It’s official – the Mets are sellers.
The club dealt its closer David Robertson to the division-rival Marlins in exchange for two minor leaguers late Thursday night. Coming to the Mets are 2B Marco Vargas and C Ronald Hernandez, with both of those players in short-season ball in the FCL with the Marlins prior to the trade.
FanGraphs had Vargas as the Marlins’ ninth-best prospect, praising him for his bat-to-ball skills. The same publication had Hernandez as the Marlins’ 24th-best prospect, saying he’s a “solid long-term prospect at a premium position.” The 18-year-old Vargas is slashing .283/.457/.442 in 162 PA while the 19-year-old Hernandez has a .298/.464/.452 line in 138 PA.
MLB.com listed Vargas as the Marlins’ #18 prospect and Hernandez at #21.
It’s sad to see Robertson go, both because of his outstanding production this year, in addition to the official waving of the white flag. Still, this seems like a very solid return. And not that it matters a ton but supposedly this is without the Mets paying any of the remainder of Robertson’s contract this season.
He’s pretty much been the rock of the bullpen and will be missed. And so it really begins. Let’s hope that we pick up some good prospects to continue to build,the farm system. We will be active In the free agent market and at the winter meetings. So who will be next?
I hope Robertson continues his great season. He really was superb for us.
Initial response, admitting I know nothing about these kids, is that I don’t like the deal. Mets are desperate for higher level quality pitching. If market didn’t yield that type of player, I would have kept him…too early to pull trigger for 19 year olds.
While I would have preferred one top10 Marlins pitching prospect, this is not a bad haul for a two-month rental.
Marco Vargas could be our future (2027?) 2Bman. He’s 18 and has decent LH power (15 HR or so in the bigs?) and has great patience at the plate. He has decent speed and is a good fielder at 2B so far.
Ronald Hernandez is 19 and could be a better hitting backup C than Nieto around 2026.
Let’s see what Eppler gets for Canha, Pham, Vogelbach, Narvaez, and/or Ottavino. Will anyone take Carrasco?
According to FG, four of the Marlins’ top five prospects were SP. You weren’t getting a team’s top 5 prospect for a rental in Robertson. Their next SP was #15 but that guy is almost 26. Their next SP was ranked #17. Instead they got their #8 prospect plus a lottery ticket. And the #8 prospect is almost two years younger than #17
I do think Eppler did well. I was thinking of Jacob Miller (#7 on the MLB list). But now I see he’s #17 on Fangraphs. He’s 19 (20 in August), and rated a 50 overall on the MLB site. FV of 40 on Fangraphs though.
It was inevitable. In the last week the Mets were just treading water.
The Dodgers were rumored to be in play but I guess the division rival Marlins beat them with prospects. The two prospects are very young and so far successful. It will bulk up their minor leagues.
In the Wilpon Era the Mets relied on prospects to excel and save the Wilpon’s money. In the Cohen era, the Mets don’t rely on prospects. No prospects broke the opening day roster this year. Prospects get promoted when there is a need. Even the Alvarez promotion was predicated by injury.
When the minor leagues are sufficient then in the future the Mets could trade prospects for established Major Leaguers. Hopefully they’ll be buyers in the future trade deadlines and have sufficient Minor Leaguers to entice other teams. In future off-season trades they will have Minor Leaguers to deal for a established major leaguer. The Cohen Era doesn’t like rookies “to learn on his dime”. He wants established players playing in a championship roster… and he can afford it.
Robertson is a good relief pitcher and I think he will make the Marlins better.
I’d say Brett Baty is learning on Cohen’s dime
I dont think Cohen is as rigid as saying no rookies learning in the big leagues. As Brian points out, thats exactly what Baty and Alvarez are doing, albeit at very different paces. We now see Vientos and hopefully Mauricio soon. This team needs to get younger, and see if its top prospects can be part of the equation. Alvarez for sure is. Baty is a maybe, and Vientos+Mauricio are “let’s see”. I really dont see the team as a perpetual winner like the Dodgers, or our more immediate concern, the Braves. The team also needs to accept that this is no longer a division thats between the Mets and Braves. Going about building a franchise like the Wilpon’s did will not be successful: that is plain to see. A solid franchise from international scouting to Queens will simply not be something you can buy at Home Depot. Hopefully Cohen can build respectable teams all while really making the entire team solid.
Robertson will be missed. Was a good soldier for the Mets.
As for the return, I took a look at some mets history and found that only scraps are dealt during deadline deals.
From 2008 to 2019, I found that the Mets traded for or traded away 23 major leaguers for 32 minor league “prospects”.
Of those 32 only 4 have made any decent size impact on the major leagues:
1. Wheeler
2. Fulmer
3. Luis Cessa
4. Drew smith
So that’s basically a 90% junk rate on these prospects, and on average 6 major league players needed to find 1 diamond in the rough. Don’t get your hopes up folks.
