Did We Make a Good Deal?: July 27th, 2001 Mets Trade Turk Wendell

The Deal:

	get	RHP Turk Wendell, Mets LHP Dennis Cook, Mets
	get	LHP Bruce Chen, Scranton (AAA) LHP Adam Walker, Reading (AA)

The Why: At the time of the deal the Mets were 9 games under .500, well behind the Phillies and Braves despite finishing only 6 games out, and were looking to shed some salary and Bruce Chenn had been a top prospect and putting up good numbers for the Phills in his first full season. The Phillies were battling it out with the Braves and needed some bullpen help so they aquired an above-average set-up man.

Who did it help the most?:  The simple answer is no one.  Turk Wendell went on to post an 0-2 record with a 7.47 ERA for the Phillies down the stretch in 2001, missed all of 2002 with an elbow injury, but did have a solid year in 2003 before leaving for the Rockies in free agency and Dennis Cook went 0-0 5.59 in 2001 then leaving for the Angels.  Burce Chen only wound up playing 60.1 going 3-2 with a 4.62 ERA as a New York Met before making his 4th stop in the NL East going to the Expos, while Adam Walker never cracked a big league roster and toured the Mets minor league system.

Did we make a good deal?: Mute deal. Neither team lost anything special and no one gained anything special.  I liked Turk Wendell, but he wasn’t going to help a terrible Met team and Chen was worth the gamble.  The deal made sense for both teams, but worked out for neither.