Taking Another Look at the Nady-Perez Trade
This season the Mets have been ecstatic with the outcome of last year’s deadline deal that brought them Oliver Perez in return for Xavier Nady. The media has long considered it a one sided deal—ESPN’s Jonah Keri called it the most lopsided trade since Travis Hafner for Einar Diaz and one New York columnist even went so far as to consider whether it was the Mets best trade of all time.
Here’s the thing—the Pirates are pretty happy with the trade too. The team was loaded with young pitching and needed an impact bat. That’s exactly what they got in Nady, the man who has clearly been the team’s best hitter this year. He’s on pace to bat .275, hit 30 homers, and drive in 100 runs. There’s no doubt that Perez is having a good year, but in his career he hasn’t exactly been a model of consistency. In the four seasons he has had at least 20 starts Perez’s ERA has been under 5.40 only once. He also has a checkered medical history, and right on cue he was placed on the DL this week with a bad back.
If I had to take a guess, I would say that if the Mets offered to trade Perez to the Pirates for Nady, the Pirates would turn the trade down. Clearly a deal can’t be considered lopsided if one team would turn down a chance to undo the trade. Instead of it being looked at as another deadline blunder by the Pirates, this trade should be seen for what it is—a good deal for both teams involved that addressed a pressing need for each of them.
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