Trades of starting position players between division rivals are rather rare, but in the case of the Braves and Mets each giving up on Jeff Francoeur (above, center) and Ryan Church respectively, both sides are probably figure they’ve got little to lose. Church’s injuries and uneasy relationship with Jerry Manuel are well documented, while Francoeur‘s production has dropped dramatically since hitting 48 HR’s and driving in 208 runs between ’06 and ’07. John Delcos hopes “there™s a greater upside with Francoeur than Church”, and while it cannot be argued Church has never scaled similar heights, he’s also not suffered the indignity of being sent to Double A for poor performance within the past year. I’m not sure how acquiring the arbitration-eligible, not-so-selective Francoeur (OBP .282) addresses a 2010 rebuild, but if the Atlanta native can recapture anything close to the form he flashed his first two full seasons in the big leagues…the Mets might have a legitimate shot at 3rd place this year.
Eventually I imagine I’ll have a more nuanced take on this, but I fucking hate this deal. I liked the idea of, say, the Royals dumping Jose Guillen on the Braves for Francoeur (Jazayerli proposed this a couple months ago) but considering that the Mets didn’t dump anything but one of their more valuable players in this trade, it’s really hard to like anything about it. Francoeur has upside, he’s already had great seasons, yes — but by the numbers he’s been worse than just about any other big league outfielder over the last few years. How that helps, I can’t figure. And I don’t like him, personally, which doesn’t help.
Maybe he’ll connect with New York’s French community? C’est possible, non?