Trade Tracker Thursday: Cleveland Guardians. Two Hall of Famers, The Man who was Traded for Himself, and the Steve Cohen Era Begins.

The Mets and the Guardians don't play each other very often, but they have a remarkable trade history. They have featured star-studded swaps with Hall of Famers on both sides, a bizarre deal where a player played so poorly they used him as his own player to be named later, a multi-team trade that will be analyzed in a future column on those kind of trades, and an Ultimate Blockbuster that changed Mets history almost immediately...and most likely will end with Steve Cohen smiling in the Cooperstown sun.

Whether fueled by the Mets' big-market ambitions or Cleveland's tactical, small-market retooling, the phone lines between these two front offices have rarely stayed cold for long.

April 26, 1962. Mets purchase C Harry Chiti. June 15, 1962 - Returned C Harry Chiti to Cleveland.

Chiti, a 6 ft 2, 225 lb backup catcher, was huge for his day. He started his major league career in 1952 at the age of 17 with the Cubs. (What were you doing at 17? If you weren't Ed Kranepool, you probably weren't playing Major League Baseball.) For the next 10 years (missing two for the Military), Chiti was a solid back up. Think less like Alex Trevino or Alberto Castillo, maybe more like Todd Pratt or Ramon Castro.

Casey Stengel would say, "You need a catcher or else there is going to be a lot of passed balls." So the Mets picked up Chiti at the start of their inaugural 1962 season. They soon found out he was less like Mackey Sasser and more like Patrick Mazeika. True story: After Mazeika's two game winning fielder's choices in 2021 in which neither ball was rolled more than 25 feet, I actually saw a Mazeika T-shirt that called him "Mr. Walk-Off". It was on sale for .99 cents. I DID NOT BUY IT. But looking back, I think I should have. Would you have bought it? (By the way, in each of Pat's Mets seasons, he hit 1 homer and drove in 6. He hit .190 and .191). Forget Cal Ripken, our man was consistent.

Chiti shared catching duties on the 1956 Cubs with first ever Mets draft choice Hobie Landrith. (baseball works that way). After Chiti went 8-41 as a Met, he was moved back to Cleveland. I found that three other Major Leaguers were later traded for themselves: John McDonald, Brad Gulden, and Dickie Noles. Noles was known as a headhunter with the Phillies. Gulden was the catcher the Yankees called up after Thurman Munson's death.

TEACHER SAYS A. If I was traded for myself, I'd definitely give the deal an A. Here's to you, Harry.

January 7, 2021. Mets get SS Francisco Lindor and RHP Carlos Carrasco for shortstops Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, and 2 minor leaguers.

This was the moment Steve Cohen arrived. The Jeff Wilpon penny pinching days, small-market thinking days were over. This was more than an elite glove and Mr. Smile. This was the flag planted in the dirt. Add on a 10-year, $341 million dollar extension. Steve Cohen was hitching his trailer to "My Girl." And it kind of worked? Almost worked? Worked in 2024?

Lindor was already a star, spending 6 years as a Guardian: The 2015 Rookie of the Year and the next four finishing between 5 and 15 in MVP voting. As a Met, he has finished the last four years between second and tenth. These last four years have also been incredibly consistent: scoring between 98 and 117 runs, between 153 and 172 hits, between 602 and 644 at bats, between 25 and 39 doubles, between 26 and 33 homers, between 56 and 66 walks, average between .254 and .273, OBP between .336 and .346. You get the point. The man shows up for work. Moments like the ninth inning homer to tie the game in which Toronto's Bowden Francis was throwing a no-no. The ninth inning homer off of Atlanta's Pierce Johnson that flipped the switch to cause "Linsanity" and set the Mets to the 2024 playoffs. The Grand Slam in Game 4 of the 2024 NLDS off Philadelphia's 100 MPH arm Carlos Estevez. The Captain, oops, no captains on this team, certainly was clutch.

But was it a good trade? Gimenez had three Gold Glove years with Cleveland before struggling with the bat in Toronto. However, he came within a Isiah Kiner-Falefa slide of winning a ring. Isiah is Ralph's second cousin twice removed...whatever that means.

Rosario has already played with 7 teams since he has left the Mets. He seems to have found his spot as a deadly bench guy against left-handed pitching.

