Addison Reed and the Mets’ Bumgarner Trade

You’ll see what I did there in a minute.

So, another trade deadline has come and gone, leaving most Mets fans very disappointed again. The mantra this year was sell, sell, sell and fleece, fleece, fleece desperate would-be contenders of the cream of their farm system. Kinda like what happened to Jim Duquette and the Mets back in 2004.

Instead, and for the first time ever in Met history, the team both bought and sold at the deadline. In chronological order, they traded Lucas Duda to Tampa, acquired A.J. Ramos from Miami and shipped Addison Reed to Boston. Unfortunately for GM Sandy Alderson, no one wanted Curtis Granderson, Asdrubal Cabrera or Neil Walker, so they remain Mets. This is a big part of the angst around here these days. The “haul” from this trio of deals, especially when compared to what happened cross-town, is the other contributing factor.

Of all the Mets on the block, I was least confident that Alderson could move Duda. Instead, he went first, for a now twice-traded Double-A relief prospect. The Ramos acquisition came totally out of the blue. I was actually impressed, as Sandy has been caricatured (and not unfairly) as a somewhat somnolent plodder, unable to multi-task. Instead, he proved his mettle to be able to both buy and sell, although Ramos is certainly a mixed bag. Ramos is also signed for next year, so there is that.

But his acquisition paved the way for the departure of Reed. Reed to Boston for three relief prospects was touted as a restock of the Mets depleted farm system, the addition of three “intriguing arms” that “could help soon” for what is essentially an expiring asset. Where oh where, I wondered, have I heard this one before? Then it hit me:

December 7, 1988: Mets trade INF Wally Backman to the Minnesota Twins for minor league pitchers Jeff Bumgarner , Steve Gasser and Toby Nivens. And that’s how the Mets got Bumgarner.

Backman’s time with the Mets had clearly come to an end, as the team was planning on inserting Gregg Jefferies into his spot at second base. This was the next in an ongoing series of missteps by Met management, dismantling the World Championship team without any significant return. One of the three (and I think it was Bumgarner, but my memory has faded) did actually show some promise for a while, but in typical Met fashion, he hurt his arm and his career stalled.  Gasser never made it, depriving early 1990’s Met fans of seeing a Gasser-Sasser battery.

Look, none of us have any way of knowing if Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan or Stephen Nogosek are the next Nasty Boys or the next Bumgarner, Gasser and Nivens. With Callahan likely to be called up in September, the Mets will at the very least reap something more for Reed than their previous generation counterparts got for Wally Backman.

Gotta start somewhere.