The New York Mets make bad deals all the time, but the Javy Baez trade with the Chicago Cubs was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.
It is still early in the process, but the New York Mets trading for Javy Baez with the Chicago Cubs totally blew up in their face.
At the time of the deal, New York was leading a three-team race to win the worst division in baseball between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies for NL East supremacy. Chicago, meanwhile, was having a Tobias Fünke fire sale only the Miami Marlins could truly appreciate. New York thought it got the piece to get them over the top. Instead, they got two big thumbs down.
Baez, the co-conspirator of the Thumbs Down Movement, left Queens for all the riches the Detroit Tigers could ever hope to provide him in his free agency. New York gave up a coveted prospect in Pete Crow-Armstrong to Chicago.
The New York Mets should regret the Javy Baez trade for the rest of time
Again, it is still early to see what Crow-Armstrong can do in the Cubs organization. He could be flipped to another MLB team in another blockbuster trade down the line. However, Baez’s run with the Mets was almost as bad as overpaying for a declining Jason Bay or the entire Bobby Bonilla annuity. When you boo and mock your own fans publicly, you are the epitome of a total loser.
For all we know, Baez could earn himself a plaque in Cooperstown as the best Tigers infielder since Alan Trammel. However, he was clearly the gasoline added to the fire that made the once-promising Mets explode into a festering dumpster fire yet again. Admittedly, nobody could have possibly forecasted this utter clown show that manifested itself after Baez went to New York.
Not only did this team’s chemistry evaporated upon his arrival, but Baez played terribly for them.