9 trade fits for Mets: Mancini, Buxton & more

Can you play the outfield? The Mets might have a place for you. We’d say that’s a tongue-in-cheek joke, except that even their owner, Steve Cohen, is out there tweeting: "Anybody want to suit up?" He’s not wrong.

Just look at the position-player members of the Opening Day roster, set a mere seven weeks ago. Of those thirteen names, only five (catchers James McCann and Tomás Nido, infielders Francisco Lindor and Jonathan Villar and first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith) were available for the team’s 3-2 loss to Colorado on Monday night.

It’s gotten to the point that McCann was asked to play first base, a position he’d never once attempted in his professional career. It’s gotten to the point that even the backups of the backups are getting injured, as Johneshwy Fargas went down with a shoulder injury on Monday.

That’s right, Fargas wasn’t the first option (Brandon Nimmo, out with a hand injury) or the second (Kevin Pillar, broken nose) or the third (Albert Almora, shoulder.) He’s the fourth-stringer, and maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, except that starting right fielder Michael Conforto (hamstring) is out, and experienced outfielder Jeff McNeil (hamstring) is also out, and the very narrow silver lining of Pete Alonso’s hand injury can’t even be fully realized, because Smith has been at times been forced to stay in the outfield rather than play his natural first base.

Needless to say, the Mets need reinforcements, because Nimmo is "sidelined indefinitely" and Conforto and McNeil will be out for at least another month, and while acquiring veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin was a good start, he alone won’t fill the need.

As acting GM Zack Scott noted, "That’s the challenge ... trying to upgrade and add talent to the roster, while realizing that at some point … there could be a crunch down the road. You’ve got to weigh that properly. But the reality is there’s plenty of opportunity now."

The starting outfield for Wednesday evening now seems like it might be Smith in left, Maybin in center and rookie Khalil Lee in right. So yes, there’s opportunity. (And not just in the outfield, as Villar and his 71 OPS+ over 2020-21 and José Peraza and his 64 OPS+ over that time are playing daily in the infield.)

So they’re going to need to find someone, and soon, but within a relatively narrow scope. Ideally, you can find a deal that fits these three criteria, and definitely the first two.

1) You’ve got to find a trading partner who is not likely to contend and therefore willing to trade two months before the Deadline.

2) If not strictly an outfielder, you want someone at least capable of playing there.

3) You’d like to find someone who’s a righty or a switch-hitter, because the Mets are a lefty-heavy team when healthy, and you prefer that this player fits the roster whenever the regulars do get healthy.

That last one, as noted, is not a dealbreaker because A) a "fully healthy roster" seems unlikely to happen any time soon and B) file that problem under "extremely good problems to have." Still, they’re not going to get a full-time first baseman (because Alonso isn’t expected to be out long) and Lindor, for all his struggles, is obviously playing shortstop. Anyone or anywhere else? Fair game, especially since Conforto is a free agent after the season.

We understand that this likely means "find a veteran space filler" like, who knows, Scott Schebler or Matt Szczur or Abraham Almonte or Dee Strange-Gordon or Travis Jankowski or some other outfielder with Major League experience currently kicking around Triple-A for some club, just because the Mets need short-term competency more than anything right now. But that’s not that fun. Let’s have some fun, and also assume the Mets might be willing to part with a good prospect. (And they have a few of them, though most are in Class A right now.)

With all that in mind, here’s a few directions they could go, at least until they inevitably just go sign Todd Frazier, Kelly Johnson or Juan Uribe again. They always seem to.

Tier 1: Mid-level names from the Midwest

Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pirates
Adam Frazier, 2B/OF, Pirates

Let’s group these two Pittsburgh hitters together, because the 18-28 Pirates are very far from competing, and might be motivated to think about selling high on a pair of hitters who are having strong 2021 seasons after disappointing 2020s.

That’s about where the similarities end, though, because Frazier is a 29-year-old lefty second baseman (with outfield experience) who will be a free agent after 2022, while Reynolds is a 26-year-old switch-hitting outfielder who can play all three spots. Frazier’s 138 OPS+ is a bit of a mirage, as he’s routinely at the bottom of the hard-hit leaderboards, but he’s also one of the hardest hitters in the game to strike out, if you value that.

Reynolds, meanwhile, is a switch-hitter without platoon splits who is probably a better center fielder than Nimmo is, but also offers some platoon value if Nimmo, Conforto and Smith (all lefties) are all ever available together. If you focus more on his 2019 (129 OPS+) and 2021 (138 OPS+) than his 2020 (70 OPS+), he’s a pretty valuable player, though since he’s not a free agent until after 2025, the Pirates wouldn’t give him away lightly.

