MOB .299/.378/.474,
“4. Ethier doesn’t go into the toilet in the second half, career second half line: .281/.362/.466/.827″
DAVID WRIGHT CAREER 2ND HALF: .298/.373/.503..875 … soooooo, if that’s “going in the toilet” then I guess Andre Ethier is already at the sewage plant
…
“5. BEST PART: RISP .290/.385/.482, MOB .299/.378/.474″
DAVID WRIGHT CAREER RISP: .295/.389/.486, MOB .306/.387/.520 … in other words, David Wright beasts Andre Ethier even in the categories you have cherry-picked to try to somehow support your ridiculous argument that Ethier is a comparable player to him…
so, try harder
Sorry to jump in but isnt 5 years of Ethier better than one year of Wright? The post asks us to assume no deal can be reached, so who else is available that is comparable? This seems very fair.
that 2nd half career line is counting DW’s stud years ( age 21-25 )
David from 2009-Present has sucked gorilla donkey d!ck in the 2nd half
I agree, it’s not a bad option. Changes the face and brings back a productive player who is already signed. He is a middle of the order hitter and could bat third for us. If we trade Wright for prospects then who bats 3-5?
I like the possibility except for one thing:
.222/.276/.330/.606
Those are his numbers against lefties.
This scenario take the one force against lefthanded pitching and removes it for a guy who is not much better against them than Duda and Davis. Exchange Wright for Eithier in the Mets lineup and managers will be calling up AAA lefties just to pitch against the Mets. Someone would be a fool to throw a rightie against them with that lineup.
Not sure the Dodgers are looking for that kind of deal. With all the dead weight they took on last year, plus Kemp’s long term deal (he’s their “face of the franchise”), I can’t imagine they’d take a high priced player the same age as Ethier.
If the Dodgers are shopping him, they want young, cost controlled players.
Quite the contrary, donal. They repeatedly have said that money and the luxury tax will not be a problem no matter the cost. They’re actually looking to go seek out more deals such as Grienke or trading for Shields
“They repeatedly have said that money and the luxury tax will not be a problem no matter the cost. ”
Ya, they say a lot of things. They are a house of cards. The new owners were banking on a new TV deal and an NFL franchise. the TV deal is not going to be what they hope and there is no guarantee of an NFL team.
Missing the playoffs was a huge blow to them and the other owners are still mad over the break the Dodgers got from their revenue sharing obligations.
Isn’t still the case that if a player is traded in the middle of a long term deal he can opt out at the end of the year in which he was traded and become a free agent again? If that’s the case then this deal is even worse for the Mets than just the fact that Wright is a better player. If Eithier plays up to his potential he will absolutely opt out. If that rule no longer exist than forget what I said, except the part about Wright being better. That’s true regardless of contract.
If Wright gets traded it won’t be for a slightly less expensive player.
I’m not sure I really understand the point here to be honest.
Ethier turns 31 right after Opening Day and is signed until he is 35. With a club option for 36.
If the Mets signed Wright for the next 6 years they’d have him until he’s 35… so what does this accomplish? It’s not like Ethier is 27…
I do like Ethier a lot, I just don’t see what this deal does for the Mets to be honest.
This is classic Whack a Mole!
Make a hole at 3B to fill a hole in the OF…
All you really manage to accomplish is making it harder to improve the team because it’s harder to find a good 3B than it is to find someone to improve the OF.
Well what you and Jessep may not know is that we have thirds base options both on the active roster and the minors, while we have none in the outfield.
Doesn’t matter none of them are:
1 – Proven
2 – Upgrade the team as much as some other OF prospect would improve the team without costing anything off Wright’s production at 3B
Your not even getting the same performance in return so whoever is going to take over at 3B has to be much better in order to get any net gain in the end. To make up what you lost by moving Wright.
And truth is Flores is the only guy who even has a chance to take over at 3B and who knows if he is adequate to the task?
The solution is not to trade good players the solution is get off this stance that the Payroll should only be 100 Mil, and go out and get a REAL OF option that doesn’t affect the IF that has no real issues to contend with.
