How Mets, Dodgers and Guardians all made same brutal trade mistake amid MVP races

New York Mets fans have been through a rough 2026 season. Their team massively underperformed; they sold at the trade deadline, fired their manager, and haven't gotten to see much from their stars due to injuries.

But maybe the worst thing of all is what Pete Crow-Armstrong has done with the Chicago Cubs this season. He's easily the runaway NL MVP favorite, which stings for the Mets, the team that traded PCA away a few years ago for Javier Baez.

Fortunately for the Mets, they're not alone. USA Today's Bob Nightengale highlighted how the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cleveland Guardians also made a similar brutal mistake, with both of those teams trading away an MVP contender many years ago.

Mets, Dodgers and Guardians all traded future MVP candidates

"It's pretty wild considering that the National League's MVP and the top two AL MVP candidates were all traded early in their minor league careers," Nightengale writes.

For the Mets, it was a deal shipping out Crow-Armstrong to the Cubs for Baez and Trevor Williams. That deal was clearly a mistake, as PCA is putting together maybe one of the best seasons of all-time. But they're not alone.

The Dodgers traded Yordan Alvarez, who was 19 years old at the time of the deal, in exchange for Josh Fields. Alvarez is tearing it up for the Astros this year and has a chance to win the AL Triple Crown.

Both the Mets and Dodgers have star power and high payrolls to make up for the loss of Crow-Armstrong and Alvarez. The Guardians, on the other hand, do not have the means to make up for their loss.

MORE: MLB insider accuses Shohei Ohtani of misleading Dodgers about injury issues

Cleveland shipped off Junior Caminero to the Tampa Bay Rays for Tobias Myers. Caminero is one of baseball's best power hitters and would do wonders for the Guardians, a team that is sorely lacking in the home run department.

While Mets fans have every right to feel terrible about their team trading away PCA before he turned into the MVP-caliber player he is now, at least they're not alone. The Dodgers and Guardians both traded away future superstars way too soon as prospects.

Had these three trades not happened, PCA would be tearing it up for the Mets, Alvarez slugging for a stacked Dodgers team, and Caminero would be a huge boost to a weaker Cleveland offense.

More MLB news:

• Tatsuya Imai predicted not to opt out of $36M Astros contract
• Why Braves could trade Spencer Strider this upcoming offseason
• Cubs SP Shota Imanaga gets bad free agency news thanks to 92 mph issue
• Padres predicted to lose Michael King with $58M opt-out likely
• Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski makes all kinds of MLB history with 1,000 pitches of 100 mph