In 2018, the Mets were coming off a second straight losing season, but one that ended with some hope after the team went 18-10 in September, and Jacob deGrom won the National League Cy Young Award. The team was aggressive to start the offseason, in particular signing two-time All-Star Wilson Ramos to be the starting catcher.
On December 3, 2018, though, newly minted general manager Brodie Van Wagenen swung the biggest move of the offseason, acquiring fireballing closer Edwin Díaz and eight-time All-Star Robinson Canó from the Mariners. Díaz was coming off a season for the ages, posting a 1.96 ERA and striking out 124 batters against 17 walks in 73 1/3 innings while saving 57 games, which is tied with Bobby Thigpen for the second-most in major league history. Canó, meanwhile, posted a solid .303/.374/.471 slash line in 348 plate appearances, but was handed an 80-game suspension for failing a drug test and had five years and $120 million left on the 10-year contract he signed with Seattle back in 2013. The Mariners had fallen from an eight-game lead in the AL Wild Card race to missing the 2018 playoffs, and had already traded their ace, James Paxton, to the Yankees.
Heading to Seattle in the trade were two of the Mets’ top prospects – 2018 first-round pick Jarred Kelenic, and 2016 first-round pick Justin Dunn. To offset some of Canó’s contract, the Mets also sent Jay Bruce, who had two years and $28 million left on his deal, and Anthony Swarzak, who was owed $8.5 million in the final year of his contract. Bruce and Swarzak both had dealt with injuries and failed to live up to expectations in 2018. While reports surfaced that Jeff McNeil would be the final piece of the trade, the Mets instead sent righty reliever Gerson Bautista to complete the deal.
The early returns on the trade were mixed for both sides. Díaz was bedeviled by the home run ball, posting a 5.59 ERA and giving up 15 long balls in 58 innings. He lost his closer’s role to Seth Lugo for a brief period of time. Canó struggled out of the gate and dealt with injuries, and his bat didn’t come alive until the summer. The Mets were 10 games under .500 at the 2019 All-Star break, and a 46-26 second-half record made them the first team out of the NL playoff picture.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, Bruce clubbed 14 homers in 47 games before getting shipped to Philadelphia. Swarzak appeared in just 15 games as a Mariner before he was traded to the Braves. Bautista was rocked for 11 earned runs in nine major league innings and posted a 7.85 ERA in the minor leagues. He was non-tendered in 2020 and hasn’t appeared in the majors since. Down on the farm, though, Kelenic was soaring through the minor leagues, posting a .904 OPS with 23 homers and 20 steals across three levels. Dunn posted a solid season in Triple-A and made his major league debut in September.
While early on the trade looked like a massive win for the Mariners, the tides started to shift as years went on. Although Canó was given another suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, Díaz found his groove in New York, and he had a dominant 2022 season, a year in which he posted a 1.31 ERA and struck out over half the batters he faced in 62 innings. He then inked a five-year deal to stay in Flushing. Dunn posted a respectable 3.94 ERA in 25 major league starts for Seattle, but was traded to the Reds as part of a deal to acquire Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suárez. As for Kelenic, he never quite lived up to the lofty expectations he set in 2019, posting an underwhelming .686 OPS in 974 plate appearances in Seattle before getting traded to Atlanta in 2023. While it was a risk to trade two top prospects for a closer and an aging bat with a hefty contract, the Mets turned into winners in this deal.
