After a weekend of waiting, the big trade between the Mets and Mariners is a done deal. That deal: Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz and cash to the Mets; Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners. There will be a press conference tomorrow morning at 11AM.
The amount of money changing hands has not been announced. Cano, of course, is owed $120 million over the next five years, and Seattle will pick up a good chunk of that. Seattle will also take on Bruce and Swarzak’s contracts. Bruce makes $13 million in 2019 and another $13 million in 2020. Swarzak will make $8 million in 2018.
As for the prospects:
- Kelenic was drafted in the first round, sixth overall, by the Mets in the 2018 draft. In 56 games for the Gulf Coast League Mets and Kingsport Mets, he hit .286/.371/.468 with six home runs and 42 RBI. Baseball America rated him the fourth-best prospect in the Mets organization. Some reports are saying he’s a future star, and that may be, but he’s still only 19 and is a long, long ways away from making any sort of major league impact.
- Dunn, 23, was the Mets’ first round pick in 2016 and, according to Baseball America, he’s the fifth-best prospect in the organization. Dunn began the year in High-A St. Lucie and went 2-3 with a 2.36 ERA before a promotion to Double-A where he started 15 games, going 6-5 and posting an ERA of 4.22. He struck out more than ten guys per nine at both stops.
- Bautista actually had a cup of coffee in the bigs this past season, appearing in five games and allowing six runs over four and a third. Originally a product of the Red Sox system, he has a 3.12 ERA over five minor league seasons, primarily as a reliever. He strikes out a lot of guys. He gives up too many hits. Based on his statline, he seems like a project, but all projects are fun on some level.
Both teams did something they wanted to do. The Mets got better, adding a still productive Cano and arguably baseball’s best reliever in 2018 in Diaz. The Mariners re-stocked their farm system with three prospects with upside and shed at least some of Cano’s salary.
As I said on Friday, that’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of moving money and because of that it’s almost folly to say, definitively, who “wins” this deal. For what it’s worth, both Mets fans and Mariners fans think their team got the worse end of it, which probably means it was a pretty fair deal all things considered.