On July 31st of last year, minutes before the 4 p.m ET trade deadline, Sandy Alderson made the splash Mets fans have been waiting for. The Mets had acquired All-Star Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for two Mets prospects, right-handers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa.
The Cespedes deal, a huge improvement from the rumored one involving Carlos Gomez earlier in the week, seemed almost too good to be true. And it was, sort of. Cespedes was going to be a free agent at the end of the season and the Mets had no plans of re-signing him. He was considered a rental, a guy to come into the line up and provide a short-term boost to the leagues worst offense at the time.
In 57 games as a Met, Cespedes hit .287, with 17 HR’s and 44 RBI’s. He catapulted the leagues worst ranked offense to one of the leagues best. They went on to not only make the playoffs, but stage an impressive run to the fall classic, where they fell to the Royals in 5 games.
The name Michael Fulmer was relatively unknown to Mets fans before the trade. Fulmer was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and attended Deer Creek High School in Edmond. As a senior he went 10-2 with a 0.72 ERA and 127 strikeouts. He also hit .436 with 6 homers. Fulmer forwent college and was drafted by the Mets in the first round of the 2011 MLB amateur draft.
ESPN baseball writer Keith Law had this to say about young righty back in 2011, “Fulmer’s a late riser in this draft, a beneficiary of all the national scouts who’ve headed into Oklahoma this year to see Dylan Bundy and Archie Bradley and have stuck around for a day or two to make the trip worthwhile. Fulmer has one of the best breaking balls in the draft to go with a 91-94 mph fastball. The curveball runs from 76 into the low 80s and has tight rotation with a sharp downward break. There’s clear effort in his delivery, as he gets his front leg down early but doesn’t get his weight on it and generates arm speed from his upper half. However, the present fastball and breaking ball are both above-average and he could probably move through the lower levels of a system fairly quickly.”
In 2012, Fulmer started 21 games for single-A Savannah. He went 7-6 with a 2.74 ERA and 101 strikeouts through 108 innings. A torn meniscus and bicep tendinitis ended his 2013 season early and halted his progression. This resulted in a poor 2014 season where he went a combined 6-11 with a 4.39 ERA. Fulmer started this past year at double-A Binghamton where he was vaulted into top prospect level. He boasted a 6-2 record with a 1.88 ERA in 15 starts at Binghamton.
Sandy Alderson had a decision to make, keep budding prospect Michael Fulmer for the future or trade him for a piece that will help the team immediately. He ultimately decided to stray from ‘rebuild mode’ and move into ‘win now’ mode in acquiring Cespedes. The fact of the matter was, the Mets had no place for the young righty. Guys like Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Zach Wheeler were stars already and left no room in the talented rotation for another young pitcher. Alderson simply used his depth at one position to enhance a position of need.
Fulmer went on to finish his 2015 season on the Tigers double-A affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves. He started where he left off and went 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA in 6 starts and he finished 2015 with a combined 10-3 record and a 2.24 ERA in 22 starts.
As the 2016 season was approaching, the Mets defied all odds and re-signed Yoenis Cespedes to a 3 year $75 million contract. Not only will that assist the Mets in another post season run or two, but will also save Mets fans the misery if Michael Fulmer does in fact blossom into a superstar for the Detroit Tigers.
The Mets have a sad history of trading away prospects who become All-Stars, people will bring up Scott Kazmir, or Heath Bell. Ten years down the road if people are saying “remember the Michael Fulmer trade?” It wont be in the similar dissatisfied tone, but in a grateful one. Yoenis Cespedes is smack in the middle of his prime and is a bona fide superstar. Getting to the World Series last year would not have happened without him and winning one won’t either.
Using a talented prospect like Fulmer, to acquire an unquestioned star meant for the New York spotlight would seem like common practice, but recently for the Mets it’s been anything but. Not only trading for Cespedes, but then shelling out $75 million to him makes you second guess if we are actually talking about the New York Mets.
It’s time to forget the name of Michael Fulmer and remember the one of Yoenis Cespedes as the Mets start the 2016 season in Kansas City for a World Series rematch April 3rd on ESPN.
The Mets will regret this trade. This was the one pitcher the Mets should not have traded because chances are that Harvey will be gone after 2016 and Matz and Wheeler are still unproven. That they signed Cespedes to a 3 year deal at least makes it better but Cespedes to me is a player the Mets needed but is now playing CF which negates his benefits. Is like having Murphy in CF now.