As a bonus, if you’re going to trade with Pittsburgh, why not just do it right? In the bullpen, the Pirates have one of the more underrated relievers in the game in 31-year-old Richard Rodríguez, who, since the start of 2020, has a 49/6 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.70 ERA in 42 1/3 innings.

Robbie Grossman, OF, Tigers

Grossman will be 32 in September, and he’s signed to a two-year deal on a Tigers team going nowhere. But while he’s not the biggest name, the switch-hitting veteran (129 OPS+ this year, 108 OPS+ since 2016) is regularly one of baseball’s best at drawing a walk, and has evolved from a poor defender into a perfectly decent one, though he’s not an option in center. If and when the Mets actually get healthy, he’d be a solid piece off the bench, too.

Tier 2: The bigger bats

Nick Castellanos, OF, Reds

Are the 20-25 Reds out of it, at five games out in the NL Central? Maybe not, though they’ve lost nine of their last 13, and headlines like "Winker, Castellanos HRs can't rescue Reds" seem to happen pretty regularly. The important thing to remember here is that even though Castellanos signed a four-year deal before 2020, he does have the option to opt out after this season if he chooses to, and since he’s having a monster year (.356/.417/.669, the fourth-best line in the Majors) he might just consider doing so.

That opt-out also makes agreeing on a trade value difficult, likely, and Castellanos is a poor defender who is limited to right field. Then again, the Mets have the second-fewest home runs in the Majors. A power infusion of any sort would be welcome.

Mitch Haniger, OF, Mariners

Haniger seems to be the player "most likely to be traded," at least aside from Trevor Story, because he’s having a fantastic rebound year (148 OPS+) that looks a lot like what he was doing from 2017-19 (129 OPS+) before missing all of 2020 due to injury. He’s a better fielder than Castellanos, though somewhat less powerful; he’s got one more year of arbitration before reaching free agency after 2022, which offers New York the added bonus of Conforto "insurance" if he leaves as a free agent this winter. And since Haniger is already 30 years old, it’s easy to see why the rebuilding Mariners would want to move him while his value is high.

This all presupposes that Mets fans can handle trading prospects to Seattle for a veteran hitter. It’d probably be okay, right?

Trey Mancini, 1B/OF, Orioles

Mancini had a 136 OPS+ in 2019 and boasts a similar 138 OPS+ in 2021, and he’s a free agent after 2022 while playing on a rebuilding Baltimore team, so the fit here is obvious, though it gets complicated. Is Mancini still an outfield option? He’s played strictly first base this year, though he was mostly an outfielder in 2017-19. Are the Orioles even interested in moving him, given that his comeback from colon cancer has been one of the best stories of the year? Unclear.

Tier 3: The pies in the sky

Hey, let’s get weird, right? These probably won’t happen, but let’s imagine if they did.

Byron Buxton, OF, Twins

If you’re looking for "healthy baseball players," well, Buxton rarely fits that description, and he does not currently fit that description, out as he is with a strained hip, though he’s about ready to start a rehab assignment. Buxton, at his best, is one of the truly elite players in the game, combining some of the best center-field defense around with a powerful bat (.370/.408/.772) that helped him win the American League Player of the Month for April. That we’re even talking about this says a lot about how poorly the Twins' season has gone -- they are 18-29, last place in the AL Central -- but if Minnesota does decide to sell at some point, it’s hard to imagine anyone who could change the Mets on both sides of the ball more. He checks all the boxes in that he is a right-handed hitter who would also give their outfield defense a much-needed boost.

Ketel Marte, 2B/OF, D-backs

Marte had a breakout 2019 -- 32 homers, 148 OPS+ -- before a disappointing 2020, and it was hard to tell which year was the fluke. That he’s played just 11 games this year around a hamstring injury hasn’t exactly helped, though he’s back in action, and as a switch-hitter with one guaranteed year left on his deal (plus two club options) playing on a last-place Arizona team, there might be motivation to make some moves here. The second base/center field profile is a unique one, and one that would fit well on this Mets team. It’s worth at least also noting two other potential options currently playing in Arizona: David Peralta, who has a 114 OPS+ for his career, though a left-field-only lefty hitter may not be the best fit; and switch-hitting infielder Eduardo Escobar.

Kris Bryant, 3B/OF, Cubs

It’s hard to have a trade column without including free-agent-to-be Bryant, who is absolutely crushing the ball (1.009 OPS) while starting not only at his traditional third base, but each of the three outfield spots. How’s that for versatility? The Cubs, 1 1/2 games out of first, will absolutely not be trading Bryant now or for the next eight weeks or so, depending on how things go. But if we’re talking "great fits" in a pie in the sky section, well, Bryant’s name has to come up.