After trade rumors that have lasted for years, the Cleveland Indians have traded their star shortstop Francisco Lindor to the New York Mets. Lindor has been one of the most popular players in Major League Baseball since he first arrived in the league, with countless highlight plays on defense and his signature smile. He is the latest victim of Cleveland’s financial issues, as Lindor will soon be owed lots of money when he becomes a free agent after the 2021 season. Cleveland also parted ways with fellow fan favorite, pitcher Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco has been quite underrated in his career and is best known for beating chronic myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening blood disorder, to come back and pitch in the majors at his former level of performance. Carrasco’s contract is a very team-friendly deal for most teams in the league, but Cleveland’s compulsive need to shed salary meant Carrasco had to go.
Coming back to Cleveland in return is a rather disappointing package compared to what experts speculated the return to be. Shortstops Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, pitcher Josh Wolf, and outfielder Isaiah Greene. Rosario is a former top prospect who has never quite found his way during his 4 years in the big leagues. Gimenez made his MLB debut for the Mets in 2020, and was a slightly above average hitter in 49 games. He seems to be the key piece of the deal here, but his projections don’t show him to be a star player by any means. Josh Wolf is a 19 year old RHP who the Mets drafted in the 2nd round of the 2019 Amateur Draft. He is still is very young, but MLB.com projects him to be an average pitcher with above average stuff. He was the Mets #9 ranked prospect. The final player of the deal is Isaiah Greene. There is still a bit of mystery around Greene. He has yet to play pro ball, as he was drafted in the 2nd compensation round of the 2020 Amateur Draft. He, like Wolf, is also very young having just been drafted out of high school and he was ranked the #10 prospect in the Mets system.
All in all, it looks like the Mets completely fleeced Cleveland. Even though as of now, they will only have 1 season of Lindor, the prospects they gave up are not projected to be a superstar like Lindor has shown flashes of becoming. This to me resembles the Dodgers acquisition of Mookie Betts and David Price, granted Mookie is a far superior player to Lindor. Star player on final year of contract and pitcher with contract the team wants to get rid of. The main difference is that the Red Sox got a proven big leaguer in Alex Verdugo, and Cleveland did not. Unless one of the former Mets prospects beats his prospect projections, the Mets made an excellent move.
