AL East:
Boston Red Sox
- Biggest Need: Closer – Bobby Parnell would be a hard guy to let go for the Mets who have said they would need to be overwhelmed to make a deal. The prospect I’d expect to be offered is below and I don’t think that would be enough. If the Red Sox shifted gears and upped the offer to Xander Bogaerts… the Mets would be suitably overwhelmed.
- Prospect: Jackie Bradley Jr., OF – Bradley Jr. was on a lot of wish lists at the start of the 2013 season as he broke with the Red Sox out of camp and looked like a budding leadoff star. Two things have happened since then to make the Met fans relent. He didn’t hit well during the early season and the Mets picked up Eric Young Jr. The pressing need for the Mets to snag a leadoff hitter isn’t there and the ceiling on Bradley Jr. might not be as high as people originally hoped.
Tampa Bay Rays
- Biggest Need: Outfielder – Marlon Byrd is going to be on a bunch of radar screens, but Byrd being the word is only going to get the Mets so far. Byrd would be helpful to the Rays but is he worth giving up a Top 20 prospect for?
- Prospect: Mike Mahtook – He might not be the sexiest prospect out there but given that you are giving up a rental on an older player, you need to be more reasonable with expectations. Mahtook would replace Cesar Puello in AA while Puello goes up to AAA after the All Star game and the Mets would actually have the foundation of internal outfield depth.
AL Central:
Detroit Tigers
- Biggest Need: Closer – Bobby Parnell is a good fit for Detroit but with the Tigers having a thin farm system they’d be looking at losing their #1 prospect in a deal for the Met closer. Most people assume the Tigers (with Benout and Smyly holding down the fort) would like to get a lesser arm to save them the prospect but the chance is there.
- Prospect: Nick Castellanos – He’s a righty bat with good hitting tools, solid power and a little speed. He’s not always been an outfielder but you have to imagine that the Mets would not only jump on acquiring Castellanos but promote him right away.
AL West:
Texas Rangers
- Biggest Need: Starting Pitcher – I would guess that Jeremy Hefner, Dillon Gee and Jonathon Niese are all on the radar and based on his last 8 starts… my money is that Hefner draws the focus. Now… I project the Mets looking at a big name for Hefner, which might seem like too much, but hear me out.
- Prospect: Mike Olt, OF – Olt has been awful in 2013 and at 24, he’s at an age where the Rangers might be wondering about how much of a future he has. It seems like it would at least be POSSIBLE.
NL Central:
Pittsburgh Pirates
- Biggest Need: Outfielder – Marlon Byrd could probably go out and help the Pirates, but a lot of teams will be wary of adding Byrd who projected (before 2013) as a bench player.
- Prospect: Josh Bell, OF – Anyone who thinks the Mets could get Gregory Polanco is crazy. Byrd is not a star player anymore (if he ever was) and while he has been great for the Mets, you’re talking about handing them a budding star for a rental. I nominate Bell who is a big talent but is buried all the way down in the SAL but he’s likely asking too much as well. Maybe Willy Garcia is in the mix as an option too.
NL West:
Arizona Diamondbacks
- Biggest Need: Starting Pitcher & Second Baseman – Could be a landing place for Daniel Murphy, then again… they might want to nab Jeremy Hefner, after Hefner abused their hitters. Perhaps they could want both. Arizona and New York match up well.
- Prospect: Chris Owings, SS – He’s been tearing up AAA but there is no where for Owings to play in the majors. The Mets should be talking to the Diamondbacks about Owings and seeing who they might want in return. It would be great to have a legit SS with a high ceiling.
Los Angeles Dodgers
- Biggest Need: Third Baseman – The Mets have both Zach Lutz and Daniel Murphy who are capable of playing 3rd and giving the Dodgers a playoff boost.
- Prospect: Joc Pederson, OF – Pederson was right next to Puig when Puig got the call and he’s continued to hit well since then. The issue for the Dodgers is they already have too many outfielders and Pederson doesn’t have any room. He MIGHT be available and if he is I would pounce.
David,
I’ve heard Pederson mentioned as a possibility. Are you able to provide some details on him?
He does a bit of everything and qualifies as a 5-tool OF but he wasn’t thought of as having the corner outfield power he seems to be showing this season.
