Who are you sorrier to see go?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Who are you sorrier to see go?

[metirish]

Sproat I guess, and that is how I voted

[Edgy MD]

I went for Jett, but I weep for both of 'em.

The National League this year will be filled with rookie (and otherwise young) Mets who aren't Mets.

[MFS62]

In a post a few months ago, I predicted that Nick Morabito would play the outfield for the Mets before Jett Williams.

He is now the right handed hitting outfield prospect closest to the majors.

I voted Sproat.

Later

Edited January 22 by MFS62

[Centerfield]

Jett for me. I figured he would eventually slot in if Semien struggled.

I can see him going .280/.360/.450. 15 HRs, 45 SB. With good defense at 2B.

History tells me I have no idea how to gauge prospects, but this is what I was hoping for.

[Gwreck]

I went for Jett, but I weep for both of 'em.

The National League this year will be filled with rookie (and otherwise young) Mets who aren't Mets.

 

This is probably worth a different thread but the number of former Mets prospects with meaningful 2025 time in the majors elsewhere is actually pretty small:

Pete Crow-Armstrong, 6.0 WAR (Javy Baez)

Simeon Woods-Richardson, 2.2 (Stroman)

Jake Mangum, 1.1 (Jeff Brigham/Eleiser Hernandez)

Andres Gimenez, 1.1 (Lindor)

—-

J.T. Ginn, 0.5 (Bassitt)

Amed Rosario, 0.3 (Lindor)

Butto, 0.0 in 21 games in SF (Rogers)

Gilbert, -0.3 in 39 games in SF (Rogers)

Jared Kelenic, -0.5 (Cano)

Colin Holderman, -0.8 (Vogelbach)

—-

Endy Rodriguez (Lucchesi), -0.5 in limited time for Pittsburgh

Rhylan Thomas (Stanek) had 10 PAs for Seattle

Kenedy Corona (traded for Jake Marisnick in December 2019) had 4 PAs for Houston.

[metsmarathon]

Jett for me, though it was getting harder to see a pathway for him here. I’m excited for him to get a shot, and Milwaukee seems like just the right spot for him to get a lot of play.

It was cool seeing his bat in the Louisville slugger museum when we went three years ago. I’d been hoping to see him use it for us.

Oh well.

[Edgy MD]

Jett has a cool name. Brandon has a cheesy mustache.

[Centerfield]

It will be interesting to bump this at the end of the year, or even in a few years, and see how this turned out.

I remember years ago listening to some trade rumors about the Marlins. Maybe it was Stanton? Yelich? Anyway, the buzz was they wanted Rafael Montero. Someone online said maybe we could offer Jacob deGrom instead. I had never heard of him, so I agreed. Yes! Send that deGrom kid. I'm on board. Obviously that deal never happened.

When they traded for Cespedes, I was glad they didn't have to give up Steven Matz. Then later thought they would have been better off giving up Matz instead of Fulmer. And then Fulmer fell off the table. So you never know. The Cubs wanted Matt Allen instead of Pete Crow-Armstrong.

My Mets fandom is packed with prospects I would have been upset to give up. Maybe Jett will end up being Dilson Herrera.

[Gwreck]

My Mets fandom is packed with prospects I would have been upset to give up. Maybe Jett will end up being Dilson Herrera.

 

Over the last 40 years, I count only 3 seriously regrettable trades concerning the prospects lost:

1. Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick, 2000. Admittedly with some benefit of hindsight.

2. Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, 2004. No hindsight required, it was dumb at the time.

3. Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javy Baez, 2021.

(I’d guess I’d also consider the July 2002 deal for Reed/Middlebrooks that gave up Jason Bay).

Whether the deals worked (Leiter, Piazza, Delgado, Cespedes, Lindor), didn’t work (Alomar, Cano), or worked but didn’t make a difference re: playoffs (Viola, Santana), the Mets weren’t burned on the prospects lost.

[whippoorwill]

Jett has a cool name. Brandon has a cheesy mustache.

 

Brandon Sproat sounds like he could be on a Green Giant commercial

[Centerfield]

My Mets fandom is packed with prospects I would have been upset to give up. Maybe Jett will end up being Dilson Herrera.

 

Over the last 40 years, I count only 3 seriously regrettable trades concerning the prospects lost:

1. Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick, 2000. Admittedly with some benefit of hindsight.

2. Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, 2004. No hindsight required, it was dumb at the time.

3. Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javy Baez, 2021.

(I’d guess I’d also consider the July 2002 deal for Reed/Middlebrooks that gave up Jason Bay).

Whether the deals worked (Leiter, Piazza, Delgado, Cespedes, Lindor), didn’t work (Alomar, Cano), or worked but didn’t make a difference re: playoffs (Viola, Santana), the Mets weren’t burned on the prospects lost.

 

Good stuff. The only ones I'd add are:

1. Jared Kelenic. This is the one that upset me the most. I know that he didn't end up turning into anything, but Cano had a no-trade clause. There was no need to include our best prospect. And even though he ended up being a bust, I feel BVW grossly underestimated his trade value. If he was going to be moved, he should have warranted a better return. Same situation as Kazmir. If you were going to trade him, you better get max value.

2. Jason Isringhausen. Izzy was not a prospect, but was still very young. Only 26. And not only did Billy Taylor suck, Izzy immediately turned into the reliever we were looking for. I wish he could have collected all of those saves as a Met.

[Benjamin Grimm]

We have remember that the trade with the Mariners for Cano also brought us Edwin Diaz.

[Centerfield]

Of course. But Edwin Diaz alone should have been the price for us taking back the Cano contract. That contract was an albatross, and Seattle had their hands tied. They had to move Cano, and because of the no trade clause, they had to move him where ever he said he wanted to go.

In 2019, Cano had 5 years left on his deal at $24M per year. He was going into his age 36 season. They were in as bad a position as you can be. If the Wilpons weren't (a) broke, and ( selling, they could have stuck to their guns and forced Seattle to include Diaz as part of the trade. And if it didn't work out, walk away.

But they knew they were selling. Which is why they didn't care about taking on the back end of the Cano deal. They knew someone else would be paying that contract. They also knew that Kelenic and Dunn weren't going to be able to help them in a championship before selling. Which is why they didn't care about their potential. Instead, their objectives were to get Cano to NY to try to win a championship before they sold, and save as much money as possible.

Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak going back to Seattle told you everything you need to know. The Wilpons needed to get out from under those contracts. Which is how Kelenic and Dunn ended up in the deal. There are trades when you take on a bad contract. There are trades when you give up your best prospects. Those two things should never happen in the same trade.

[Cowtipper]

Williams probably had more upside long term.

[Gwreck]

I didn’t include Kelenic here because he didn’t wind up “hurting” the Mets by becoming a good major league player elsewhere. I was doing an exercise to evaluate the classic trade scenario, not unlike the Peralta deal: exchanging young, unproven talent for major-league ready players. Sometimes that young, unproven talent becomes pretty good. Most of the time not, and thus there only a few truly regrettable trades: prospect becomes good while Mets get little or no value.

[Gwreck]

As for the Cano/Diaz/Kelenic deal, it was a debacle because (a) if the Wilpons only had limited money to spend, taking on Cano’s contract was idiotic and ( acquiring 35 year old players coming off PED suspensions is so stupid that it makes me question the judgment of anyone involved in the decision.*

 

their objectives were to get Cano to NY to try to win a championship before they sold

 

Just seeing this in print makes me irate all these years later. The fact that the Wilpons could have actually this is baffling, even for them. I realize Van Wegenen has never worked again as a GM and that’s probably the right outcome if he actually believed this.

___

*It’s not exactly analogous — as the PED suspension was much further in the past vis a vis the acquisition, and he was 3 years younger at the time of the acquisition — but the 4 year deal for Marte after 2021 maybe should also have been avoided.

[Edgy MD]

"To the Mets organization, thank you for giving me an opportunity and for allowing me the space to grow - through both failure and success."

"Thank you to the fans for welcoming me with open arms and supporting me through every high and low. To my teammates and everyone in the organization, you will always have a special place in my heart."

— ✈️ Williams

[The Hot Corner]

I will miss Jett. Aside from the fact he was my adoptee, he packed a lot of talent into his small frame. Defensive versatility, very good speed, good plate discipline and surprising power for a short* guy. I think he has a chance to be a solid MLB player.

*As a 5'6" 172 lb. lead off hitter, my high school coach once told a scouting college coach who commented on my stature, "He's short, but I don't consider him small."

[MFS62]

The only thing missing is ,”but he’s got a big heart”.

