Jay Bruce, who was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies last month, got to play the New York Mets for the first time since getting traded by them in the last offseason, this week.
Mike Puma of the New York Post got a chance to speak with the former-Met.
Bruce, 32, had arguably the worst year of his career in 2018 after signing a three-year, $39 million contract with the Mets during the previous offseason as he hit .223/.310/.370 with nine home runs and 37 RBI to give himself a 91 OPS+ and -0.4 bWAR.
However, the outfielder thinks the Mets might have held onto him had he not dealt with injuries last season, saying that it would have been harder to deal him.
“I felt like I could have been on the [trade] block just due to the plethora of hitter profiles: [Michael] Conforto, [Brandon] Nimmo, and me. They wanted to get [Pete] Alonso in there and they had Dom Smith. Honestly, had I been healthy last year it probably would have been harder for them to do it. I think that is my biggest thing. I wish I would have been healthy, because it wasn’t due to lack of ability.”
Largely due to his inability to produce in 2018, the team viewed him as someone blocking younger players and so they dumped his salary, along with Anthony Swarzak‘s, in the Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano trade with the Seattle Mariners.
That deal, as we all know, involved two very notable prospects in Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Bruce went on to say that the Mariners are very excited about the Kelenic, who is already the 24th best prospect on MLB Pipeline despite only being drafted last year.
“They really like him over there. He’s got every tool that you need to be a good player, that’s for sure. He’s having a real good year in the minor leagues. He’s going to push himself and it sounds like he has all the makings of what they are looking for.”
Despite being dealt away as a salary dump, essentially, Bruce holds no ill feelings towards the Mets and actually expressed some disappointment for them and how their season has turned out.
“It’s tough when you have a lot of expectations like the Mets and it seems like the team feels they went out and did what they thought was necessary in order to put a winning product on the field this year. They really wanted to move the needle when it came to that and it hasn’t panned out the way they wanted so far.”
“It hasn’t gone how they want it over there for sure. I still talk to some guys over there and have some great relationships with some people so I wish them the best. I don’t have any hard feelings about it at all.”
So far in 2019, Bruce has returned back to form and actually exceeded expectations for both the Mariners and Phillies, as he is hitting .232/.291/.571 with 21 homers and 46 RBI on the year to give himself a 0.8 bWAR and 124 OPS+.
