Like with correctness, there are sliding scales of wrong. The Mets got it absolutely wrong. But I'll get to Omir later.
First, consider this trade in the most abstract way possible: the Mets trade oft-injured, average catcher for former top pitching prospect, who has fallen out of favor. Reminiscent of John Maine, eh? Sounds kind of like the Oliver Perez thrown-in, doesn't it? Except, when considered in context, these realities make it suddenly less appealing:
- The Mets need an average catcher. Most teams do, and The Mets especially.
- Lance Broadway is not good. He was a former first round pick, but he mostly kept his "top prospect" status because the White Sox have sported some pretty terrible farm systems this decade. He doesn't get enough strikeouts and issues too many walks. The silver-lining in his career stats is his solid GB%, but that in itself won't make a good pitcher. Optimism says he's been good so far this year, and could be a useful bullpen arm, but he looks more like a bizzaro-world bust-version of Mike Pelfrey than John Maine.
- The Mets are paying the White Sox to make this trade. That's backwards.
Now I'll say something nice about Omir Santos. He makes contact. Santos has swung at everything and has made an astonishing 64% contact rate on balls outside of the zone, which has allowed him to keep a good 85% contact rate. The walk-off hit was a good example of said phenomenon. Still, Omir Santos will probably drop-off in a big way, and soon. Whether you think Omir Santos is really this good or not, you have to accept that it's not a good sign when people are debating whether a player with a .300 OBP is "for real".
Minaya's comments about Santos were also a little disturbing because it indicates he both likes Santos enough to start, possibly over Schneider, and thinks ~30 games of totally bizarre data is an adequate sample size to evaluate a player.
Farewell, Blastro, you were too good for this team. Good luck, Schneider.