Excellent point. Agree 100%. Nothing against the 2 kids, and we may love 1 or both later this decade (should I make it that far), but we’ve seen this movie many times before. Eppler’s job is to get the Wheeler/Fulmer(that Mets paid for Cespedes), at the risk of no deal. Worst case is you keep Robertson for season in case they tear it up in August, with an inside track to extend him. He clearly liked it here didn’t want to move with family as his issue…
TDA
Noah Syndergaard
Edit: Never mind – I see now where you said deadline deals
Edit #2 – If you still have the breakdown of deadline deals for the Mets in this time period – please post here or email to me if that’s easier. Thanks!
Looks like i missed one and you can add John Gant to the made-it list.
09:
Wagner for Chris Carter & Eddie Lora
11:
K-rod for Danny Herrera & Adrian Rosario
Beltran for Wheeler
13:
Cowgill for Kyle Johnson
Buck & Byrd for Dilson & Vic Black
15:
John Gant & Robert Whalen for Kelly Johnson & Uribe
Casey Meisner for Tyler Clipppard
Luis Cessa & Fulmer for Cespedes
Darwin Frias for Oh no (O’flarherty)
Miller Diaz & Matt Koch for Addison Reed
16:
Max Wotell & Dilson for Jay Bruce
Erik Manoah for Fernando Salas
17: The Great selloff, a year similar to 2023 yielded almost nothing
Duda for Drew Smith
Ricardo Cespedes & Merandy Gonzalez for AJ Ramos
Addison Reed for Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan, and Stephen Nogosek
Jay Bruce for Ryder Ryan
Neil Walker for Eric hanhold
Granderson for Jacob Rhame
18:
Familia for Will Toffey and Bobby Wahl
Asdrubral Cabrera for Franklyn Kilome
19:
Simeon Woods Richardson & Anthony Kay for Marcus Stroman
Jason Vargas for Austin Bossart
Thank you for doing the work on this!
Personally, I like the deal. As noted, it seems like a decent return.
The inevitable has arrived. Its been clear for some time, perhaps cast the second that Diaz was injured in the wretched WBC (dont get me started on what a total waste of time the WBC is) that this team was an aging, franken-bolted, squad hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. Sure, the outcome would look different if players played to their cards, but lets face it, the cards also need to show that when one person cant hit the whole team gets the infection.
The return for 2 midling prospects is about what ytou get for a guy like Robertson, who is a 2-month rental at the sunset of his career. He’s been great for the Mets, beyond what most really expected is my guess, but that does not translate to trading for Chapman, or some other lights out closer in their prime, for example. As far as the return goes, sure few people make it all the way to the bigs, but the team needs to restock the farm at all levels and this helps towards that. I fully expect similar deals for Pham and Canha, and even less for the likes of vogelbach, ottovino, and narvaez. The fact is getting anything in return beats getting nothing for those on expiring contracts, and replaces those under more control with either better returns or the team wake up call that what we have witnessed is unacceptable. I think Verlander could get something pretty good in return if Cohen eats some of next year. I read the Rangers are already seeing if hes an option after the deGrom predictable disaster.
Time to get younger, faster, and more consistent. We can now put out Baty Vientos and Mauricio (please) on a daily basis to get them the needed ABs to see of they have the skills under the bright lights, with no standings expectations.
Chris, total agreement on the WBC, but MLB doesn’t care how we feel about it. It is completely for the purpose of marketing internationally. We don’t want it, but MLB sees $$$.
As for the return, I’d rather a kid in DSL that has a chance than a Bobby Wahl/Will Toffey combination that was expected to be a dud right at the time of the trade.
Only time will tell if these prospects pan out. Given their youth, the upside is enormous but they both could fade away like the rest of the list that Name assembled. (Thank you for that, Name. That was an uber-sobering journey down memory lane. I recall being excited about a number of those prospects, none of whom really had much impact.)
I’ve zero issues trading Robertson but I do wonder why we pulled the trigger well in advance of the deadline. The conventional wisdom is that Robertson was the best RP available and it sure seems like holding out til later would have enhanced our haul. Perhaps our scouting department really loves Vargas and Miami was threatening to send him elsewhere.
As a sanity check I took a gander at some of the Marlin fan sites and they are pretty thrilled to get Robertson and are also confident that there will be more deals coming. FWIW, I did not see much remorse for the loss of these two prospects.
Yes, Brett Baty you can say is learning on Cohen’s dime now but that wasn’t Cohen’s plan. He signed Correa first. Then he gave Escobar a chance after Correa fell through. Escobar had a 402 OPS on April 17th when Baty was promote. Escobar for almost 5 months in 2022 was not good and the Mets weren’t going to gives Escobar that much rope in 2023. There was a “need” and Baty was promoted. Baty got fast start, peaking at an 0PS of 938 on May 1st and an OPS above 700 until June 1st. Baty look good for a while so you could tolerate his learning progression but it wasn’t initial Cohen’s plan. Because of how the season progress Baty will have two months to prove himself.
The Mets aren’t going to get to the playoffs this year. These are terminating contracts in eight weeks. They will drift off after the season, so why not get something for them.