Goodbye Jacob Rhame

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have claimed Jacob Rhame off waivers.

The Mets replaced Rhame by adding Ryley Gilliam to their player pool. Now, Gilliam is an interesting arm, posting 14 K’s per 9 in the minors.

Gilliam has a devastating breaking ball and throws in the upper 90s. Maybe he’ll pan out. Maybe he won’t. Such is the unpredictability of young arms in baseball.

Towards the end of the 2017 season, Met fans were doing a lot of predicting.

We were predicting how the aforementioned Jacob Rename would pan out. The Mets had acquired him from Los Angeles in a trade with the Dodgers for Curtis Granderson.

We were also predicting what the future held for Ryder Ryan, Stephen Nogosek, Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan, Eric Hanhold, and Drew Smith as well.

Following the improbable 2015 World Series run, and the rousing Wildcard chase of 2016, the 2017 season was a frustrating catastrophe.

The 2017 trade deadline presented itself as a silver lining in an otherwise disastrous campaign. If nothing else, fans would have some new prospects to talk about.

The Mets went to work, dealing veterans Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson, Neil Walker and Addison Reed to Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Boston, respectively.

It wasn’t long before the word prospect was phased out. Sure, technically these acquisitions were prospects. But it didn’t seem like these players were very highly regarded.

They were all tall right handed pitchers who threw in the high 90s. Sandy Alderson had to have seen something their teams didn’t, right? There had to be a reason he targeted these players.

Fast forward to 2020.

The Mets could potentially have one of the most exciting lineups in baseball. Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo. What a core Alderson left behind!

So, how about those pitchers acquired at the 2017 trade deadline?

Well, Jacob Rhame kinda had a little feud with Rhys Hoskins last season. That’s about the peak of their collective achievements.

Drew Smith is making his way back from Tommy John surgery. Ryder Ryan is still in the Mets system.

(This feels like the closing credits of a high school football movie.)

Jamie Callahan is a free agent. Stephen Nogosek is still a Met but isn’t on the active roster. Yikes.

Alderson seemed to have a thing for right handed pitchers who throw 100 MPH straight as an arrow, remember Chris Beck and Neil Ramirez? But it’s hard to classify the 2017 trades as anything else but straight up salary dumps.

I’m hoping that the next bit of Mets related news we receive is in the owner department.

I mean, we traded 4 veteran players to help teams during their stretch runs in 2017 and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Literally. All the cash we received in those deals never materialized. We went into the 2018 with Adrian Gonzalez as our starting first baseman.

While we’re on the topic, three players who saw game action during our playoff chase in 2019 are now playing in Korea.

Here’s to new ownership.