Carrasco won 15 games for the Mets in 2022 and has spent the last two years being a yo-yo with the Braves. He has been up and down from the minors about 8 times.

TEACHER SAYS A. Gimenez was putting up a few .290 - 15-65 or so seasons in Cleveland, but Lindor is Cooperstown- bound. Lindor was also right about it being a rat.

March 31, 1996. Mets get RHP Mark Clark for RHP Reid Cornelius and OF Ryan Thompson.

Clark won 14 games for the 96 team of Lance Johnson, Gilkey, and Hundley. He threw over 200 innings. He stuck around the bigs for ten years. Only won 74 games, but made about $20 million dollars! Sports Illustrated did a fine piece about him years ago, just profiling a middling pitcher who not many remember, didn't accomplish much, but made an extraordinary amount of dough. It was a pleasant journey of a pleasant man who gets to ride out his life exactly as he likes. Good for you. Mark. There's hope for us all, readers.

TEACHER SAYS A. Mets get a 14 game winner for nothing. FYI: Teachers do not get paid $20 million dollars. Momma, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Teachers.

July 29, 1996. Mets get INFs Carlos Baerga and Alvaro Espinoza for INFs Jeff Kent and Jose Vizcaino.

When this trade was made, the back pages of the papers were buzzing. Mets GM Joe McIlvaine made the steal of the century. Did you forget who Baerga was before the trade? In 1992 and 1993, Baerga did something a second baseman hadn't done since Rogers Hornsby in 1922! (If you've ever wondered why it's Rogers and not Roger - Hornsby's first name is his mother's maiden name). Back-to-back seasons with 200 hits, 20 homers, 100 RBI and an average over .300! Baerga was the switch-hitting, high-fiving heartbeat of those powerhouse Indians teams that had just reached the World Series. At only 27 years of age, why would Cleveland trade him?

Rumors of an underlying abdominal strain, or was it too much New York Night life? Baerga was a shell of the superstar the Mets thought they were getting. He hit .193 with 11 RBIs to close out 1996.

Vizcaino and Kent were soon flipped to the Giants for Matt Williams. The moody Kent, with a questionable glove, blossomed in San Francisco. Free from New York pressures, he became the leading home run hitter as a second baseman in baseball history. If you're free on Sunday, you can watch Jeff be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

You never know who you are going to get. Baerga, Bay, Burnitz, Bonilla, Foster, Vaughn, Bichette, Peralta, and Robbie Alomar. Which leads to...

December 11, 2001. Mets get 2B Roberto Alomar for OFs Alex Escobar and Matt Lawton. (Other lesser names in this blockbuster : Mike Bacsik, Jerrod Riggan, Danny Peoples, Earl Snyder, and Billy Traber).

CHECK THIS OUT: I am going to use the same initial paragraph as I did with the Baerga piece.

When this trade was made, the back pages of the papers were buzzing. Mets GM Steve Phillips made the steal of the century. Did you forget who Alomar was before the trade?

See, it worked.

I can even add "Mets add superstar Cleveland second baseman coming off an incredible All-Star season. What could go wrong?"

Alomar had 14 seasons in the majors and he was an All-Star in the last 12. This includes 6 top 6 MVP finishes. This is what he did the year before he was a Met in 2001: 113 runs, 193 hits, 20 homers, 100 RBI, .336 average, 30 stolen bases, the usual Gold Glove. His Mets year: 73 runs, 11 homers, 53 RBI, .266 average. Yuck. Players just lose it. I know that. But why do they always lose it as Mets?

Can we add a little lemon juice to your paper cut? Matt Lawton was an All-Star with Minnesota, did nothing in 48 games as a Met, and became an All-Star again with Cleveland.

Escobar was another in the long, long list of can't miss Mets top prospects that missed. Lastings Milledge? Alex Ochoa? Fernando Martinez? Shawn Abner? Francisco Alvarez? (See what I did there?)

TEACHER SAYS F. How could the great Roberto Alomar go cold, too? Sorry if the article looks smudged, it has my tears over it.

Some more Mets - Guardians (Jeepers! I almost wrote Indians) names: Paul Byrd, Jerry DiPoto, Don Schulze, Ed "The Flushing Flash" Glynn, Tom Veryzer, Brent Strom, Dean Chance, Al Luplow, Kevin Plawecki, Jay Bruce, Endy Chavez, and Sean (not the home run hitter and no relation) Green.