On his blog over at ESPN, Buster Olney questions the Mets decision to give up on Lastings Milledge this early, especially for so little in return.

He writes, “That kid has talent,” said one AL executive. “Eighteen months ago, his bat speed was being compared to that of Gary Sheffield, and that hasn’t changed. He’s only 22 years old. Even if you think he’s a pain in the [rear] now, there’s no reason why you can’t wait and see if his rough edges will get smoothed out.”

He also goes on to talk about the Mets acquisitions of Ryan Church and Brian Schneider in the trade saying, “The return they got — the older catcher, an extra outfielder [Ryan Church], those are not hard to find. But it is very hard to find someone with talent like Milledge.”

I would have to agree with what Olney is saying here. When this trade was first made my first thoughts were that the Mets were just getting chips to trade away for a front of the rotation starter, but this no longer seems to be the case. Omar seems to be satisfied going into the season with Church as the starting right fielder.

Now I understand the trade value of Milledge has fallen dramatically, but this would raise the question of why not running him out there this season to see if he can live up to his hype and get his trade value to where it once was. Hopefully Omar can prove all the critics wrong because In Omar We Trust…right?