Pederson: “tools with a grinder-type mentality”. He is LA’s number two project. Go to MLB.com for a write-up.
David, excellent synopsis. Could Flores for Pederson work? Could Murphy for Owings work? Still leaves the Mets with 5 secondbasemen: Young, Turner, Satin , Valdespin and Tejada. Would both prospects improve the OF and SS position enough to allow a weakened secondbase position? Would it be a net gain? Pederson in CF with Young at 2B and Owings at SS looks good to me.Parnell to Detroit would get us a LF in Castellanos or Garcia. The Mets then would be fielding a very young team of blue chip prospects to match their young blue chip pitching staff. We already have catcher taken care of with d’Arnaud and notice the only pitcher we lose is a closer.
Is it just me, or am I paranoid? I’m confess to being less and less confident that d’Arnaud will be the game changing C that the trade for RA hoped to deliver.
Chris, I only expect him to be an above average very good catcher. I don’t expect the second coming of Mike Piazza.Syndergaard , at the worst should end up a closer with his heavy sinking fastball and at the best a #1 starter. The young OF is also a prospect but quite a few years away. The trade was a lot more than just Travis d’Arnaud.
Metsense,I didn’t express myself well above. I actually wonder if he will make and stick with the team. More than once I’ve wondered if Syndergaard will really be the trophy piece in the deal. However, another position player slot still, to my eyes, is not resolved.
Deep breaths and confidence.
Dodgers want to win now and I think they’d be more interested in Murphy than Flores.
Arizona will want Murphy and would like Flores but I think we might be losing on a Flores/Owings swap.
I can’t see the Mets getting enough for Murphy to not make them regret making the trade later on. The Mets have two players capable of 10 for 14, gonna carry the team on their shoulders through this series players *and one of them plays second base*.
I’ll go on record as saying trading Murphy shouldn’t be on the agenda, unless you are talking about one damn fine prospect.
He’s just too important to the makeup of this club. To put it another way, if you trade this career 750 OPS second baseman and put EYJ there, and Young regresses to his mean, you could potentially have more than five players once again hitting under a 660 OPS/contributing a negative WAR in the starting lineup. (Davis 1B, Duda LF, Q, EYJ, CF du jour, and Buck/Recker).
If you got Joc Pederson or Chris Owings for Murphy you win enough right away to make this trade.
Pederson could step up into any outfield role and be an upgrade.
Owings would be a hitting Short Stop.
Flores is ready to come up and play second.
Pederson is a maybe; he shows enough deep power to profile as a corner OF. Owings hits *for a shortstop* but he also has made 20 errors in 84 games.
Murphy profiles as good as just about any 2B at the plate that isn’t named Pedroia or Cano or Carpenter, and if we Mets fans missed it guys like Altuve and Kipnis are getting long term contracts.
We don’t have a full cupboard of hitters. I’m certainly not willing to give up Murphy’s bat for a guy with the middle name Essix, or vacate the spot just like that for a guy that’s really dominating a league for the first time in six years at LV.
Guess we just disagree on this one, David. If LA brings Joc to the table, I might be open to listening. He’s the corner OF we’ve been looking for.
Yesterday’s reports about SA saying to expect little change for the second half, and that any suitors for Parnell would need to blow him away make me question the what they believe they have in Parnell. I understand the project that Bobby is, and he now seems to be peaking, but given the inherently transient nature of closers, selling with his stock at the top seems like the smart choice. Given we are looking to be competitive in 1-3 years depending on SA winter acquisitions, isn’t it far better to bring in a blue chip position player and solve the closer role when the time is right?
Blue chip position player for a closer? No doubter in my mind.
But the million dollar question is if there is a blue chip position player that is even out there on the table or whether it is a just a dream from a few Met fans hoping for the steal of a century.
My gut tells me that it is the latter.
Name, it’s all in the packaging. I’m sure that an astute fan like yourself knows that not every trade is a one-for-one. That’s where the GMs get creative.
This site is better than all the ny sports pages combined!!! thanks for this piece, david. i loved it. now all i can think about is parnell for bogaerts……
Glad you liked it, but I caution that the Red Sox will almost assuredly not make that deal.