Late yesterday afternoon the Mets traded away OF Ryan Church to the Braves for OF Jeff Francoeur, as both teams got rid of players had worn out his welcome in the respective cities. I first heard of this deal on XM 175 while driving home. As soon as I heard about the deal, I turned to WFAN to hear what the callers were saying.
I was amazed. The Mets fans, and the Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, were praising the Mets for trading for a guy "who still has potential", "who had two years of 100+RBIs" and " he's won two gold gloves". Well, those 100+ RBI seasons happened almost two years ago, and they are overlooking his current year stats. Francoeur is hitting .250-.282-.352 with 5 HRs, 35 RBI and a 46-12 K/BB rate. He strikes out 100+ times each year, and rarely takes a walk.
The Braves get Ryan Church who is hitting .280-.332-.375 with 2 HR, 22 RBI and a 36-17 K/BB rate. Church is the better hitter of the two, but Francoeur will provide more power. Now that he is moving to Citifield, you can probably kiss that power goodbye.
As Joel Sherman tweeted today, both players will be non-tendered after the season anyway:
Gut feeling is both Church and Francoeur were going to be non-tendered after this season anyway. So this was throw-at-wall trade.
But you gotta love Omar Minaya's quote when announcing the trade. It tells you all you need to know why the Mets traded Church. From ESPN's Rob Neyer's blog:
"One thing we like about Francoeur is the amount of games that he plays."
Who won the Mets-Braves trade?