Just for the record, the "crap" we got in return was John Thomson, who we foolishly did not bring back last year.
Here's a comparison of them last year with a few different stats (Payton's #s 1st):
Win Shares - 15 vs. 11 (Payton better by 1.33 wins)
WARP3 - 6.2 vs. 5.8 (Payton better by .4 wins)
VORP - 5.1 vs. 22.1 (Thomson better by 17 runs, or 1.7 wins, but doesn't take fielding into account)

Averaging all those out, they appear even, but even looking as favorably as possible at Payton (who made a half mill more), it was only about a 1 win difference. So, it's not exactly a disastrous trade.

According to Klapisch, the Mets are going to sign Karim Garcia for 850k, which sucks because I hate him. But not as much as Josh hates him. Under a more neutral analysis, it's probably not a bad pickup, but they need to pick up a righty to platoon with him. Hmm, maybe stick with Raul Gonzalez? Or get Brian Buchanan from the Padres now that they have Giles, Klesko, Payton, Nady, and Long.

And Turk Wendell may join Agbayani and Matt Franco on the Marines. Maybe they should make Pratt their starting catcher.