The New York Mets did the galaxy brain prospect value move of baseball nerds' dreams by paying down the contracts of two aging Hall of Famers to effectively buy the opportunity to upgrade their farm system.
Actually, the implied prospect trade value of the two packages (Drew Gilbert/Ryan Clifford for Justin Verlander and Luisangel Acuna for Max Scherzer) almost exactly matches the money the Mets kicked in to cover the salaries, underlining New York's intentions.
While we don't really know what the next 12 months holds for the Mets, these prospects have a chance to be big league options as soon as next July. They figure to join Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez, Ronny Mauricio, Mark Vientos, Christian Scott and Mike Vasil in the upper levels while Kevin Parada, Alex Ramirez, Jett Williams, Colin Houck, Blade Tidwell, Marco Vargas and Jacob Reimer are in the lower levels.
Here are the names Mets fans will need to learn as Steve Cohen's team looks towards the future. -- Kiley McDaniel