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Report: Brewers trade Carlos Gomez to New York Mets … then don’t

By Phil Watson

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According to a report, the Milwaukee Brewers had traded two-time All-Star center fielder Carlos Gomez to the New York Mets in exchange for right-hander Zack Wheeler and shortstop Wilmer Flores.

MLB.com reported that Gomez was informed of the trade just before the Brewers’ charter from San Francisco International Airport took off Wednesday to return to Milwaukee.

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However, after the Mets’ 7-3 loss Wednesday night to the San Diego Padres, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported that the deal was off and wasn’t a thing to begin with:

Gomez would have been the second veteran dealt by the Brewers this month. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday in exchange for right-hander Yhonathan Barrios as Milwaukee—last in the National League Central after a dismal start—tries to “reset,” in the words of general manager Doug Melvin.

For the 29-year-old Gomez, it would have been a return to the organization that originally signed him out of the Dominican Republic in July 2002.

Gomez made his major-league debut for the Mets in 2007, playing 58 games, before he was traded in February 2008 to the Minnesota Twins, considered the key piece in a deal that sent two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana to the Mets.

But after a promising start in Minnesota, things went sideways for Gomez. He played in 153 games and was the regular center fielder for the club in 2008, hitting .258/.296/.360 with 79 runs, 24 doubles, seven triples, seven home runs and 59 RBI with 33 steals in 44 attempts.

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Gomez’s problem was pitch selection—he walked just 25 times and fanned 142 times in 614 plate appearances and in 2009 lost his every day job during a season in which he hit .229/.287/.337 in 137 games.

In November 2009, Gomez—stuck in a crowded Twins outfield with Michael Cuddyer, Denard Span, Delmon Young and Jason Kubel—was traded to Milwaukee in exchange for shortstop J.J. Hardy.

But it wasn’t until the second half of the 2012 season that Gomez earned an everyday spot. After 2½ seasons of part-time duty, then-manager Ron Roenicke installed Gomez in center field in the second half of the season and he responded with a .278/.321/.488 slash line after the All-Star break, hitting 14 home runs with 33 RBI and stealing 26 bases in 75 games.

The breakout continued in 2013 when Gomez hit .284/.338/.506 and clubbed a career-high 24 home runs with 73 RBI, 10 triples and 40 stolen bases, earning his first All-Star appearance and winning a Gold Glove award for his work in center.

Gomez was again an All-Star in 2014, voted in as a starter, and hit .284/.356/.477 in 148 games, belting 34 doubles with 23 homers and 73 RBI and stealing 34 bases.

He was slowed this season by a strained hamstring which landed him on the disabled list in April and various other nagging injuries to his hip and wrist.

In 74 games, he was hitting .262/.328/.423 with 42 runs, 20 doubles, eight homers and 43 RBI, but his aggressiveness on the basepaths had been limited, as he had just seven steals in 13 attempts.

Wheeler, 25, underwent Tommy John surgery in March to replace a torn UCL in his elbow and is not expected to pitch again until around the All-Star break in 2016.

In his first full season in the majors in 2014, Wheeler was 11-11 in 32 starts, with a 3.54 ERA and 1.327 WHIP in 185.1 innings, striking out 187.

According to a report in Newsday in March, the Mets knew Wheeler had an elbow injury—a torn tendon—in 2014 and had him undergo platelet-rich plasma therapy twice in the offseason.

He tore his UCL in March during spring training.

Wheeler was the sixth overall pick by the San Francisco Giants in the 2009 draft out of East Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga., and was traded to the Mets in July 2011 in exchange for outfielder Carlos Beltran and cash.

Wheeler made his big-league debut in June 2013 and made 17 starts that season, going 7-5 with a 3.42 ERA and 1.360 WHIP, striking out 84 in 100 innings.

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    • Flores, who turns 24 next month, was signed by the Mets as an international free agent from Venezuela in August 2007 and debuted in 2013.

    This season, he was hitting .249/.281/.379 in 92 games, with 34 runs, 14 doubles, 10 home runs and 40 RBI, starting 68 games at shortstop and 21 at second base.

    Last season, he appeared in 78 games and hit .251/.286/.378 with 13 doubles, six homers and 29 RBI, making 44 starts at shortstop and 17 at second base.

    As a rookie in 2013, he started 17 games at third base and appeared in 27 games overall, batting .211/.248/.295 with five doubles, a home run and 13 RBI.

    The reactions to the trade couldn’t have been much different:

    Flores was in the lineup Wednesday, his first start since Friday, when the Mets acquired infielders Kelly Johnson and Jose Uribe from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for minor-league right-handers John Gant and Robert Whalen.

    The Brewers may not be done dealing, with six pitchers currently in the starting rotation and a lot of trade buzz surrounding first baseman Adam Lind and outfielder Gerardo Parra.

    Next: 4 Teams Reportedly In On Parra

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