Every December, baseball fans receive little gifts. Sometimes it’s a new bullpen arm. Sometimes it’s a free-agent splash. And sometimes it’s the kind of petty satisfaction Cincinnati Reds fans can enjoy with a warm drink: watching an old New York Mets deadline deal age like milk.
The 2022 swap where the Mets got Tyler Naquin (plus Phillip Diehl) and Cincinnati took home teenage outfielder Héctor Rodríguez (and righty Jose Acuña) is turning into the kind of trade Mets fans would love to delete from existence. It was officially announced on July 28, 2022, and it was very much a “help us right now” move for a contender.