This might be the weirdest trade I’ve ever seen. The Mets and Mariners trade two players who were getting DFA’s in order for the Mets to buy a reliever from the Mariners:

The Mets took on the contract of Chris Flexen in order to obtain reliever Trevor Gott from the Mariners.

Going to Seattle will be lefty Zach Muckenhirn, whom the Mets had designated for assignment.

The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed the Mets will pick up the roughly $4 million due to Flexen, who immediately was designated for assignment.

In buying Flexen, the Mets pried away Gott, who is owed about $600,000 and who has been a solid, journeyman reliever.

NYPost.com

Back in the 1970s, Charlie Finley, the owner of the Athletics, tried to sell his stars to the Yankees and Red Sox in order to have money to rebuild, rather than getting nothing when the players left for free agency. Then commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who disliked Finley, put in a rule that an owner could not sell off his players like that. As far as I know that rule is still in place, otherwise the Mets could have just bought Gott’s contract for $4 million.

Let’s return to the ability to buy and sell contracts without bodies being traded for no reason.