With bated breath Mets fans, media types and baseball aficionados in general were awaiting what exactly would be the result of the great 2026 summer sell off which finally took place long after the club slipped into irrelevancy.
- The first move was one of those addition-by-subtraction transactions where the Mets sent David Peterson packing to the Chicago Cubs who apparently were desperately in need of a healthy if not particularly effective starting pitcher and the Mets received an injured power hitting prospect named Cole Mathis. What is interesting in this deal is that he was the 13th ranked prospect for the Cubs and now the 14th ranked prospect for the Mets. It suggests that the Mets farm system is not nearly as bad as feared.
- Then came the A.J. Minter to the Twins salary dump. In return for the highly effective southpaw heading to Minneapolis, the Mets made a deal that gave the Mets some good fan-centric PR by bringing home Benny Agbayani’s son, Bruin, as part of a two prospect pricetag for the reliever. The younger Agbayani is also injured and in his brief pro career is showing a .228 bat with no power. Given that he’s 19 years old it’s kind of like throwing a dart to project where he’ll end up in terms of baseball skill. The other guy coming back from the Twins is another uneven power hitter named Billy Amick. Over 600 minor league ABs he’s clubbed 31 HRs and driven in 114 but while hitting just .253 and striking out 195 times. It seems like another Ryan Clifford. If so, that’s not good.
- Late night this weekend the Mets finally dealt Freddy Peralta away. The takers were the Tampa Bay Rays who have one of the better farm systems in baseball. Three players came back, all of whom were in their top 100 but evaluators rank higher in the Mets’ less than stellar farm system. Two of the three have some potential and ranking at better numbers underscores the paucity of talent in the Mets minors. Number one is second baseman Emelien Pitre who hits well over .300 with excellent base running speed. He’s 23 and at AA. 21 year old pitcher Gary Gill Hill has a career minor league ERA of 3.99 with 338 Ks in 394 IP. His walk to strikeout ratio is not bad but a below .500 records suggests his ceiling could be just a back end starter. The third domino was outfielder Aidan Smith is a career .246 hitting minor leaguer with excellent speed who hasn’t advanced above A ball. He’s a wildcard at best.
- Another head scratcher comes from the dealing of solid reliever Huascar Brazoban to the Chicago White Sox for two very suspect prospect pitchers. Brazoban hold a very impressive 2.56 ERA and makes almost no money, though his age of 36 somewhat counts against his long term future. In return the Mets obtain AA right handed pitcher Gabe Davis who owns an 8.31 ERA (yikes!) as well as AAA pitcher Zach Franklin who is markedly better at 4.37 with 5 saves. The 6’9” Davis does strike out better than one per inning pitched but the other numbers in college and during the minors are pretty ugly. Franklin is already 27 years old but his underlying numbers show good WHIP and strikeout metrics with a career ERA of just 3.46. Still, the return for Brazoban seems questionable at best.
- The second trade with the Cubs happened Monday when recovering starting pitcher Clay Holmes and reserve outfielder Tyrone Taylor were sent to Wrigley Field in exchange for the team’s number two prospect, infielder Jefferson Rojas. Currently Rojas is working at the AA level where he’s hitting .270 with 15 HRs, 57 RBIs and 17 SBs. This level of productivity suggests he could be a replacement at second base, shortstop or third base if more changes happen in the offseason.
- In a somewhat surprising move, the Mets traded reliever Brooks Raley to the Phillies for a rather weak return of two non-prime prospects. The first is very speedy outfielder John Spikerman whose minor league career average is just .232 with no power but is accompanied by a stunning 55 SBs in just 375 ABs. Apparently he could be the next Tyrone Taylor 4th outfielder. Accompanying him is pitcher Luke Gabrysh who at age 23 is still toiling in A ball. He’s a career 4.56 ERA hurler with mediocre WHIP numbers to accompany his lackluster ERA.
- Another shocker was the Pittsburgh Pirates obtaining somewhat expensive setup reliever Luke Weaver from the Mets. He’s having a terrific year and you’d expect the return to be high. Well, in this case it seems to have happened just that way. Infielder Sammy Stafura in A+ is having a wonderful year, hitting .301 with 19 HRs, 51 RBIs and 16 SBs over the course of just 47 games.
- Finally there was a reserve catcher move returning Ben Rortvedt to the Dodgers for 27 year old relief pitcher Chayce McDermott who owns a career minor league ERA of 4.36. The players involved are not expected to be impact players for either team.
8 comments:
Three potential hitters arrive along with a myriad of questionable others. On the whole it is quantity but not necessarily quality. Whether or not payroll relief outweighs the return is yet to be known.
On a side note, D’Andre Smith (who has been hurt much of the year) and Nick LoRusso, who has been hiitting HRs for Binghamton all year, got bumped to AAA. Last night, Lorusso popped his TWENTIETH HR of the season in 320 ABs, and Smith had 2 singles and a HBP.
27 year old Chris Morel who has over 70 major league HRs, banged his 9th in 90 ABs.
Clifford? He was moved to the 7 day IL list.
Newly acquired guys? All in A and AA.
Hopefully a few are future major league starters.
Good post Reese even if I see it differently. We are closer now to being in a position to compete in a sustained way starting in 2028 (who even knows what the 2027 season will look like) than we were before the draft and this series of trades.at and around the deadline. Before we had one genuine infield prospect in Voit and the possibility that Snyder might join him as well. We had no one even close to being ready to join the outfield other than Morabito, On the other hand we did have some potential relievers, though, with the possible exception of Tong (should he prove to be more valuable as a high leverage reliever or closer than a starter) no obvious high leverage relievers in the minors and returning from injuries. Also the easiest group to replace in the offseason on short term contracts. We now have four potential major league infielders within 2 years of being ready for the majors (other things being equal), speed galore, and a few lottery tickets as power bats. We also drafted a potential outfielder capable of playing with the likes of Ewing and Benge -- and as a CF, keeping our strongest arm in RF.
And all this was only part 1 of the reconstruction. Part 2 takes place in the offseason. We have to. look into offloading one terrible contract in Semien, securing a top of the rotation veteran pitcher and seeing what other opportunities present themselves.
And I would add something that many of us, including me, have been reluctant to say outloud: The team is in general playing a much better brand of baseball with Andy Green in an interim role than they were under Mendoza. I am not advocating Green as the future manager, but I am saying the team has jelled as a time under a different personality type with frankly a better feel for the game as it unfolds.
'team' not 'time'.
BTW, I wonder if Semien would be open to reconstructing his contract to take advantage of a deferral option or a buyout after next year. He certainly would be fine to have as a utility infielder, defensive replacement and bench player/veteran presence on a young team next year or even for the remaining two years of his contract but not at his current yearly salary.
My spin
The Mets accomplished two things this trade deadline
1. They rid their 40 of the majority of players that offer no future beyond the 2027 season
2. They found their future third baseman
B-
The sad reality to the non-movement of Semien, Baty, Vientos, and Senga is that no one wanted them enough to make a credible offer. That means that the Mets need to make some very hard decisions on what happens to them.
Paul,
Senga looked good last night in relief. Could that be his niche?
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