Trade Tracker Thursday: The Final Stop on the line. The Evil Empire.

Over the course of this series, we've unraveled the tangled web of the New York Mets trade history team-by-team, exploring how decades of front office philosophies, sudden rebuilds, and pennant-race desperation shaped the franchise we still love today. We are frustrated, but the love never dies.

For this final chapter, we are staying in the boroughs. The borough where I spent the first 35 years of my life! The borough that can never win the in between innings race at Citifield, The Bronx.

There is no better way to close the ledger than by looking across town, only about 9 miles away from each other. Wrapping up a deep dive into trade histories means confronting the ultimate local taboo - the rare, calculated moments when there was a call between the Bronx and Queens.

We empty the notebook one last time for the Subway Series trades between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.

This cold war is a sporadic history of trades. There is no way either team would be willing to take the terrifying risk of watching one team help the other be successful.

Could the battle be softening this year? The Yankees could use bullpen help like Brooks Raley, A.J. Minter, or their former closer, Luke Weaver. Could they be interested in Francisco Alvarez or, perhaps, a certain Mets shortstop? Would the Mets dare to help the Yankees?? I'm sure the Mets would listen on Spencer Jones. How about Jasson Dominguez?

December 7, 2001. Mets get OF David Justice for 3B Robin Ventura.

This is the only trade in the histories involving two big names. Wait a minute, you didn't know Justice was Mets property?

Justice, the multi-time All-Star with the Braves continued to be a star with Cleveland. The Yankees picked him up for the stretch run in 2000, and, of course, instead of turning into Baerga, Bay, Alomar, Vaughn, or Foster....Justice turned into, well, David Justice! Even though he only hit .158 in the World Series that shall not be named, he did drive in 8 runs in the ALCS for them.

A week after this trade, the Mets flipped him to Oakland, where he ended his career with the famous Moneyball team.

The Mets received two pitchers for him. Mark Guthrie, who was a successful LOOGY for them, throwing 48 innings in 68 games with a 2.44 ERA in 2002. Guthrie holds the record for a scoreless inning streak at 27. Weaver is challenging that streak. Yates was unsuccessful in his only Mets year, but brother Kirby has 100 career saves, received Cy Young votes in two seasons, and is still pitching this year with the Angels at age 39.

Ventura had one of the greatest years of any third basemen in Mets history. In 1999, he hit .301 with 32 homers and 120 RBI with a .379 OBP. He also won a Gold Glove. Of course, whoever puts on that Yankee uniform finds their talent. Thirty-four year old Ventura made the All-Star team as a Yankee with 27 homers and 93 RBI because, of course he did.

TEACHER SAYS C. Mets should not have traded Ventura without keeping Justice. Guthrie was an underrated member of the pen.

December 11, 1987. Mets get C/OF Phil Lombardi, OF Darren Reed, and P Steve Frey for SS Rafael Santana.

The regular shortstop for the 1986 World Champions needed to be moved because top prospect Kevin Elster was ready to take over. Elster was a Mets regular for 4 seasons and set the Major League record with 88 consecutive errorless games at shortstop. He still holds the National League record!

After bouncing around the majors and minors, Elster resurfaced in 1996 with Texas, at the height of the steroids era and suddenly and miraculously hit 24 homers with 99 RBI. Hmmmm.....

Santana seemed to go exactly 1-4 every day and usually hit around .250 every year. He hit .240 in his only Yankee year in 1988. He finished his career with 7 games on the 1990 Indians. I hope he said hi to Keith.

Lombardi and Reed did little in their combined 64 Mets games. Although Darren Reed was a spring training monster.

TEACHER SAYS C. Meh. Raffy had to be moved and I think they got what he was worth at the time.

HERE'S A SHOCK....There aren't any other trades with names that the casual would know. BUT WE AREN'T CASUAL FANS!

December 7, 1977. Mets get INF Sergio Ferrer for 3B Roy Staiger.

I just wanted to write about about these guys because if you were a young teen at the time, IYKYK.