That’s funny coming from a guy who recently spoke down to someone who wanted to trade Wright for prospects because they were like buying lottery tickets.
Metsie, can you give me the top 5 Mets outfielders on the Mets right now?
Here are third basemen:
1. Wright
2. Josh Satin – MLB ready now.
3. Zack Lutz – MLB ready now.
4. Daniel Murphy
5. Wilmer Flores – MLB ready mid 2013.
Familiar with concept dealing of from strength?
Your just making my point even more by asking that Maniac….
You can improve the OF without losing a THING on Wrights performance by just replacing the OF we have either via FA or via trading two of the guys I would list for one decent OF.
Precisely my point!
You don’t need to lose Wright to fix the OF hell a Dart and a list of OFs on a corkboard would do it just as well without costing you anything Wright gives you!
I know you don’t like Wright but I have to stay consistent here the arguments you guys are making against Wright are as shortsighted as when they were made to let Reyes go!
You don’t improve your team by trading or letting go the best player on it every year!
Especially not in the name of fixing some other position that you could just as easily fix by spending 10 Mil in FA without costing you anything in baseball performance you already have!
It was wrong when this idea was used to justify losing Reyes and it’s just as wrong to use in justifying it for Wright!
All your doing is taking on the philosophy you guys argued against doing last year when the name was Reyes.
It was wrong then and it is wrong now, it never works!
Metsie you didnt answer my question and how did I make your point?
Our greatest strength is third base. We have 4 other third basemen that could immediately step in if we traded him for an outfielder.
You also didnt say what your plan was to get a 25-30 homer, 100 RBI gold glove outfielder. What is your plan?
BTW here is the Mets outfield depth chart:
1. Jason Bay
2. Lucas Duda – A 1B
3. Mike Baxter
4. Jordany Valdespin – A 2B
5. Kirk Nieuwenhuis 175 strikeouts
6. Matt Den Dekker 155 strkeouts in minors!
Come on Metsie, do the math.
Yep those names all suck!
And you don’t need to trade away David Wright to improve on ANY of them!
Thats how you made my point!
It’s easy to improve them because just about anything is improvement there!
So why hurt yourself to improve something thats pretty easy to fill without having to trade away your best player?
You don’t need to trade Wright to improve that position. And your not improving the team by merely putting Wright’s production in the OF and then hoping the unproven guys we have will make up the difference.
Unless any of the guys you listed is going to come out and hit 20 HRs hit .300 and make the All Star game or win ROY minimum in the first year you have accomplished nothing…Just moved the hole from one mole to another and the hole you created is much more difficult to find permanent solutions for than the OF which is a dime a dozen and much more conducive to going Year to year with players than it is at 3B.
And I should point out that your top 3 3Bs are not going to improve or make up what your going to lose by trading Wright….
Dealing from strength only works when you have the NEXT David Wright all ready to play in the MLB and needing to play him so you trade the older version for the younger…
None of those guys you listed is the next David Wright!
But if you think they are good and MLB ready why not trade them for thre OF you crave without losing any of Wrights production or attendance draw?
Did you seriously just say Lutz and Satin were MLB ready replacements for Wright but then laugh at Kirk and DD?
Isn’t it kind of early in the day to get sloshed? Where did I laugh at Kirk and Den Dekker? Do you disagree with my OF depth chart? Or are you saying eother Lutz or Satin arent major leagie ready> Fact is they are more MLB ready than Kirk or Dekker, but the problem is we’re hard-up for outfielders so Kirk came up. Class is over.
So you are actually saying those two are capable replacements for Wright?
Satin is a 27 year old utility minor league IF that has played 77 games in his pro career at 3b and he counts as your number one replacement for Wright and you think you are winning a point?
Oh but we got Lutz on the list, there was this one year in his 6 seasons of minor league ball where he topped 80 games, of course that was 3 seasons ago. He’s your number 2 replacement.
Satin & Lutz? Really?
Red headed Turner would argue with that.