Yes, as everyone seems especially eager to remind you, the Mets once traded Nelson Cruz. LOL.

They traded Cruz straight-up to the A’s on Aug. 30, 2000 for middle infielder Jorge Velandia, who sucked. Velandia spent parts of three seasons with the Major League Mets and posted a whopping .497 OPS.

A few years later, after Cruz had already reached and hit well at Double-A in 2004, the A’s traded him to the Brewers for Keith Ginter, who also sucked. Ginter spent a season in Oakland and posted a downright Jorge Velandian .497 OPS.

Then — then! — the Brewers included Cruz in a deal with a half season’s worth of Carlos Lee, who didn’t suck then, for Julian Cordero, who sucked, Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix, who sort of sucked, and a half a season of Francisco Cordero, who decidedly did not suck.

Cruz spent part of 2006 and most of 2007 with the Major League Rangers, but he sucked then — enough so that the Rangers sent him back to Triple-A for 2008. Cruz beat the hell out of the ball in Triple-A Oklahoma and became a favorite of this guy in the old Flushing Fussing column on SNY.tv, where I wrote:

Any phone calls to the Rangers, though, should start with a question about Flushing Fussing favorite Nelson Cruz. Cruz, a 28-year-old right-hander who struggled in parts of three big-league seasons, has shown that he has absolutely nothing left to prove in Triple-A. Granted, he’s playing in a big-time hitter’s park in Oklahoma, but the dude’s got a .349 batting average with a .442 on-base percentage and 37 homers in 350 at-bats in 2008. If the Rangers don’t want to take any more chances on Cruz, I certainly hope the Mets will. He needs only more time to adjust to the Majors than the Rangers have given him. The guy can rake.

The Rangers finally did take another chance on Cruz late in August after David Murphy got hurt, and Cruz proceeded to not suck. (Except on the road, it should be noted, where Cruz can boast only a .726 career OPS. I normally attribute stuff like that to randomness but Cruz’s home/road splits are pretty consistent.)

Anyway, yeah, the Mets traded Nelson Cruz. So did the A’s and Brewers, and it wasn’t until his fourth season with the Rangers that he became an everyday player. LOL.