Kelenic and Dunn were the real pieces going back anyway so I'm not sure Seattle will care too much.

Two weeks in:

Relic Cano (WAR -0.3)
AB 60, H 11, HR 2, R 6, RBI 6, BA .183, OBP .234, SLG .317, OPS .551, OPS+ 49

Edwin Diaz (WAR 0.3)
ERA 1.59, G 7, SV 5, IP 5.2, SO 10, WHIP 1.235

Jay Bruce (WAR 0.2)
AB 59, H 10, HR 7, R 12, RBI 13, BA .169, OBP .265, SLG .559, OPS .824, OPS+ 122

Anthony Swarzak (WAR 0.4)
ERA 0.00, G 5, SV 2, IP 4.1, SO 6, WHIP 0.692

Justin Dunn (AAA)
ERA 3.12, G 2, GS 2, IP 8.2, H 9, R 4, ER 3, HR 0, BB 2, K 13, WHIP 1.269

Jarred Kelenic (A)
AB 37, H 8, HR 1, R 4, RBI 3, BB 8, K 12, BA .216, OBP .370, SLG .351, OPS .721

Gerson Bautista (Injured)

The trade was a poor use of money and prospect resources

Machado cost about 10 more per than Cano

Getting Machado - you could then pass on Lowrie (who cost 10 per)

If you were determined to trade a Kelenic/Dunn package - do it in a separate deal for Diaz or for some other closer where its a straight up deal

Having said that, I expect Cano to be good this year. I expect him to turn it around and put up some big numbers.

But its not going to be enough to make up for what I expect to be 2-3 bad years at the end of the contract which will suck up payroll for a team that has a limited budget anyway

I get it, but you then need to lock into Machado for ten years. Not saying it was the BEST use of resources, but I also don't think it was a BAD use of resources.

5 IP and 60 PAs is certainly all I need to see. Fire Brodey ASAP please.

Looking forward to this narrative on a constant loop all year.

It was a bad use of resources. I generally don’t like paying old players lots of money for a long term. It doesn’t usually work out. But if I am paying an older player, they had better be lifelong Mets or they better be young when they sign and the backend is looked at like a sunk cost anyway. I mean really. This is crazy. They traded for an old as hell 2B coming off PEDs getting paid 25M until he’s 42. And don’t give me the contracts of Bruce and Swarzak. The Mets don’t do accounting like that. Robinson cano gets paid 25, he counts for 25 against the payroll, and we got years to go.

You wanna trade for a reliever? Fine. Give up two prospects. Fine. I don’t agree with it. Relievers are too volatile, but that’s ok. Diaz is quality and young and even though he plays like 2% of the season, whatever. Blow up the farm and get him. But Cano. Cmon. Really. Come the eff on.

well for this year - the narrative should favor the people who loved this trade

its not going to get better after this year

Yeah, it is Bruce and Swarz plus $20M. That's a huge offset... just about half the amount contractually due to Cano. RC will still have to earn the 5/$63M net he's going to get from the Mets, which is about 8 war over the 5 seasons..? I'm not too concerned about that.

The more risky part to the deal is whether Dunn/Kelenic blow up. I may be in the minority, but I dont think the ceiling is that high for either. And since we really needed Diaz pretty badly, we'd have been backed into a corner to sign Kimbrel to a worse deal instead IMO... at the time, I could see that having been maybe 4/72M (plus the loss of the pick). And Jay Bruce would still be in the pix here.

All in all, I think it was a fair roll of the dice.

There's also the not-insignificant possibility that when we look back at this trade, it evokes almost no emotional response.

Not the level of Seaver and Staub angst for sure.

When (not if) Cano starts to warm up, the offense will be pretty solid.

Pretty sure I'm going to get real emotional when I look back and we miss out on Jay Bruce's 80 homer season.