Guest post: Could the Mets end up with MLB’s #1 Prospect at the Deadline?

< Editor's note: At Mack's Mets, we value the comments from our readers.  They supplement the posts by adding perspective and feedback.  Sometimes, comments are just not enough to tell the whole story.  Today we feature one of our favorite guest commenters THAT Adam Smith with his take on what the Mets can accomplish at the deadline.  Thanks Adam, we are pleased to share your thoughts! >

In this piece, I’m going to argue that instead of selling off their assets piecemeal at the deadline, adding maybe a dozen non-elite prospects to their system, David Stearns should package three of their prime assets plus a solid prospect of their own (think Jack Wenninger), to bring in a consensus elite MLB prospect - someone that doesn’t make you squint to see a future all-star - at a position of long-term need.

Someone who will be part of this core and an excellent bet to make the team appreciably - not marginally - better for years to come.  

I’m going to make the case that the Mets should target - and that the Brewers would seriously listen on - MLB’s pre-season #1, and BA’s current #3 prospect, 19 year-old 2B/SS Jesús Made, currently OPS’ing .788 in AA Biloxi. 

If your first reaction to this is “You’re insane. The Brewers would never do that!" Any package for a top-5 prospect in baseball would need to start with (Ewing! Benge! name your untouchable) feel free to skip down a few paragraphs where I explain why the Brewers in particular would think long and hard about making such a deal.

There are several other consensus elite prospects, possibly including in Milwaukee’s system - which is absolutely loaded - that could be targeted with a similar package. My main point is that Stearns could, and absolutely should, take a home run swing by packaging assets for a potential long-term all-star, rather than “improving the system” with a larger number of non-elite prospects out of a bunch of individual deals.

David Stearns doesn’t usually reveal much in his media availabilities, but this FO told us exactly who they are - or at least who they hope to be - when they leaked those five untouchable names. 

Ewing (21), Benge (23), McLean (turns 25 today as I write this), Scott (27) and Soto (27).  

Lindor will be here or not. The three no-longer-Baby Mets will be here or not. Any other prospect could conceivably be here or not. Each is more or less “touchable”, but none of them have cemented themselves as part of the future this FO envisions. 

Ewing, Benge, McLean, Scott, and Soto. We build around that.

Pretty good. And while it’s not enough to start dreaming about years-long playoff runs and multiple rings, it is the beginnings of a core that the organization clearly 100% believes in, and guys who the fans like and are buying into. 

So the outfield is set, at least until Soto gets off his feet. And while he’s the eldest of this group, and several years ahead of his OF-mates, he’s likely to transition to full-time DH as time goes on, so there’s every reason to believe that he’ll be here terrorizing opposing pitching for the next 8-10 years, long after the others will have re-signed (hopefully) or moved on.

They’ve got time to decide about Alvarez long-term behind the plate. But there are short-timers at 1B, 2B, and 3B. Lindor, if he’s here, is likely to move off SS in the next few years. And always, always, you need more pitching.  There will be offseason trade possibilities and a (weak in ‘27 hopefully better in ‘28) FA market to try and fill one or more of those needs long or short-term with proven big league talent. 

But in a strong seller’s market, with a multitude of assets, and prospects the coin of the realm at deadline time, Stearns’ #1 job should be to do whatever it takes to add at least one potential all-star caliber player to that core to coincide with Benge and Ewing’s timeline.

Enter Jesús Made (Mah-day) 

Jesús Made just turned 19 in May. He’s a 6’1, 220 lb. 5-tool switch-hitting infielder who hits equally well from both sides. Despite his build, evaluators believe he should stick at SS. Made is currently playing at AA Biloxi boasting a .788 OPS with 14 2B, 5 3B, 10 HR and 27 SB in 334 AB, while striking out just 14.5% of the time in a league where he’s nearly 5 years younger than the average player.  

He’s not there yet, he probably needs another year, and he hasn’t even entirely conquered the AA level. There’s still risk, as with any prospect - but there’s a reason evaluators think so highly of him, and he’s likely to blossom into an above-average to all-star caliber middle infielder for a long time.   