Ferrer was a 5 foot 7 inch infielder who went 7-40 as a Met (.175). In 1979, he appeared in 32 games with 7 at-bats because he was Ed Kranepool's pinch runner. Ferrer also made the last out in the famous ten run inning vs the Reds. I can still hear Steve Albert yelling, "Ferrer's fast!!" as Sergio was thrown out by a few feet on an infield tapper.

Staiger had a good glove, and actually got into 95 games in 1976. He hit .220 with a pair of homers and 26 RBI. If you remember these two guys, then we are friends for life.

TEACHER SAYS INC. If a student hands in an assignment that compares to the careers of Ferrer and Staiger, I'm not grading it.

June 9, 1992. Mets get LHP Lee Guetterman for RHP Tim Burke.

The 6 foot 8 lefty Guetterman actually had some success. He went 11-4 over 17 starts with the 1987 Mariners and 11-7 over 93 bullpen innings with the 1990 Yankees. In 43 Mets games, he had a 5.82 ERA. (Sigh).

Burke had two All-Star years in Montreal, including a 1.19 ERA (!) in 91 innings in 1987. He was also in two famous trades involving Mets Hall of Famers! He was traded by the Pirates in 1982 to the Yanks for old friend Lee Mazzilli. (Burke never pitched for the Yanks until the Guetterman trade). Burke was traded from Montreal to the Mets for old friend Ron Darling.

TEACHER SAYS C. Again, neither pitcher had much left. The Mets and Yankees aren't taking chances to really help the other.

December 3, 2004. Mets get LHP Felix Heredia for LHP Mike Stanton.

Stanton (not THAT Mike Stanton who became Giancarlo) pitched successfully nearly 20 years. He was a key bullpen member with both the winning Braves and Yankee franchises. He pitched in 11 post season series, throwing 53 innings to a 2.10 ERA. He pitched in 6 World Series, winning three rings in New York.

He was also fairly successful in his two Mets seasons, especially 2004, when he pitched in 83 games to a 3.16 ERA. Those 83 games are the fourth highest total in Mets history, only beaten out by three seasons by Perpetual Pedro Feliciano.

Heredia pitched 9 seasons in the bigs, pitching to a rather high 4.42 ERA for a lefty specialist. As a Met, he pitched 3 games.

TEACHER SAYS F. Useful Stanton continued pitching for a few hundred more games, because that's what guys like him did.

May 31, 2024. Mets purchase C Luis Torrens from the Yankees.

Here it is, the most impactful transition between the Mets and Yanks in the Mets favor.

Torrens never appeared as a Yankee, but lets give David Stearns credit for something. Although Luis has only hit .224 in almost 600 at bats, he seems to come up with clutch hits. He also is one of the best defensive catchers in team history. Gary Cohen loves to say, "Don't run on this cat!" The team ERA with Torrens is shockingly better than with Francisco Alvarez. His double play in London to end a game turned the team around in 2024.

TEACHER SAYS A. The Mets play differently when he catches. Agree?

More names in Mets - Yankees trade history: Miguel Castro, Joely Rodriguez, Armando Benitez, Frank Tanana, Tucker Ashford, Hal Reniff, and Bob Friend.

BONUS: Here are of few big names that have played for both teams. It's bigger than you think. None were directly traded between the two.

Rickey Henderson, Willie Randolph, Yogi Berra, Robinson Cano, Doc Gooden, Bobby Abreu, Harrison Bader, Dellin Betances, Rick Cerone, Ike Davis, Dock Ellis, Tim Foli, Todd Frazier, Curtis Granderson, Dave Kingman, Booby Ojeda, Jesse Orosco, David Cone, Bartolo Colon, Al Leiter, Elliot Maddox, John Olerud, Kenny Rogers, Luis Severino, Mike Torrez, Claudell Washington, Todd Zeile, and Darryl Strawberry.

Please add your list of the top ten Mets/Yankees players in the comments!

Trade Tracker will continue. I'll be examining a few multi-team trades and a few "almost" trades that could have affected Mets history. (Hint: There was a much better Seaver trade on the table).