Later

[Centerfield]

I didn’t include Kelenic here because he didn’t wind up “hurting” the Mets by becoming a good major league player elsewhere. I was doing an exercise to evaluate the classic trade scenario, not unlike the Peralta deal: exchanging young, unproven talent for major-league ready players. Sometimes that young, unproven talent becomes pretty good. Most of the time not, and thus there only a few truly regrettable trades: prospect becomes good while Mets get little or no value.

 

It occurs to me. Not only did Mets prospects not work out for busts, they didn't work out for other teams once traded away.

I suspect that since our player development has improved, we'll start to regret letting some of these guys go.

[Gwreck]

Does having better farm/development system make it more likely that top-ranked prospects turn out to be good players? Not sure. I get that it is more likely to have a higher quantity of top ranked prospects.

It’s not like the Mets were the only ones who thought Alex Escobar or Delois Guerra were top prospects — they had top 50 overall rankings from Baseball America. They just didn’t turn out to be good MLB players.

This is probably a research question for someone with more time than me but tracing prior prospect rankings to some major league stat (say, WAR) would be fascinating: what is the median WAR for a #10 prospect? Do some systems turn out prospects that more frequently turn into good players? Etc.

[Cowtipper]

To expand on my previous post, Sproat is going on 26 years old and, though he'd only been in the minors two years, he'd yet to have a dominant season professionally. By comparison, Tong, who's been in the league three years, had an otherworldly 2025 and McLean, himself three years in, also had an excellent 2025. Though deGrom was also 26 when he got going, Sproat probably would've been not much better than a #3 starter. Williams had a higher draft pedigree, was rated a top prospect on the Baseball America list three times, and he's constantly been playing at levels way above his age, yet he's still doing pretty well. He had speed, power and can post a good OBP. His ceiling was much higher.

[Cowtipper]

My Mets fandom is packed with prospects I would have been upset to give up. Maybe Jett will end up being Dilson Herrera.

 

Over the last 40 years, I count only 3 seriously regrettable trades concerning the prospects lost:

1. Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick, 2000. Admittedly with some benefit of hindsight.

2. Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, 2004. No hindsight required, it was dumb at the time.

3. Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javy Baez, 2021.

(I’d guess I’d also consider the July 2002 deal for Reed/Middlebrooks that gave up Jason Bay).

Whether the deals worked (Leiter, Piazza, Delgado, Cespedes, Lindor), didn’t work (Alomar, Cano), or worked but didn’t make a difference re: playoffs (Viola, Santana), the Mets weren’t burned on the prospects lost.

We gave up Matt Lindstrom for Jason Vargas (first edition) and that deal kinda sucked. We also traded Nelson Cruz for Jorge Velandia. And we gave up Jose Bautista (and Ty Wigginton!) for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. Though that's a stretch because we had Jose Bautista for about an hour.

[Benjamin Grimm]

We can go all the way back to Amos Otis if we like.

[MFS62]

We can go all the way back to Amos Otis if we like.

Or that hard throwing kid pitcher we traded to the Angels for a washed up infielder.

Later

[ashie62]

Sproat has been in MLB games and proven effective

Jett has been largely unavailable four years after being drafted

This is even a question?

[Benjamin Grimm]

If we were to look at the prospects that the Mets have acquired in trades, there's a decent sized list of successes.

Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez. John Stearns. Steve Henderson. David Cone. Travis d'Arnaud. Noah Syndergaard. Maybe more, but these are the ones that I can think of with little effort.

[Edgy MD]

Obviously, the lion's share of d'Arnaud's success came as an ex-Met.

I would also offer Jesse Orosco, Walt Terrell, and Jeff Kent, off the top of my noggin.

Rico Brogna is also a good fit. Of course, all of them had long, successful post-Met careers, with only Jesse being ridden by the Mets through his best period.

Patience, Mets. Patience.

[Frayed Knot]

Sproat has been in MLB games and proven effective

Jett has been largely unavailable four years after being drafted

This is even a question?

 

Williams played just a handful of games in Rookie ball in 2022, but that's nothing unusual for a June draftee right out of HS

He missed significant time in 2024 but played mostly full seasons in '23 & '25 and 284 minor league games in three years is

not quite "largely unavailable". And whenever he has played it's been enough to earn him top-50 prospect status.

So it's fine if Sproat is your choice but, yes, it is a legit question.

Sproat had two minor league seasons totaling 50 games followed by four ML starts so is closer to ready. But he also came out

of the college ranks and is three years older so those are factors too.