MLB

A deal may not be popular, but it’s smart for both clubs

In a vacuum you do not trade a Cy Young winner, nor do you acquire a 38-year-old pitcher in exchange for your best prospect.

But the Mets and Blue Jays are not operating from inside vacuums. Therefore, I not only totally understand why the Mets are on the brink of trading R.A. Dickey to Toronto, I endorse it. And though I cannot endorse the Blue Jays using arguably their two best prospects as the bait, I totally understand why they are.

Every organization has different needs, horizons, pressure points, historical imperatives and payrolls — just to name a few elements — that take it from the vacuum to an individual real world.

The real world in which the Mets now find themselves is quite similar to the one Toronto was in during the first three years of general manager Alex Anthopoulos’ administration. He took over for now Mets special assistant to the GM J.P. Ricciardi, inheriting a talent pool not ready to compete in the AL East. So he hoarded draft picks, cleansed payroll and traded veteran assets as a way to deepen the prospect base.

In his first year, for example, Anthopoulos dealt his own popular former Cy Young winner, Roy Halladay, to the Phillies for a package of players that included catcher Travis d’Arnaud, the key item going back to the Mets if this deal goes through.

Toronto built an elite farm system and created payroll flexibility. So now, in Year 4, when Anthopoulos sees vulnerability with the familiar AL East power base (Boston and NewYork) and has a stockpile of primeaged major league talent (think Jose Bautista, Edward Encarnacion, Jose Reyes, Brett Lawrie, Brandon Morrow, etc.) who he controls for several years, he can attack. He did that by using several prospects to get Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and others from Miami earlier this offseason.

And if the final details are worked out — including a twoyear extension for Dickey — Anthopoulos will give up arguably the best catching prospect in the majors plus one of the better pitching prospects, Noah Syndergaard, as part of what is likely to be a seven-player transaction that will put Dickey atop his rotation with Johnson.

It generally is not advisable to trade 23-year-old catchers with high ceilings for 38-year-olds who rely on an historically fickle pitch. But the Jays believe Dickey is no fluke and will continue to thrive even in the AL East. Plus, theyhave not been to the playoffs since winning consecutive World Series in 1992-93. So they feel if they do not go for it now, then when?

The Mets cannot go for it now. Look, if they kept Dickey, they would be strengthening their strength — their rotation. Yet in 2013 their starters still would be inferior to Washington’s, and maybe to Philadelphia’s and Atlanta’s, as well, with little question those teams’ whole rosters are superior to that of the Mets. So fourth place again would be likely, even with Dickey.

So remove emotion and think of Dickey as a stock at its highest value. Now consider where the Mets’ portfolio is as far as talent and money available to address needs. The logical conclusion is to sell high on that stock. D’Arnaud/ Syndgaard are the right kind of return on investment. In fact, one AL executive said if the deal went through it would be “highway robbery” in the Mets’ favor.

But always use caution when touting prospects. Just to show you how inexact a science it is to assess youngsters, one evaluator I respect said d’Arnaud is an “impact-caliber defender,” while another cited a lack of agility inhis catching. There was unanimity that offense is d’Arnaud’s calling card. Yet even there I was warned to remember how playing in both Las Vegas and the Triple-A Pacific Coast League — as d’Arnaud did last season with a .975 OPS before hurting his knee — can inflate numbers and also that d’Arnaud’s batting average (.333) might have been helped by having a larger than normal amount of balls put into play go for hits.

Still, even an NL executive who was tempered on d’Arnaud said, “He’s a solid catcher who can really hit, which is probably an above-average player, but not a star. … He has shown he can hit a variety of pitch types and pitch locations. He uses the whole field. Again, I don’t think he is a star, but a catcher with an outside chance to hit third in a major league lineup is pretty unique.”

Ultimately, the key evaluation falls to Mets GM Sandy Alderson, who was hired to rebuild a petrified system. In the last 18 months he now has a chance to turn two upper-30s players with expiring contracts — Carlos Beltran and Dickey — into high-end prospects (Zach Wheeler already and d’Arnaud/ Syndergaard on the launching pad). If they translate into long-running stars at premium positions, Alderson will have sped up the clock on sustained Mets excellence and put them in position, say, after the 2014 campaign to do what Toronto is doing now—and really go for it.

joel.sherman@nypost.com