Nick Johnson for Bobby Parnell?

MetsBlog.com reports that the Nationals have offered first baseman Nick Johnson to the Red Sox for 27 year old relief pitcher Manny Delcarmen and that the Nats would likely ask for 24 year old rookie relief pitcher Bobby Parnell from the Mets in exchange for Johnson.  These both seem like pretty fair (to each side) trade proposals.

Delcarmen is a pretty good relief pitcher, but an every day position player would have more value.  Trading Johnson for Delcarmen would only make sense if Delcarmen has three more seasons after 2009 before he becomes a free agent. 

The Nats are a bad team that needs to receive players it can hold onto for a few years in exchange for their more talented veterans.

If I were the Mets GM, I would seriously consider an even-up trade of Bobby Parnell for Nick Johnson.  Parnell is off to a great start for the Mets this year, with a 1.96 ERA in 18.1 innings over 20 appearances, and he’s only 24 this year, but his minor league numbers are underwhelming. 

He has a career minor league ERA of 4.04, and his minor league numbers in 2008 (4.62 ERA, 148 IP, 151 Hits, 14 HRs, 66 BB’s and 114; mostly at AA Binghamton in the Eastern League with a late season promotion to New Orleans in the PCL) leave me cold.  

Parnell is young enough that it’s possible that his apparent improvement this year is for real, but I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.

Even if Parnell continues to pitch well this year, I think Johnson would help the Mets more in 2009, which is the only reason the Mets would make this deal at all.

You can’t trust Johnson to stay healthy over the long term, but the Mets only need Johnson to stay healthy until Carlos Delgado comes back, if not in late July, then probably no later than the end of August. 

Johnson is healthy right now, so I don’t know that it would be too risky for the Mets to take him as a short term rental if they are determined to make the playoffs this year.