Catching Up With: Carlos Gomez

Metsblog had an interesting post earlier today discussing some former Mets farmhands which we have traded away:

Yes… Bell and Matt Lindstrom, and maybe Xavier Nady and Jeff Keppinger, are players the Mets might wish they could have back... But, all in all, Omar Minaya has traded away a TON of minor leagues, very few of which he regrets.

For instance, in the five years he has been at the wheel, he’s traded away: Ian Bladergroen, Petit, Grant Posmas, Gaby Hernandez, Dante Brinkley, Jae Wong Seo, Evan Maclane, Victor Diaz, Brian Bannister, Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Humber and Kevin Mulvey – very few of which would even have helped with adding depth to last season’s injury-plagued roster. He traded away Mike Jacobs, who signed with the team as a free agent a few months ago; and he traded Henry Owens, who was auditioning for a minor-league job at Tradition Field last month.

Yes, I do trust Minaya’s ability to asses his young talent, which is also a credit to his staff.

Now, I disagree with some of the assessments outright. Mike Jacobs was a very useful player for a couple of years, it is way too early to tell on Gaby Hernandez, Milledge is good and has the opportunity to be great, and Brian Bannister has been a very useful player. But I agree with the concept in general -- for all the hand wringing people have done about trading away prospects, we have not traded away a lot of impact players. And it's interesting to wonder whether that is luck, or whether Minaya has just been particularly adept at judging talent.