As the Mets continue their reputation of being cheap, New York has sacrificed getting better prospects in exchange for a few less dollars off the books.
Let’s start off with the disaster of deal that was trading Jay Bruce. The Mets gave up a potential outfield tandem of Cespedes-Conforto-Bruce for next year (at least as far as qualifying offer is concerned). With the productivity of Bruce’s bat this season mixed in with Yo and another year’s growth from Conforto, the Mets would have had an outfield with some real power bats.
Unfortunately, GM Sandy Alderson did not see it that way.