This Happens In New York Baseball About Every Four Years

The New York Yankees and Mets play each other each year in a regular season Subway Series. The two met for the only time in the World Series in 2000 with the Pinstripes prevailing in 5 games. On a daily basis the two New York Major League Baseball franchises beg for attention from the nation's biggest media market.

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However, the one thing the Mets and Yankees do together very rarely, is baseball business. In the 60 years of existence, only 16 times have these two franchises consummated a trade. Sunday was one one of those rare moments for these two organizations. (Below is a full list of the trades.) The last thing either ownership has ever wanted was to get burned by the other in a trade.

According to friend of The Drive with Charlie and Dan, Tim Healey, Mets right-hander Miguel Castro will be heading to the Bronx, while left-hander Joely Rodriguez coming to Queens. “Clearly, left-handed relief was something that we were looking for,” general manager Billy Eppler said of the deal with his former longtime boss, Yankees GM Brian Cashman to Healey. “We were able to find a trade partner, and oddly enough, it was across town . We were both serving each other’s needs is what it seemed like to me. They wanted to get a bit more right-handed. We wanted to get left-handed. Just the circumstances aligned.”

Last year, splitting time between the Rangers and Yankees, Joely Rodriguez had a 4.66 ERA, similar to his 4.61 career mark in parts of four seasons. Miguel Castro had a 3.45 ERA last year. The Mets acquired him from the Orioles at the 2020 trade deadline. The trades between the Yanks and Mets have not always resulted in direct changes to their big league clubs, at least initially. However, there have been a number of moves that have made an impact.

Here is a history of trades between the Yankees and Mets according to MLB.com:

#16 - April 3, 2022: Mets trade Miguel Castro to Yankees for Joely Rodríguez
#15 - April 10, 2018: Yankees trade Kendall Coleman to Mets for L.J. Mazzilli
#14 - Dec. 19, 2014: Yankees purchase Gonzalez Germen from Mets

#13 - Dec. 3, 2004: Mets trade Mike Stanton to Yankees for Felix Heredia
#12 - July 16, 2003: Yankees trade Ryan Bicondoa, Jason Anderson and Anderson Garcia to Mets for Armando Benitez

#11 _ Dec. 7, 2001: Yankees trade David Justice to Mets for Robin Ventura
#10 - Sept. 17, 1993: Yankees trade Kenny Greer to Mets for Frank Tanana
# 9 - June 9, 1992: Mets trade Tim Burke to Yankees for Lee Guetterman
# 8 - July 10, 1989: Mets trade Marcus Lawton to Yankees for Scott Nielsen
# 7 - Dec. 11, 1987: Yankees trade Steve Frey, Phil Lombardi and Darren Reed to Mets for Victor Garcia and Rafael Santana
#6 - April 18, 1983: Yankees trade Tucker Ashford to Mets for a player to be named later and Steve Ray. Mets sent Felix Perdomo to Yankees to complete the trade
#5 - April 1, 1980: Yankees purchase Marshall Brant from Mets
#4 - Dec. 9, 1977: Yankees trade Sergio Ferrer to Mets for Roy Staiger
#3 - July, 1972: As part of a 3-team trade, Yankees send Tommie Sheppard to Montreal Expos. Expos send Dave McDonald to Mets
#2 - June 28, 1967: Mets purchase Hal Reniff from Yankees

#1 - The first trade between this two franchises occurred June 15, 1966: Mets purchase Bob Friend from Yankees - Bob Friend pitched mostly for the Pirates before being traded to the Yankees. He went 1-4 with a 4.84 ERA in 12 games (eight starts) for the Yanks before going 5-8 with a 4.40 ERA in 22 games (12 starts) for the Mets to finish out the '66 season. He called it a career soon after. Friend pretty much sums up the next 16 trades. No one really remembers afterwards.