Evaluating An Acquistion: Should the Mets Keep Francoeur?

When the Mets and Braves agreed to swap a couple of troubled outfielders, it was a shock to baseball. At the time, both of these teams were competing for a playoff spot, and they had agreed to swap two significant players, with the Braves receiving Ryan Church in exchange for Jeff Francoeur. I didn’t know what to think of it at the time, but eventually I came to like the deal. People were yelling to fire Omar Minaya because of the trade, but that just wasn’t going to happen. I actually ended up calling Steve Somers while I was driving home from Cape Cod, and I told him that the Mets had made an excellent deal with acquiring Francoeur. They had acquired a guy who is six years younger than Church and has a better attitude. Sure, we all know about his inability to draw a walk, but he can certainly hit the ball out of the ballpark. He has already hit more home runs—five—in 29 games for the Mets than Church did—two—in 67 games for us. Just for the stat...