U.S. media puzzled Blue Jays couldn’t get more for Marcus Stroman in trade with New York Mets - Toronto Star

Pundits in New York and across the U.S. were generally shocked by the Marcus Stroman trade. They weren’t surprised that the former Blue Jays ace landed in the Big Apple — except they thought they’d be seeing Stroman in Yankees pinstripes. The Mets sent two pitching prospects — Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson — to Toronto in the deal. Here’s a sample of the media reaction from across the U.S.:

Mets get Marcus Stroman: Five things to know

(Kay) has a number of solid-average offerings, which could permit him to turn into a No. 3 or 4 starter, depending on how his stuff plays against big-league hitters. . . . (Woods-Richardson) has enjoyed a lot of helium this season thanks to his fastball-curveball combination, but he’ll need to continue to improve his changeup and command to develop into a mid-rotation starter. . . Kay was ranked the Mets’ No. 4 prospect by MLB.com, while Woods-Richardson checked in at No. 6. The Mets are not considered to have a good farm system by most talent evaluators. — CBS Sports

Mets now have Stroman. Unfortunately, they still don’t have a plan.

If a contender had given up an equivalent package for someone like Blue Jays closer Ken Giles, that would’ve been understandable, but it’s genuinely puzzling that the Blue Jays couldn’t get more for Stroman. With so many teams in need of starting pitching, and such a long (and constantly varying) list of pitchers available for trade, it was hard to pin down what it would cost to trade for a pitcher like Stroman. Now we know: not that much. In a vacuum, this is a good piece of business for the Mets. — The Ringer

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Sorting through confusion of Mets’ Marcus Stroman trade

The Mets finished Sunday in fourth place, six games out of a wild card, yet desperate to believe they were in it and to convince their fan base to keep coming to games. So the Mets made a win-now, win-later — try to win the press conference — move . . . The optimist sees the Mets trading solid, but not overwhelming prospects . . . But let’s say there was pessimism galore in the industry, with other organizations confused at what the Mets did, in part because Stroman is second in the majors among qualified starters in inducing grounders while the Mets have statistically the worst infield defense. — New York Post

Surprising deal actually makes sense

Instead, Stroman was shipped to the New York Mets for a pair of minor-league pitchers, neither of whom are among the consensus top 100 overall prospects. So let’s see if we can figure out exactly what is going on here. First of all, the Mets — despite constant ridicule from their many critics — actually made a good baseball trade. . . . Another stealthy reason the Mets can benefit by acquiring Stroman: It takes one of the big-name starters off the market – and, in turn, makes those remaining more valuable. If they really want to move (Noah) Syndergaard, (Zach) Wheeler or (Jason) Vargas, they’ve just reduced the number of options for the other teams looking to acquire starting pitchers. — USA Today

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Read the Toronto Star’s coverage of the Stroman trade:

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MLB fans roasted the Mets over their trade

Given Stroman’s contract situation (he’s on a one-year deal, facing potential arbitration), the Mets essentially dished out two promising arms for a talented pitcher to help them in a playoff race that they’re not realistically a part of. So, yeah, MLB fans weren’t kind to the Mets after this move. — USA Today

Mets turn the tables, trade for Toronto starter Marcus Stroman

The long-term concern with this deal is it continues a troubling trend in which the Mets are willing to trade away young prospects at a time when most of the industry is holding onto young players. They also are not reaping the benefits of these win-now trades with their fourth-place standing in the NL East. It’s one thing to go all-in and deplete a farm system if a team can win, like the Boston Red Sox did last year. It’s another to gut the system, and be an also-ran like the Mets will likely be this year. Teams eventually have to pay the bill for those decisions. — Yahoo Sports

Mets, riding high off sweep, trade for Marcus Stroman

But the chances of Stroman’s landing in the Bronx collapsed when the Blue Jays reportedly asked for the right-hander Deivi Garcia, who is the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect and is currently at Class AAA. That allowed the Mets to swoop in Sunday after they had completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field with an 8-7 win. — New York Times

What’s next after the Mets shook up the trade deadline?

Imagine being Marcus Stroman right now. He had to be 100 percent certain that he was headed to the Yankees or Astros as the missing piece for a World Series favorite.

Surprise, Marcus! Welcome to the New York Mets, a team that is decidedly not a World Series favorite, with a 50-55 record and odds of making the playoffs at 9.6%, according to FanGraphs. The Mets' chances of winning the World Series? A microscopic 0.3%. — ESPN

Roundtable reaction — Mets are ‘cornering the market on pitching,’ but to what end?

So, maybe the idea is this: Get Stroman in place as a buffer against the potential losses of the team’s Nos. 2 and 3 starters, Syndergaard and Wheeler, the latter of whom will either be traded or lost to free agency. Or maybe the Mets are simply loading up to attack next season with a front three of Jacob deGrom, Syndergaard and Stroman. I can’t figure it out. No one in baseball can. The question remains: Which head-spinning move will (Mets GM Brodie) Van Wagenen make next? — Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic

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July 29, 2019 at 08:23PM