Brett Gardner is good, not expendable.

"So the Yankees showed up here on Tuesday without their billion-dollar infield or their star center fielder, and that sort of took the glitter off the first spring training game against the Mets since 1996."

Because, in normal circumstances, the Mayor's Trophy game is glittery.


"I’m aware these games don’t count, but if the New York teams are going to bother playing Grapefruit League games against one another, shouldn't the paying customers have some sort of guarantee they'll get to see the big names?"

No.


"Of course, here’s the real problem for the Mets. For all the Yankees who weren't here, it wasn't hard to find one that epitomizes the huge gap between the two teams these days.

Put it this way: How much do you think the Mets could use Brett Gardner?

A solid on-base percentage guy with tremendous speed, Gardner would be a lot more valuable to the Mets as their leadoff hitter and center fielder than he is as the No. 9 hitter and left fielder for the Yankees."

Well ... yeah.

Every good player is more valuable to a bad team than he is to a good team.


"Actually, the Mets would love to have someone like Gardner as a lefthanded-hitting option for left field, such is the level of concern for Jason Bay after an invisible spring."

Make an offer.


"Meanwhile, Gardner’s speed is a quite a weapon, and yet you can find baseball people who believe the Yankees would be a stronger ballclub, at least offensively, if they played Eduardo Nunez in left field."

"Baseball people."


"Instead Nunez, who is hitting .357 this spring after going 1-for-3 on Tuesday in the Mets’ 7-6 walk-off win, gives the Yankees the type of bench depth that further separates them from the Mets."

So if Gardner would help the Mets ... and Nunez is better than Gardner, according to some "baseball people" ... then Nunez could probably help the Mets even more than Gardner could.

Which is a long-winded illustration of something you already know: The Yankees are good and the Mets are bad, mostly due to the surplus of good players on the Yankees combined with the paucity of good players on the Mets.