But here’s the funny thing about Made’s path to the bigs with Milwaukee.  With Cooper Pratt at SS and Bryce Turang at second, the Brewers’ middle infield is set for years. And at 3B? In addition to current starter Joey Ortiz, who the club obviously likes, the guy playing the hot corner next to Made in down in Biloxi is Andrew Fischer. Fischer, who is 22, was BA’s top 3B prospect heading into the season and is tearing up AA with 20 HR in 246 AB’s, a .443 OBP and a 1.064 OPS.

In other words, while most franchises would have multiple places to put this kid the minute he was ready, for the Brewers, Made may well be more valuable as a trade chip than in their system.

And the Brewers have a real shot at a World Series run this year for the first time since 1982, and presumably will next year as well. 

As of this writing, Milwaukee sits just a game and a half behind the Dodgers for the best record in baseball, three games better than anyone else. So while this is a franchise that depends on its farm system to keep costs low, that system is loaded (9 top 100 prospects and multiple others on the cusp) and it’s definitely “go” time for the big club in Milwaukee.

The Brewers head into the deadline looking for multiple pieces; starting pitching plus high-leverage left-handed AND right-handed bullpen help. Doing all of those deals separately would put a serious dent in the depth of a system that the Brewers depend on to keep churning out big leaguers.  

But Stearns, their former guy, can help.

Mets offer:

• Holmes or Peralta (not a tough choice, even for the Brewers)
• Raley or Minter
• Weaver or Brazoban plus Jack Wenninger

Brewers offer:

• Jesús Made, and perhaps an additional mid-level prospect.

This deal fills every Milwaukee need for a 2026 WS run. It transforms the back end of their bullpen with a top of the market righty AND lefty and plus one of the top 3 (and best rested) starters on the market. This trade could easily mean home field advantage, and it significantly improves the their chances at a ring.

It also strengthens their bullpen next season with Weaver’s additional year, and they buy themselves an advanced, high-floor pitching prospect with a realistic shot to be a controllable mid-rotation starter in Wenninger, who could easily pitch for them in ‘27.

All for a guy who is at least a year away, who hasn’t cracked AAA yet, and who they almost certainly won’t have a spot for when he’s ready. On top of which, the Brewers’ #2 prospect is 19 year-old Luis Peña, currently in A+,  who like Made is a toolsy 3-position infielder, (faster less power) who is already the #19 prospect in baseball, according BA.

               Did I mention that their system is stacked?

Given the immediate and substantial help this deal would provide at all three areas of need for Milwaukee, in a season in which they have their best opportunity to reach the World Series in 44 years, the fact that they have no immediate need (nor room) for the prospect, that they have the #19 prospect in baseball right behind him at the same positions, and the alternative of weakening the depth of their system by giving up multiple top 100 or close guys to fill those same needs - and likely not fill all of them as welI - in separate deals, I believe that the Brewers would have to think long and hard about making this trade.

As for the Mets, when you look at the names, it feels like an eye-popping price to pay for one AA prospect, no matter how good he is. But other than the rentals (really, the gaggle of almost certainly non-elite prospects they’d get by trading them individually) all they really sacrifice is one year of Luke Weaver and the rights to Wenninger - who may or may not fulfill his promise (probably his ceiling) as a mid-rotation arm.  

For a kid who according to the experts has as good a chance as anyone not yet in the majors of becoming a foundational piece at any one of three positions that the Mets need filled. That’s clearly a risk they should take. And it would still leave them with plenty of pieces - whoever remains of Rayley or Minter, Holmes or Peralta, Weaver or Brazoban (if they were interested in trading both) plus Luis Robert Jr. Those assets can either be dealt individually to broaden the Mets’ haul and augment the system, or as part of another package for another big swing.

And in return they’d get one of baseball’s very best prospects, with a nearly unlimited ceiling, who perhaps as soon as 2027 can play anywhere on their infield, might end up being a natural successor to Lindor at SS, and who fits the timeline of the exciting core of young talent that the FO envisions, and that Mets fans are beginning to allow themselves to dream on.