Breaking Down the Mets’ Four Trades
David Stearns and company made four trades for rentals they hope will help the Mets finally get back to the World Series. Let’s take a look at how these four trades were made in terms of prospect rankings, roster status and what the Mets got in return.
The Deals
- RHPs Wellington Aracena (Low-A) and Cam Foster (Double-A) for LHP Gregory Soto
- OF Drew Gilbert (Triple-A), RHPs Blade Tidwell (Triple-A) and José Buttó (MLB) for RHP Tyler Rogers
- INF Jesus Báez (High-A), RHPs Nate Dohm (High-A) and Frank Elissalt (High-A) for RHP Ryan Helsley
- RHPs Raimon Gómez (High-A), Anthony Nunez (Double-A) and Chandler Marsh (High-A) for OF Cedric Mullins
The trade for Rogers elicited the most significant reaction from Mets fans because of the name recognition for Gilbert, Tidwell and Buttó. However, Gilbert has been merely mediocre offensively in a hitter-friendly league, and his long-term defensive fit is probably best suited for the corners, not center field. Tidwell struggled mightily in his short big league stint this season to the tune of 15 earned runs in 15 innings. Buttó has been a serviceable big league arm, though he’s out of options and his strikeouts are at a career low.
Drew Gilbert, Photo by Kylie Richelle of Syracuse Mets
Prospect Rankings and How They Were Originally Acquired
- No. 7 – Jesus Báez, IFA ($275K bonus)
- No. 14 – Drew Gilbert, trade (Justin Verlander)
- No. 17 – Nate Dohm, 3rd round pick (2024)
- No. 19 – Blade Tidwell, 2nd round pick (2022)
- No. 23 – Anthony Nunez, UDFA
- No. 32 – Raimon Gómez, IFA ($10K bonus)
- No. 37 – Frank Elissalt, 19th round pick (2024)
- No. 46 – Chandler Marsh, UDFA
- Unranked – Cam Foster, 14th round pick (2022)
- MLB – José Buttó, IFA ($5K bonus)
As you see, Báez was far and away the best prospect the Mets dealt. The 20-year-old was hitting .244/.337/.406 for the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones at the time of the trade. Dohm is the best pitching prospect of the group, and he has a 2.62 ERA in 34 1/3 innings for Brooklyn this year. Gómez made noise earlier this season when he hit 104.5 mph, but has been shifted to a bullpen role, and has 15 walks and five HBPs in 22 innings for Brooklyn.
Nunez jumps out to me as a guy that we will probably see pitch in the big leagues this season. The former minor league infielder has held hitters to a .114 average this year (best among 1,222 minor league pitchers) and has a 1.58 ERA. Elissalt and Marsh have flashed promise as starters in the lower minors, and Foster has the makings of an MLB-caliber slider.
Roster Implications
As Mets fans should know by now, Stearns is keenly aware of a player’s roster situation when he makes a move. As noted above, Buttó was on the 40-man roster and out of options. Tidwell was also on the 40-man roster, and his MLB struggles this season certainly didn’t secure his grip on keeping that spot. Of the remaining eight players traded, four (Gilbert, Gómez, Nunez & Foster) are Rule 5 eligible this offseason. That means the Mets would’ve had to add any of them to the 40-man roster before the November deadline, or they would be exposed to the Rule 5 draft.
Cedric Mullins. Photo by Roberto Carlo
What They Did
The Mets turned arguably their biggest weakness into a strength by getting three arms capable of pitching in high-leverage situations. They got three very different arms, too. Soto is a hard-throwing lefty, Rogers is a submariner who gets a ton of groundballs, and Helsley is one of the hardest-throwing righties in baseball.
Take a look at the Mets’ current bullpen:
At the very least, that’s one of the best in the National League.
The Mets have needed a center fielder since Jose Siri struggled to start the season and then went down with an injury. Tyrone Taylor has been great defensively, but he’s struggled overall offensively (58 wRC+) and was particularly bad in July with a -14 wRC+. On the flip side, Cedric Mullins was impressive in July with a 137 wRC+ after a slow start to the season. Outside of a breakout campaign in 2021 (136 wRC+), Mullins has been slightly above league average offensively (104 wRC+ this season), and that would be a boost for the Mets in center.
Power has been up for Mullins with 15 home runs already this season after hitting 18 last year. His ISO (isolated slugging) of .204 would be the second-highest of his career. The July success for Mullins has coincided with his trying to pull the ball more. His pull % of 52.7 in July was his highest of the season
Mullins does still steal bases a bit, with 14 this season and 32 last year. His sprint speed is in the 80th percentile, up from 75th last year and 66th the year before. As for his defense, the different metrics do not agree. Defensive runs saved have him well below average at -14 DRS, and outs above average have him slightly above average at 2 OAA. While Jeff McNeil has been mostly fine in center field, he’s better at second base, and that gives manager Carlos Mendoza more options.
Nolan McLean. Photo Credit: Kylie Richelle
What They Didn’t Do
The Mets didn’t trade for a starting pitcher despite the recent struggles and injuries to the rotation. Griffin Canning is done for the year, while neither Frankie Montas nor Clay Holmes has looked good recently. That said, most of the starting pitchers who were expected to be traded during the deadline ended up staying put. That narrowed the Mets’ options in trying to improve their rotation.
Moreover, the Mets have two prospects in Triple-A Syracuse who have had impressive summers. Righty Nolan McLean has a 3.01 ERA in Triple-A this year in a hitter-friendly league. To start July, McLean had back-to-back 10-strikeout games, and he’s gone at least six innings in three of his last four starts. Fellow right-hander Brandon Sproat struggled to start this season. However, he’s completely turned it around with only two earned runs allowed and 39 strikeouts over his last six starts (33 innings).
One of the questions with McLean and Sproat is how many innings they will go this season. McLean is five away from his career-high, and Sproat is 20. The Mets also boast one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Jonah Tong. He currently leads the minors in strikeouts (146), strikeout rate (40.6%), and his 1.66 ERA is second among 365 minor leaguers with at least 70 innings.
The Mets also didn’t get a “big bat” that some fans were hoping for. Outside of Eugenio Suarez and, to a lesser extent, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano, that power bat wasn’t available on the market. The market to get a masher wasn’t really there, and while Mullins doesn’t fit that description, he does make the Mets better offensively.
Final Thoughts
I’d give the Mets a B+ for their deadline work.
As I said previously, the Mets turned their bullpen from a weakness into one of the best in the league, and they did it without giving up an upper-echelon prospect. They also improved their worst offensive position in center field. Again, without giving up top prospects. All of the pieces the Mets did get are rentals, so that’s not ideal. There were controllable bullpen pieces traded, though with hefty price tags.
All in all, the Mets are a better team than they were before the deals, didn’t give up a ton of their farm system value, and are better suited to win games in the playoffs.
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