The Mets made three promises at the trade deadline:
1. They would be open-minded about trading their best starting pitchers, yet it was difficult to find an executive who felt they ever engaged the Mets seriously on Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard or even Steven Matz.
2. They would eat money to make better trades. They ate no money, saying there were no trades that could be enhanced by doing so.
3. They would empower the three-pronged general manager construct of Omar Minaya, J.P. Ricciardi and John Ricco to think creatively outside the box. Yet, they made the two most obvious deals available to them by shipping out their two best walk-year players, Asdrubal Cabrera and Jeurys Familia, for rather standard returns.