Dickey: Syndergaard trade made sense for both parties at the time
Hindsight is 20/20.
New York Mets ace Noah Syndergaard is dominating batters. He's a legitimate alternative to Clayton Kershaw as a Cy Young award favorite in the National League.
But in 2012, Syndergaard had yet to even step on a major league mound when the Toronto Blue Jays traded him, catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud, and others for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.
While it may be easy to look at each player's trajectory over the past few seasons and determine the Mets came out the winners of the swap, nothing was a guarantee at the time of the deal. Dickey, now with the Atlanta Braves, told Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post he doesn't see the deal as a loss for the Blue Jays.
"I don’t think of (the deal) in term of wins and losses," Dickey said. "I think of it in terms of timing, what was the need at the time. Everybody knew Noah was going to be pretty good. It was just a matter of time."
It didn't take too long. Syndergaard debuted in 2015 and has improved with every season.
The Blue Jays had also just acquired Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson from the Miami Marlins the month before acquiring Dickey. While the pieces didn't all come together like the team - and fan base - might have wanted, it was clear that then-general manager Alex Anthopolous was pushing for a win-now mentality.
So, he acquired the reigning NL Cy Young winner in Dickey. The Blue Jays traded plenty of prospects that offseason, and only Syndergaard has emerged as a top-flight MLB talent to date.
| Player | W-L | ERA | WHIP | K/9 | IP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dickey (with Toronto) | 49-52 | 4.05 | 1.25 | 6.6 | 824 1/2 |
| Syndergaard (to date) | 24-17 | 2.80 | 1.08 | 10.4 | 359 2/3 |
Dickey returns to New York this week for a series between the Braves and Mets. It will be his first time pitching at Citi Field since his last season in Queens. He pitched against them once with the Blue Jays, but that took place at Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2015.
The two will actually get a chance to have their showdown on Thursday. Initially, the Mets were going to skip starter Robert Gsellman in the rotation to have Syndergaard pitch Wednesday. According to MLB.com's Anthony DiComo, this is no longer the case. It will be "Thor" vs. Dickey Thursday night.