Mets are officially the Yankees jealous ex-girlfriend

Though the Yankees offered their crosstown rivals a far superior trade offer for Jay Bruce, the Mets decided to ship the veteran slugger to the Indians because of payback?

The Mets are terrible. And I don’t just mean that because of their 51-61 record this season. Rather, the way they conduct business is downright comical. It all began during the 2016 trade deadline when Mets GM Sandy Alderson became upset that the Yankees ignored numerous phone calls in regards to potentially acquiring Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.

Alderson and company must have been fooling themselves, thinking they could actually put together a package of prospects that rivaled what the Indians and Cubs eventually sent the Yankees’ way.

After all, following last year’s trade deadline, the Mets’ farm system was ranked No. 22 in all of baseball by Bleacher Report. So unless they intended to send Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith to the Bronx, no deal was going to happen.

The harbored ill-will by those in Queens spilled over to almost exactly one year later when the two teams were locked in negotiations for oft-injured second baseman Neil Walker.

Why the Yanks would have wanted a guy who has only suited up for 72 games this season due to a partially torn hamstring is beyond me. I understand Walker started at first base for the Mets on Wednesday, but this was the first time he’s played the position during his nine-year career.

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Anyway, the Yankees inevitably pulled the plug on the idea of acquiring the 31-year-old second baseman because of those lingering injury concerns. In turn, the Mets got bent out of shape because they felt the Bombers used Walker’s medical report as a get out of jail free card once the Sonny Gray trade came to fruition.

I’m sorry, but a team isn’t allowed to change their minds when a more important alternative presents itself? Let me think, should we acquire a No. 2 starting pitcher or a backup infielder? Hmmm.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and only a short time after the Mets curiously dealt Bruce to the Indians for Ryder Ryan, a minor league relief pitcher with a 4.55 ERA — two years removed from being a junior college position player — news broke that the Yanks actually offered two fringe minor league prospects, and were willing to pick up some of Bruce’s remaining $3.37 million salary.

But no, it was clearly more important for Alderson to get his team’s leading home run (29) and RBI leader (75) completely off the books.

One day later, Mike Puma of The New York Post reported two “unnamed Mets sources” say this about the Yanks’ offer:

"“If they would give us something of [bleeping] value, maybe we would make a deal.”"

Followed by:

"“When we were looking for players last year, the Yankees weren’t exactly rushing to return our calls.”"

Like a giant pretzel you can buy at a food cart in Times Square, the Mets are sooooo salty!

All in all, the Subway Series participants haven’t made an actual trade since 2004 when Felix Heredia and Mike Stanton swapped uniforms. If it is indeed another 13 years until the two put their feelings aside, all this recent ordeal proves is that the Mets would rather get payback than actually improve their ball club.

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So sad. Then again, this is the Mets we’re talking about. Anyone hear from David Wright lately?