Trade Beltran?

No, not this year. It may seem like a wild idea, but what if, in one year’s time, we’re in the middle of another season of the 2005/2007-vintage Beltran? Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez have come up and already proven in limited duty that they can play. Gomez hit .250/.303/.333 in 108 ABs, a full season sooner than he was really expected to make an appearance at Shea, while Milledge has been one of the Mets’ most impactful hitters since his call up a couple weeks back, leading the Mets in RBI since his return to the big club. Behind Lastings and Gomez is prospect Fernando Martinez, 18 years old and now in his second professional season, who last season was the youngest player in Arizons Fall League history, and has been more highly touted than either Gomez or Lastings.

Many Mets fans have speculated about CitiField’s Opening Day outfield, wondering which two of the three outfield prospects would flank Beltran. The speculation has been that Milledge was the most likely to be traded. Indeed, last year he was as good as gone, along with Heilman, as part of a three-way trade that would have netted Roy Oswalt for the Amazins. Now, with Beltran’s most recent injury, he has been able to showcase his centerfield skills at the Major League level for opposing scouts. Now showing he can do it at the plate (hitting .563/.611/.875 in his last 7 games) and with his good defensive play in center, maybe Lastings’s performance will tempt an opposing team to part with a little more than they would have two weeks ago in any potential trade for him. Should this opportunity to sell high not tempt Omar with the deadline less than a week away, and if Lastings plays a more central role in this year’s playoff run, perhaps we will be witnessing only the first in a series of Mets outfield prospect arrivals.

Now, how valuable is Carlos Beltran to the Mets? He is their Gold Glove centerfielder and occupies the number 3 spot in the lineup. Last year, he tied Todd Hundley’s franchise record for home runs in a season and was a legitimate MVP candidate, finishing fourth in the NL voting. Yet, would any Mets fan rank him above Reyes and Wright as untouchables? How many untouchable players can a team have? Of course, there aren’t many teams who would take Beltran off the Mets’ hands. I cannot imagine the Mets and Yankees making a trade involving a player of Beltran’s magnitude but the Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and maybe Rangers and the White Sox all have the mentality and payroll to make such a deal and all have centerfielders who are considerably worse than Beltran. The most likely outcome is that the Mets will see Beltran through the end of his deal, if only because he’ll be earning 18 million dollars a year and the Mets wouldn’t be desperate enough in the one-year-from-now scenario to eat as much of Carlos’s salary as would likely be necessary. Yet what if the disappointments mount? What if a year from now we stop making excuses for 2005 and 2007 and view 2006 as the aberration? How would Mets fans respond to the loss of Carlos Beltran? He’s not quite a fan favorite, nor is he the steadiest presence in the lineup. And it is impossible to know how the league will adjust to Lastings, or if Gomez’s raw tools will refine, or if Fernando Martinez is what everyone swears he is, a lefty-swinging star in the making. But what if each fulfills the majority of their expectations? If Milledge’s early signs of power are sustainable, (slugging .511 since being recalled) why couldn’t he be a fixture in right? At this point, the biggest question mark of the three Gomez, who looked as though he was starting to adjust to big league pitching before injuring his hand on a check swing. If Gomez can continue to improve when he comes back next season, he will be a formidable addition to the Mets outfield, which at this point next season could be comprised of Endy, Lastings and Gomez sharing at-bats in the corners while Beltran patrols center.

As it stands now, the Mets injury situation makes any trade of the Lastings Milledge unlikely. With Endy out of commission indefinitely, Alou’s return date pushed back yet again and some rumbling about a trip to the DL for Beltran, Lastings’s place in the Mets lineup is virtually a lock, at least through the beginning of August. Additionally, Lastings is quickly becoming a fan favorite, which seems like it might matter to this current Mets regime.

The purpose is not to denigrate the immensely talented Beltran or his many contributions to these Mets, but mostly to speculate wildly about what might occur if we are seeing the “real” Beltran this year and each of the Mets three highly-regarded outfield prospects pans out. All huge ifs. The realities of the roster at this point in the year seem to discourage the possibility of a trade of either of those three and as long as the Mets hold onto them, it is obvious they’ll get the opportunity to play under Omar, who is no stranger to pushing young players. The question for the future is, would he push them past Gold Golvers and one-time NL MVP candidates?

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