This is an article I wrote exactly 365 days ago, when the Mets initially traded John Buck and Marlon Byrd to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later, which turned out to be Vic Black. As you can see, I was a huge fan of the trade at the time, but little did I know that one year later, Herrera would be the Mets’ top hitting prospect, and second baseman of the future.
It was 100% clear then that this was a perfect move, and somehow it’s even more perfect a year later.
And yet, the Sandy-bashing continues.
Today the Mets traded Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pittsburgh Pirates for minor league infielder Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later.
This has been quite the polarizing move in the circles of Mets fans that I’ve noticed throughout the day. Judging by the title of this post, and my overall philosophy when it comes to roster construction, it will be pretty easy to figure out what camp I’m in.
Good riddance, don’t let the door hit you on the way out Or let it, I really don’t care. Both Byrd and Buck would have been out the door as soon as the season was over, faster than you could say Saltalamacchia. Neither of them would have helped the Mets get anywhere next year and certainly not by the time the team will finally be in position to make a playoff run in 2015.
Marlon Byrd’s 36th birthday is on Friday, and while he’s been decent this year, this success will not last for very long. In the case of 33 year old John Buck, he just has not been good this year. At all. His already paltry .652 OPS decreases to an abysmal .591 when you take away his great first 12 games of the season, when he got off to a blazing start. So yes, since the second half of the Colorado doubleheader on April 16th, the Mets have 85 times started a player who produced a .591 OPS in that time period. The only thing he’s done of note since then is become a father, and console Matt Harvey last night. That was an absolutely great moment, but it doesn’t change the fact that Buck has produced nothing since mid-April.
Herrera is only 19 years old and he received an invite to the Futures Game during All Star Weekend. So he can’t be completely worthless. Even if he never makes it out of A-ball, the idea behind this move is the important thing. It’s much better to get something out of these two not very valuable assets before they leave for good.
I like it.
I won’t even delve into the insulting idea that the Mets could have turned this deal into a blockbuster involving CarGo, Stanton, Profar, Starlin Castro or any other major league player. Please stop, if you seriously believe that. Or at least never attempt to talk about sports again. For the sake of the world.
