As the New York Mets tried to improve their bullpen last night as they acquired Jon Rauch, Ramon Ramirez, and Frank Francisco, they also swapped outfielders with the San Francisco Giants. As part the Ramirez acquisition, the Mets acquired Andres Torres from the Giants in exchange for Angel Pagan.

What this trade represents is how quickly someone can wear out their welcome in New York.

Pagan was traded to San Francisco last night

In 2010, Pagan was the toast of the town. After five years of obscurity with the Chicago Cubs and trolling around the Mets’ minor leagues, Pagan had a breakout 2010 season. He hit .290/.340/.425 with 11 HR’s and 37 SB’s. His 5.5 WAR was among the best in baseball.

Pagan was also stellar in the field posting a combined 15.4 UZR in left, center, and right. He looked like the Mets starting center fielder for the foreseeable future.

But Pagan fell off in 2011, didn’t look like a guy who was into the game all the time, and fell out of favor with GM Sandy Alderson. I will say this, Pagan’s 2011 season wasn’t as bad offensively as it seemed.

Pagan improved his BB Percentage from 7.0 to 8.3 percent and lowered his K Percentage from 15.3 to 11.7 percent. Those are usually good signs for a batter. His .262 average could be attributed to his .285 BABIP, which was about 50 points lower than it was in 2010.

Pagan will get a fresh start with the Giants and they will hope he reverts back to his 2010 form. With Melky Cabrera already in the fold, look for Pagan to play left with the Giants in 2012.

In exchange for Pagan, the Mets will get Torres, whose career path to the majors is very similar to that of Pagan’s. Torres toiled around in the minor leagues for years and then had his breakout year with the Giants in 2010.

Torres hit .268/.343/.479 with 16 HR’s and 26 SB’s for the Giants in 2010 and his 6.8 WAR was good for ninth best in baseball. That’s right, Andres Torres was ninth most valuable player in baseball in 2010. That’s how good he was.

But like Pagan, Torres really fell off in 2011. Torres failures can be attributed to injuries. He only played in 112 games in 2011 and he saw all of his major statistics take a massive dip.

What the Mets see in Torres is a guy, who despite having a down 2011 season at the plate, still played stellar defense in center field. His 8.7 UZR still was among the best in baseball.

Alderson has said repeatedly that he wants to improve his defense in 2012. Torres is an upgrade over Pagan in center and with the slow-footed Jason Bay in left, that’s important.

This is a classic “change of scenery” trade, but considering the Mets were also able to pry Ramirez from the Giants, I think they got the better of this one.

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By The Baseball Index