Word spread this morning that the Mets could consider trading Ike Davis, which prompted me to Tweet this:

This isn’t about what I tweeted so much as the responses to that Tweet, which included multiple Mets fans decrying the joke idea of trading Davis for awesome awesome McAwesomestein superhuman home-run thing Giancarlo Stanton (which the Marlins would never do, obviously) because it would leave the Mets without a first baseman.

OK.

The Mets don’t have outfielders, and you’re going to have to give something to get something. Also, to all those who’re reading to anoint Ike Davis the first baseman of the future and trade Lucas Duda, remember how you felt in, I don’t know, June. Davis is a better defender than Duda, is a year younger and has a larger sample to suggest he’s a capable Major Leaguer. He also has a better prospect pedigree, for whatever that’s worth (i.e. very little). But to date, Davis and Duda have been almost identical hitters in their careers. Davis has a 115 OPS+, Duda has a 114 OPS+.

Since Duda is indeed a year older, it’s more reasonable to expect improvement from Davis than Duda, whose career line looks a lot like that of average 2012 National League first basemen. But is that extra year of development from Davis, plus whatever value he has on defense at first base over Duda, worth more than the difference between Giancarlo Motherf–

Wait, why am I even indulging this?

Depends on the deal, depends on the deal, depends on the deal.