Tyler Kepner, New York Times: “By trading Dickey to the Toronto Blue Jays, pending the negotiation of a contract extension, the Mets essentially told their fans that they do not expect to contend for the next three years. The Mets have already staggered through four consecutive losing seasons, three shy of the franchise record. Now the wait to be relevant drags on.”

He does have a point, when you keep trading for prospects only, you basically are stalling and hoping. I don't think this trade was bad but too think this is going to solve the losing, I don't see it. This team does not have a QUALITY MAJOR LEAGUE OUTFIELDER on the roster or even in the system. How does this get fixed ? Alot of questions need to be answered for this team, I have been a fan since '69 and it starting to look like the mid-70's all over again.

How is this an interesting take? If we had Dickey, we'd still only win 75 games.

We have to hope they either spend some money or the arms develop and we can trade for position players.

The fact that they do not have a 'quality major league outfielder' is WHY they traded Dickey. He was wasted on this team. The Mets have more holes than just OF. They need a good Catcher (if it works out, this trade fixed that for years to come), good BP, starting pitching depth (another check from this trade, albeit not for two years), and yes OF. No one trade or FA signing would fix this team. This was a necessary move, and a good step back to relevancy.

" This team does not have a QUALITY MAJOR LEAGUE OUTFIELDER on the roster or even in the system. How does this get fixed ?"



Is the offseason over yet?? Not possible more trades to be done??

LOL as soon as I read this on metsblog, I just knew somebody was going to post it on the messageboard to troll up ons. Too predictable anymore.

I don't think that's an interesting take at all. It's one that any whiner on this board could have served up. Everyone knew the mets had to rebuild and were a couple of years away. This makes the potential future SO much brighter. Anyone focused on 2013, especially a professional writer, is just clueless

"He does have a point, when you keep trading for prospects only, you basically are stalling and hoping."
It's called rebuilding for the future and not doing trades for the sake of making trades.

The Mets and SA are in a tough position whether fans up here want to see or not. When a team
has this many holes, trades become hazardous since you can't create any new holes.

Dickey's 38. He still has, I'm sure, at least 2 or 3 good years left. Had they kept him and signed him to a similar contract, that would be even less $$$ to spend.

So if we kept him, as far as I'm concerned, that would have sent the same message.

And yes - when you get prospects, you're hoping. And when you sign a big name player to a large contract, you do some hoping too.

1. Stock up on prospects.
2. Down a road a year or two, you find out which ones will fill which spots on the roster.
3. Fill remaining holes with FA's or trade players from an area where you have "excess".

Only time will tell, they are just prospects.

I don't see that as being the case.

Starting 2013, the roster will have a good mix of vets and extremely talented young players (d'Arnaud, Wheeler, Harvey). By 2014, there should be enough money to add solid free agents.

By 2014-2015, the Mets lower-level top prospects should have advanced to the point of being close to ML-ready to either help the Mets or to be used as trade chips.

That is a classic "im not a real fan" gripe. The two players the Mets got that are prospects, are better than every player the Mets have in the minors, except for Wheeler, who interestingly enough came via trade in similar fashion - old player who wasnt going to help the Mets anymore, but could help someone else. They also slightly upgraded at catcher with Buck over Thole, and will get someone else. This is a good deal just for the prospects themselves. If they dont pan out, they dont pan out. There is no guarantee Dickey would repeat last year anyway. That is true for every player in the league. Past success does not mean future success, but it is an indicator of possibility.

Here's another interesting take: BS! lol IMO, this team is starting to build the right way. Pitching is always the key. You might have a major problem in a few years deciding who really is the #1 starter on this team: Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Syndergaard, Fullmer, Mejia, Familia, Tapia, etc.

We weren't going to be relevant for a few years WITH Dickey. Now, relevance might be a small step closer.