Chicago Cubs: Will Mets, Yankees regret Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo trades?

The race to October is on and it seems like every single day, something shifts in the postseason picture. The National League has five teams vying for one spot and the AL has five teams fighting for two. It’s really anybody’s guess for who will end up in the postseason at the end of the day – although we definitely know who won’t be in the Chicago Cubs.

In the NL, it won’t be considered as big of a win to get the final spot as the winner will go up against either Max Scherzer and the Dodgers or the Giants and Kevin Gausman. Both are 17+ games ahead of the next-best team. In the AL, whoever grabs those two spots have a much better chance at a run, in my opinion. Two buyers that are fighting to stay afloat are the Yankees and Mets, both of whom could end up regretting their trades for Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez if they don’t end up with a postseason berth.

The Mets have been a mess since the trade deadline. They’ve gone 16-26 since August 1 and we’ve seen clashing between the fans and players, led by Baez himself. They built a contender on paper but haven’t been able to live up to the hype. As much criticism as Baez has gotten from Mets fans, he’s actually been one of their best players. Since being acquired, he’s batted .300 with a .951 OPS and 156 WRC+. He’s given this team the spark they need but they just haven’t been able to win games.

Even with the success Baez has had, Mets fans may end up (if they already don’t) regretting this move at the trade deadline. Giving up a top 5 prospect in Pete Crow-Armstrong was enough already and with the reality that Baez is just a rental for a team that’s under .500 since acquiring him makes things even harder to stomach.

On the other side of New York, the Yankees aren’t in as bad of a spot but they’re hanging on for dear life. They’ve gone the opposite of the Mets at 26-16 since August 1, but find themselves in the second wild card spot as of early Saturday afternoon. Rizzo has batted .250 with an OPS of .776 since joining the team. Nothing special as they gave up two decent prospects for the first baseman. He has lit a fire under other first baseman Luke Voit, who has publicly said he deserves the playing time.

Chicago Cubs: Mets, Yankees may have made missteps at the trade deadline

Things aren’t ideal in the Big Apple right now, even with the Yankees clinching their 28th consecutive winning season. These Cubs have come in and no doubt added value but they’ve caused controversy within their new teams that are both on the verge of missing the postseason.

If I’m either of these New York teams, I regret making these moves. We’ve seen the Cubs add at the deadline in previous years only to be disappointed by the end results. With the Mets and the Yankees, trading for two rentals while giving away a lot of future value is less than ideal with the way the season’s have swung. Obviously that’s not what either side anticipated when making these moves but watching things unfold hasn’t been pretty.

The Cubs are in a great spot at the moment. They’ve been able to restore some of the pipeline that was depleted over the past five seasons and the three players they gave up to do so aren’t (with the exception of Kris Bryant) meshing as well as they would’ve hoped with their new teams. It just so happens they all become free agents so Jed Hoyer has a great opportunity to bring back some old friends.