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Grading The Deal: Mets Cut Ties With Lasto

Authored by Brandon Contes - 2nd December, 2007 - 12:46 pm

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Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that Lastings Milledge was one of the top prospects in baseball?

Didn’t the Mets have serious discussions about trading Milledge to Boston for Manny Ramirez?

How did this first round draft pick, a five-tool player with so much potential, turn into a 31-year-old catcher who batted .235 last year and a 29-year-old outfielder who had his best season in the pros by batting .272 with 15 homers and 70 RBIs?

If all the Mets could have received in return for Milledge was catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church, then the Mets simply should have said thanks, but no thanks.

After making the mistake of not re-signing Paul Lo Duca, the Mets wisely avoided signing Yorvit Torrealba and made a very nice trade of Guillermo Mota for Johnny Estrada.

Apparently, the Mets never had any intention of keeping Estrada on their roster for too long and now plan to enter the season with Brian Schneider as their starting catcher.

Schneider is a nice defensive catcher, but he provides little to no offense. The Mets would have been better off using Estrada as their everyday catcher.

At age 29, we pretty much know what Ryan Church is. He is a very good fourth outfielder. He is not getting any better; he can provide numbers similar to those that he provided this year.

However, it’s safe to say that if given the full year to play, Milledge could have easily put up comparable numbers to those of Church. Right now, Church is a better defensive player than Milledge, but let’s not forget that Milledge is a centerfielder who was just learning to play the corner outfield positions.

Milledge’s biggest issue on defense was taking poor angles to get to the ball, and that is simply because he has not had the chance to adjust to the corner outfield positions yet. The bottom line is that Milledge is seven years younger and has much more potential than Church.

Milledge plays with an abundance of excitement and energy; he can be cocky at times, but he will do very well for the Nationals and flourish under Manager Manny Acta. Over the next couple of seasons Milledge can become the face of the Washington franchise.

The Mets said that no team really wanted Milledge, and this was the best deal that they could get for him. That still does not make it a good trade. Lastings Milledge has the tools to become an excellent player, much better than Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. The Mets could have made this trade a month from now. There was no reason to rush into trading Milledge especially considering whom they got in return.

Grade for Mets: D

Grade for Nationals B+

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