Baseball America named Sandy Alderson the Executive of the Year for his work constructing a World Series contender in New York back in 2015. Yoenis Cespedes was the headliner, but there were plenty of other smaller moves that were needed to make the Mets NL champions.
Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson were the first two pieces that came to New York through a midseason trade. Then Alderson addressed the back-end of the bullpen by acquiring Tyler Clippard on July 27th.
Just over a month later, after Cespedes had catapulted the Mets to the top of the NL East, Alderson made one final move. He traded for Addison Reed.
The trade deadline is at the end of July every year, but that was not the end all be all back in 2015. Teams could push players through waivers and then still move them. This is exactly what the Arizona Diamondbacks did with Reed and Alderson snatched him up on August 30th. Since he was on the team prior to rosters being expanded in September, Reed was eligible to be on the playoff roster.
With the Diamondbacks, Reed had actually spent large portions of the 2015 season in the minor leagues. When he was promoted back to the big league roster on July 27th, he carried a 5.92 ERA.
Across 13 appearances prior to be traded to the Mets, Reed pitched to a 1.65 ERA across 13 appearances.
The hard-throwing righty came to the Mets and continued to pitch very well. Reed yielded just two runs across 15 1/3 inning pitched down the stretch. He racked up six holds, one save and one win during that span. With the great trio of Reed, Clippard and Jeurys Familia closing games, the Mets were able to finish out the season strong and win the division
Reed was great for the Mets early on through the playoffs that year as well. He allowed just one run through his first 6 2/3 innings pitched across the NLDS, NLCS and in the World Series. However it all fell apart for Reed in Game 5 of the World Series.
With the score tied at two runs apiece, Reed took the mound at the top of the 12 inning. He went on to give up five runs (four earned) and picked up the final loss of the season, as the Royals won the World Series.
Luckily for the Mets, Reed was still under contract for two more years and continued to be a great piece of their bullpen. In 2016, Reed pitched to a 1.97 ERA, with 91 strikeouts across 77 2/3 inning pitched. He helped the Mets make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
Then in 2017, Reed ended up serving as the team’s closer, saving 19 of his 21 opportunities. After pitching to a 2.57 ERA across 48 appearances, Reed was dealt to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Jamie Callahan, Gerson Bautista and Stephen Nogosek.
Callahan and Bautista have since moved on, with the latter being part of the package that got sent to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano. Nogosek remains in the Mets organization.
Considering the fact that it only took two low-impact pitching prospects in Matt Koch and Miller Diaz to acquire Reed, that trade was truly a brilliant one for Sandy Alderson. Reed gave the Mets three years of excellent service, before being moved for a similar package as it took to get him in the first place.
