Mets officialy acquire Delgado...

"Mets acquired 1B Carlos Delgado and 7 million from the Marlins for RHP Yusmeiro Petit, 1B Mike Jacobs and 3B Grant Psomas."

Well, there we go Mets fans --we got that bat. With this trade, it's pretty easy to pencil the Mets in as the favorites for the NL East, but why in the world did they have to give up so much? The Marlins just traded Josh Beckett for so much less (albeit they included Mike Lowell and his ludicrous contract), and yet the Mets give up too much for Delgado, during a firesale. I understand that the Marlins had to ask for more from an in-division rival, but still. Minaya was better off not taking any money back from the fish, and instead dealing Jacobs, Psomas, and a lower value pitching prospect (such as Evan MacLane). So who got the better edge in this trade?

Marlins: ++++
The Marlins clearly had no plan to keep Delgado when they first signed him. They backloaded his contract (4-years/52 million) to have him payed just 4 million last year (leaving 4/48 on the contract) and gave him clauses to veto trades. This is clearly a franchise that has found itself in a poor situation: win two times in 6 years, and still draw no fans. The Marlins ended up spending 4 million dollars for one of the best seasons in the NL last year (Delgado hit .301/.399/.582/.981 with 30.2 batting winshares), and then turned around and made that into 3 pretty nice prospects. Great job Beinfest, it looks like you've got this "firesale" thing pretty well patented.

Mets: ++++
Wait, the Mets did just as well as the Marlins in this trade? Well, yes; the Mets desperatly need another big bat to compliment David Wright (Floyd had a nice season, but he was in no way that bat), Delgado fits in perfectly. While the Mets had to mortgage off a lot for this bat, it was well worth the risk. Psomas was blocked directly by Shawn Bowman at 3B (it's believed that he is more talented, and he is a better fielder) and most importantly by David Wright. While Petit may be one of the best pitching prospects in the game (144 strikeouts and just 24 walks last season in AA and AAA), he was not alone in the Mets system. They have plenty of other talents (Bannister, Hernandez, Pelfrey, Humber, Soler and a few more are right there with Petit) and they could afford to move him for a big player. As for Jacobs, well, this one is sad. Mets fans had to have fallen in love with this kid last year. He came up and hit the crap out of the ball and never gave up. He was a converted C and fielded like John Olerud at 1B (okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get the point). This is the part of the trade that we can really compare.

ZiPS projections (2006):

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Player        AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG
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Jacobs       468  62  125  26  1  22  79  31 104   1  .267  .318  .468
Delgado      508  81  146  37  1  29 107  81 129   0  .287  .398  .535

There is clearly a difference there (maily .080 points in OBP and .067 in SLG, leading to a whopping OPS difference of .147) and it's obvious that Delgado is projected to be a much better hitter next season, but is that worth nearly 13.5 million more dollars and 3 prospects? I'd say so.

Now, on to the whole Delgado's age deal...

One of the best indicators for career trends are IsoD and IsoP (isolated discipline and slugging), in which case let's track Delgado's for the past five seasons:

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Player   LG  Age  Year    AVG   HR   OBP  SLG   OPS  IsoD  IsoP  IsoO
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Delgado  AL  29   2001   .279   39  .408 .540  .940  .129  .261  .390
Delgado  AL  30   2002   .277   33  .406 .549  .955  .129  .272  .401
Delgado  AL  31   2003   .302   42  .426 .593 1.019  .124  .291  .415
Delgado  AL  32   2004   .269   32  .372 .535  .907  .103  .266  .369
Delgado  NL  33   2005   .301   33  .399 .582  .981  .098  .281  .379

Blue = Improvement
Red = Decline
White = Constant

I don't know about you, but those numbers are pretty damn impressive. Obviously he had an off year in 2004, but what's interesting, is that he bounced back in everything except for IsoD when moving from a hitters league to a pitchers league (more importantly, a park that favors hitters to a park that ruins hitters careers). This is bizarre, and suggests the Delgado has plenty left in the tank. The one thing that must worry the fan, is the fact that Delgado has not improved his IsoD since age 29, and it has dropped every year since age 31 (considerable amounts at 32). He will be 34 next year, and 37 when the contract is over. He will not be the same hitter, but it's hard to imagine him completly falling apart. For now and next year, the contract should be worth the hitter. The third year he will probably be worth considerably less (but let's hope that he won't have to bat higher than 7th at that point).

Cheers Mets fans, we got that bat!