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Two Prized Free Agents May Leave Mets and Phillies Fan Bases Unfulfilled

When the New York Mets got Marcus Stroman in a trade. It was smart, he’s from Long Island and he’s always wanted to pitch for the Mets. The results were “ok”. He was 4-2 in 11 starts with a 3.77 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings. His WHIP was high at 1.47 and there’s a great possibility that he may never pitch another game in Citi Field even though he’d love to stay. His service time has been advanced, as all major leaguers who are under contract have been, yet if there’s no season, he is a free agent and the Mets gave up Anthony Kay as the big piece in that deal. Kay is 25, had 15 strikeouts in 14 innings as a rookie with Toronto last season. This season his fastball looked even better this spring. There was no way to know the pandemic was going to happen but the Mets loss in this deal looks bad and there’s another player in that deal as well. Is this karma paying the Mets a visit for the Travis d’Arnaud deal?

The Phillies two main trade chips in the J.T. Realmuto deal were Sixto Sanchez, a pitcher who was 8-4, with a 2.88 ERA in AA with 97 strikeouts in 103 innings and catcher Jorge Alfaro who had a career-best season in Miami with 18 homers, 57 RBI and a .425 slugging percentage. Realmuto was the best catcher in baseball last year with 25 home runs, 83 RBI, 92 runs scored and .493 slugging percentage in his one season with the club. The trade was worth it if they got him re-signed to a contract but so far that hasn’t happened, and rumor has it the Mets would like to sign him in free agency if he gets there. Wilson Ramos may then be a part-time catcher, part-time DH, which still sickens me to think about that change occurring forever.

Both teams hesitated in the offseason and decided to roll the dice this season in hopes of getting these players locked up before they hit the market. So far with both failing at this, the cost is escalating as each season rolls by.

If the season is lost, and it could be, both fan bases won’t be happy about these trades after they get over the loss of not having a season, that would be greater for sure. Neither team is so deep that they won’t feel the loss. Fans should be mad because there was a window to lock them up this winter, before the pandemic, and they didn’t.

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Russ_Cohen
I'm the author of 10 books. If you're looking for autographed copies just go to my Twitter @Sportsology and DM me.

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