Bummer crop
After seeing Pods’ moves, Steve takes shot at Mets’ farm
The Padres are making noise this offseason with a pair of blockbuster trades in which they hardly gave up anything. Rays ace Blake Snell and Cubs All-Star Yu Darvish were sent to San Diego over the past 48 hours. The Padres reportedly combined to give up a few big-league-ready players and six prospects, some of which are 18-years old or younger, from their top-ranked farm system.
Now, the Padres are all-in with a star-studded cast of arms to make them legit World Series contenders for the next few years.
Which other club sorely needs a strong boost to its anemic rotation? The Mets. What the Padres did to collect a formidable alignment of starting pitchers in such an aggressive manner caught Steve Cohen’s attention and caused him to evaluate his team’s situation.
The Mets’ new owner, in one compact 30-word tweet, did two things on Monday night: took a shot at Brodie Van Wagenen and boldly told it like it is.
“Hey, Give the Padres credit,” Cohen said. “They had a top 5 farm system that gave them flexibility to trade for Snell. Newsflash, the Mets farm system needs to be replenished.”
It’s true, and anyone with an average interest in the Mets understands that they lack depth in the minor leagues which is holding the team back from making trades like the Padres did this week. That’s likely all Cohen was trying to say. But, reading between the lines, the
Queens faithful are well aware of the reasons behind that lack of depth. They lived through it over the past two years.
News flash: Van Wagenen helped to deplete the Mets’ farm system.
Maybe Cohen’s intention was not to throw the former GM under the bus. But, whether he meant to or not, Cohen pinned him to the concrete until the tire tracks made an ugly streak over Van Wagenen’s tidy, dry cleaned outfit.
Van Wagenen traded away several valuable prospects (including, of course, one of baseball’s top overall prospects in outfielder Jarred Kelenic) since he transformed from an agent to a GM in 2018 — before he was axed by the Mets’ new front-office regime in early November. It’s a major reason why team president Sandy Alderson, who helped draft those prospects, and GM Jared Porter are trying to avoid blockbuster trades while prioritizing free-agent signings.
The Mets’ farm system is ranked No.20 by both Baseball America and MLB. com. (For comparison, the Padres’ farm system is ranked No. 2 and No.3 by Baseball America and MLB.com, respectively.) MLB.com has included just three Mets — shortstop Ronny Mauricio (No. 57), catcher Francisco Alvarez (No. 58) and third baseman Brett Baty (No. 88) — in their top 100 prospects list. All three players are 21 years old or younger and have not played above Class A.
The Mets lack big-league-ready talent in the upper tiers of their farm system, which is holding them back from creating attractive trade packages for players like Francisco Lindor, Nolan Arenado and All-Star caliber pitchers who could immediately fill the team’s needs.
The Padres were able to secure two top-notch starters in Snell and Darvish with three years of control and only had to give up one of their top 10 prospects and a backend starter in Zach Davies. They took advantage of the Cubs’ desire to shed payroll and landed on the receiving end of Tampa Bay’s history of trading top pitchers. f the Mets had the type of prospect depth the Padres just used to their advantage, Cohen’s response to their ability to be aggressive suggests the team would be enjoying a similar offseason — if all things were equal. In reality, the Mets are far away from being on the jubilant end of a blockbuster trade. Their mission of climbing up baseball’s farm-system rankings must be completed first.
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