{"id":511097,"date":"2026-01-08T10:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/511097\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:37:17","slug":"lindor-deal-looks-good-five-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/511097\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindor Deal Looks Good Five Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mets stunned the baseball world five years ago today, completing a blockbuster trade with Cleveland that brought Francisco Lindor<\/a> and Carlos Carrasco<\/a> to New York. Amed Rosario<\/a>, Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez<\/a> and prospects Josh Wolf<\/a> and Isaiah Greene<\/a> were sent to Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Steve Cohen, tongue-in-cheek, urged<\/a> fans to \u201cget back to what matters \u2013 the black jerseys.\u201d Marcus Stroman<\/a> was \u201cturnt right now<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The deal worked out well for the Mets, who signed Lindor to a 10-year, $341 million contract extension on the eve of Opening Day in 2021. It is, by total value<\/a>, the seventh-largest contract in baseball history. Juan Soto<\/a>\u2018s deal is first.<\/p>\n

Lindor has slashed .261\/.338\/.462 with 141 home runs in five years in New York. He\u2019s finished top 1o in the MVP vote four times, including a second-place finish in 2024, won two Silver Sluggers and earned his first National League All-Star nod in 2025. He\u2019s currently fourth among Mets position players in team history with his 29.8 fWAR. Only David Wright (51.3), Darryl Strawberry (35.5) and Jos\u00e9 Reyes (33.2) are ahead of him.<\/p>\n

He also hit a pair of the franchise\u2019s most dramatic home runs over a nine-day period in 2024.<\/p>\n

This two-run blast<\/a> (\u201cLinsanity again!\u201d bellowed Gary Cohen) gave the Mets the lead in the ninth inning of a playoff-spot-clinching 8-7 win in Atlanta. This grand slam<\/a> put the Mets ahead for good in the NLDS clincher against Philadelphia. (Howie Rose: \u201cThey were famished for the big hit all night and Francisco Lindor<\/a> just provided a feast!\u201d)<\/p>\n

For good measure, he hit three home runs in a victory over the Yankees in September 2021.<\/p>\n

The Others<\/p>\n

Carrasco spent three years with the Mets, struggling in 2021 and 2023 but going 15-7 with a 3.97 ERA in 2022. Last season, he pitched to a 7.09 ERA over 45 2\/3 innings combined between the Yankees and Braves.<\/p>\n

Rosario, once a highly regarded Met prospect, has played for the Guardians and five other teams since the deal. Cleveland sent him to the Dodgers for Noah Syndergaard<\/a> at the 2023 trade deadline. He hit .276\/.309\/.436 with six home runs in 191 plate appearances combined for the Nationals and Yankees in 2025.<\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez won three Gold Gloves in four seasons in Cleveland, made the 2022 All-Star team and finished sixth in MVP voting that year when he hit 17 homers, stole 20 bases and posted an .837 OPS. The Guardians traded him to Toronto last offseason. He had a poor year offensively for the Blue Jays (.598 OPS) but filled in well for an injured Bo Bichette<\/a> in the postseason.<\/p>\n

The prospects, so far, have not panned out. Wolf, a right-hander, pitched to a 4.74 ERA in 57 innings for the Giants\u2019 High-A affiliate this year. Greene, an outfielder, advanced as high as High-A in the Cleveland system. He posted a .722 OPS in 42 games in the MLB Draft League this year.<\/p>\n

Final Grade: A+<\/p>\n

This trade, five years later, should put a smile on your face.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets stunned the baseball world five years ago today, completing a blockbuster trade with Cleveland that brought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[1348,2043,5,2224,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-511097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-amed-rosario","9":"tag-andres-gimenez","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-carlos-carrasco","12":"tag-francisco-lindor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115859046266134280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}