Speaking or Murphy, he leadership will be missed by these Mets. He is a money player and will help the Nationals greatly. Don’t be surprised if they win it all this year.
No. World Series appearance keeps the regrets at bay. May be a slightly bitter aftertaste when he wins a CY Young Award; but like a decent old fashioned cocktail it should be expected.
So Harvey is gone and the plan should be to replace him with a rookie?
I would be greatly surprised if the Nats won it all this year. Bullpen isn’t that strong and Dusty’s resistance to young players like Trea Turner will be there downfall.
As for the trade the Mets already don’t regret it. They went to the World Series last year which was the goal (of course want to win but anything can happen after you get there). I always don’t buy into the certainty that Harvey will be gone following 2016.
Are you a Nats fan? Murphy’s leadership? Did you watch the Mets? I like Murph and I appreciate what he did but there is a reason Ben Zobrist had many suitors and got a much bigger contract than Murph. There is a reason the Mets could never trade him for anything other than a middle reliever and that only one team even bothered offering him a deal. A team that was split on whether they wanted to give him the money. Don’t let an incredible run in the first two playoff rounds cloud your judgement. How’d he do in the World Series too?
how exactly are they going to regret Fullmer who has never pitched in the majors, yet they should have kept him because Matz and Wheeler are unproven? How is Fullmer a proven commodity? He’s just as much a mystery as the other guys, at least we’ve seen them have some success. You have 5 aces and another top guy is on his way, you have to deal one for a chance at the title and they did.
Short answer to the question posed by the headline…
No.
From MLBTR:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/04/padres-interest-pablo-sandoval-overblown-dodgers-diamodbacks-roster.html
“While the Padres were widely criticized for failing to strike any deals at last year’s trade deadline, Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests that the club may have been justified given the offers it was receiving. Ian Kennedy apparently drew extremely limited interest, with the best offer being then-Cubs outfielder Junior Lake — who has bounced around quite a bit and doesn’t appear to be that appealing an asset. Upton might have brought back Michael Fulmer from the Mets, which was at least a substantial return, but the Pads were said to have questions about his ability to stick in the rotation in the long run.”
Yup I talked to a scout from the Padres in early July after he had seen him throw and said he was worried about his lack of third pitch and if he could stay healthy.
You could have debated this issue if Yoenis hadn’t re-signed with the Mets, but the fact that his time here in 2015 both led the team to a WS and won over his heart to the point where he took less money to come back to a team and city he loved playing for, eliminated any chance of current or future regret, no matter how good Fulmer becomes. With this single trade, the Sandy changed the image and culture of Mets baseball, and there can be no regrets about that, ever.
Fulmer is still young and inexperienced. Scouts said the same things about Noah along the way, until he developed those secondary pitches and refined his mechanics and became “Thor”. Fulmer will be top of the rotation pitcher for years to come, if he stays healthy, IMO
they have a weak rotation after Scherz and Stars as well, not to mention declining older players and a club house that still just isn’t right, at least from what I saw when I was there.
trust me, Murphy is a leader. He may not be the conventional rah rah guy, but he leads by example and with the way he carries himself. He is the first veteran in that Nats clubhouse every single morning, and the last one to leave the field.
One that has the potential of an ace. Yes, that’s the plan and also to re-stock the minors with high end prospects by trading Harvey. Face it, Harvey is not even the Mets best pitcher anymore.
He may not be the best pitcher on the staff, but that doesn’t make him any less of a pitcher. There are maybe a dozen pitchers in the game on his level. A dozen. Among thirty teams. Everyone makes it sound so easy to replace him
Be realistic, the Mets are NOT going to be able to sign all of their pitchers so their best bet is to try to extend the ones that would be more open minded to sign extensions. Syndergaard being the furthest away aside from Matz may want to get millions now instead of the 600k or so that he gets now. To do that, he will have to give the Mets extra years in order to get millions now. Same with deGrom. These are pitchers that truly love to play for the Mets and love NY. Harvey? by all accounts he wants to cash in and is very unlikely to sign an extension with the Mets.
Simply put, if Wheeler comes back on all cylinders, Harvey is expendable.