The Mets traded Wagner today to the Red Sox for two players to be named later and as part of the trade, the Red Sox agreed to not activate Wagner's option for next season but retain the right to offer arbitration for two first round picks.
Before we even can get to how this impacts the Mets next season and for future seasons, lets first reflect on how wild the last two days have been. The Red Sox and Mets have wanted to make the deal and all they were waiting for was Wagner to waive his no trade clause which he didn't want for a variety of reasons including (first) a contemplation of retirement due to the stress that baseball puts on his family and (then) because he wanted to be healthy next season and didn't want to pitch in high stress situations.
All of a sudden, he waives his no trade clause going back to his original statement days ago that it would be nice to pitch for a winner.
This is surprising because out of all of the players on the Mets roster, I never expected Wagner to be the flip flopper because he always seemed to be a voice of reason and consistency.
Anyway the reason I'm worried is I want to make sure we at least got prospects that are decent for Wagner. Chances are that Wagner would not have taken arbritation from the Mets next year meaning the Mets would get two additional first round picks which would be ncie considering we had none in this last draft. Therefore we could have just basically done a salary dump. If these guys are decent though, then this is a good move. However, what will really determine how effective this move is is what the Mets do with the rest of the offseason. This salary dump is worthless unless the Mets do another one (or two). This is mainly directed at Delgado. I'm pretty sure the Mets have an option for next season and they should not activate it. Let him walk and keep Murphy at first to really free up some money. (Now offering arb is tricky because its very possible Delgado will take it but this is a topic of coversation for another post).
