The Winter Meetings have reports swirling from reliable sources that a mega-deal involving the Mets, Yankees, and Marlins is almost done. If it’s completed, everybody can come home.
The Winter Meetings in Las Vegas are off and running. And what do you know – the Yankees and Mets are in the thick of things as Twitter is exploding…
There have been discussions, a source confirms, on a potential 3-way trade between the Mets, Yankees and Marlins that would bring J.T. Realmuto to Flushing and could send Noah Syndergaard to the Bronx.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) December 11, 2018
And then this from Joel Sherman, who almost always has his ear firmly to the ground…
https://t.co/cratJptqlW motivations and hurdles in a potential mega-deal that would put Syndergaard with #Yankees, Realmuto with #Mets. #Marlins
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 11, 2018
Historically, three-way deals are almost impossible to pull off. Somebody always wants something else or thinks they’re being run over by the other two teams involved. Still, the one percolating at the Winter Meetings has the makings of a trade that makes sense for everyone, if only because it meets the stated needs of the Mets, Yankees, and Marlins.
The Marlins are easiest. Derek Jeter is building a team for the future and trading off his last big piece in J.T. Realmuto for prospects is a foregone conclusion if he intends to succeed in accomplishing that. Receiving Albert Abreu and Estevan Florial, both considered pieces in the trade, from the Yankees fulfills that need.
The Mets are still pondering, even at this late hour at the Winter Meetings, if they want to part with Noah Syndergaard. Having insisted over and over Syndergaard is off the table, Realmuto sits there as a potential centerpiece of the Mets infield for the next ten years, provided the Mets can sign him to an extension in two years.. To sweeten the deal, the Yankees are also willing to parts ways with Clint Frazier, a much needed right-handed power bat the Mets sorely need.
And for the Yankees, the proof is in the pudding as they receive that premier starting pitcher in Syndergaard they’ve been quietly gushing over. With three more years of team control, the Yankees have a pitcher who is no longer a thrower they can spot in their rotation at will, perhaps even replacing Luis Severino as their “ace.”
This is it for the Yankees, though, and soon they’ll find themselves in the same position as their counterparts in Queens, with a diminished and badly in need of repair farm system. In just a year, the Yankees, according to Bleacher Reports, have dropped from Number 3 all the way down to Number 16 in the rating of MLB farm systems.
By the time the offseason and this trade is completed, the next round of ratings is bound to have the Yankees positioned even lower. But in this game, you take what you can get when you can take it.
And if indeed the Mets and Brodie Van Wagen can check off the box to add Realmuto, his job in Las Vegas is complete, and so is Cashman’s in adding Syndergaard, allowing both to waltz home from the Winter Meetings to the accolades of most of their fans.
For the Mets, whichever way this goes, it should put to rest one way or the other regarding their willingness to trade Syndergaard, and the game of monkey-in-the-middle will cast a shadow over the Mets franchise, once again as the organization of dysfunction instead of foresight. After all, you can only go to the well so many times, after which your audience is barely listening. Realmuto is the real thing, and if the Mets can land him a huge hole in their lineup will have been plugged.
For all teams involved, here’s hoping they can tie the knot to make this deal happen.
Written by Steve Contursi, Editor, Reflections On Baseball
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