The Mets' trade for Marcus Stroman on Sunday is receiving the Boomer Esiason seal of approval.
New York acquired the right-hander from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for top pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson. It was a stunning move because the Mets were believed to be sellers before Wednesday's trade deadline and had not been linked to Stroman in reports.
Esiason, a Mets fans, said on Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show that he likes the move, but, like many Mets fans, has questions about what it means for the franchise.
"It's great that they went out and got him," Esiason said. "It was like, wow, the Mets got the back pages. The Mets got the lead story yesterday pretty much on every sports station around. And it was like, wow, all right, so what is (general manager) Brodie Van Wagenen doing? Is he doing it for this year, or is he doing it for next year? And we will not know the answer to those questions till we see what he does coming up until Wednesday.
"But I will say this, he got the back pages, and he basically took Marcus Stroman away from the Yankees. He got him away from the Yankees. And it also may show you maybe the Yankees don't have enough in their minor league system to get a guy like Marcus Stroman or maybe they didn't want to go as far as the Mets did when it comes to prospects.
"But as a Met fan, after coming off of a sweep and watching players like (Michael) Conforto all of a sudden light it up and the pitching staff -- Steven Matz going nine innings and (Zack) Wheeler coming back from his shoulder impingement and pitching well -- and watching this whole thing happen, I'm like, wow, this is an amazing moment for us as Mets fans because it was completely out of the blue and nobody saw this coming," Esiason continued.
After sweeping the Pirates over the weekend, the Mets are 50-55 and six games out of a wild-card spot.
"Now all of a sudden, you're a little bit closer in the whole wild card," Esiason said. "Are you doing all of this to get to one wild-card game? Is that what you feel like? Or do you feel like after watching this team come out of the All-Star break playing pretty good baseball and now all of a sudden being one of the better teams because they have leap-frogged the Pirates, Rockies, Reds and Padres?"
To listen to the open from Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show, in which Boomer and Jerry Recco, filling in for Gregg Giannotti, also discuss the Yankees, Jets and Golden Tate's suspension, click on the audio player above.
