Through Brodie Van Wagenen’s tumultuous two-year tenure as the Mets general manager, New York has found themselves on the wrong side of a lot of trades. Yet one the deal that was been widely applauded by fans has been the trade with the Houston Astros that brought J.D. Davis to Queens.

Davis came to the Mets as a career .194 hitter, having struggled mightily during his first few stints at the big league level with Houston. But with pedigree of a former top prospect, Van Wagenen gambled on Davis’ upside and the trade has largely been a win for the Mets.

In his first season with the Mets, Davis put together an outstanding offensive season, hitting .307/.369/.527, with 22 home runs, 22 doubles and 57 RBI. Davis was third on the team behind Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil in both OPS (.895) and wRC+ (136), showing that he could be a middle-of-the-order bat moving forward.

Unfortunately in the 2020 shortened season, the 27-year-old failed to meet those expectations. Across over 200 plate appearances, Davis hit .247/.371/.389, with six home runs, nine doubles and 19 RBI. There is still a good chance Davis can bounce back offensively, but the biggest concern with him moving forward is the inability to hide his glove on defense.

Davis came into spring training as the Mets de facto starting left fielder, as he seemed more comfortable at that position in 2019, despite being worth -11 DRS. Early on this season, Luis Rojas ended up moving Davis back to third base after Jeff McNeil struggled at the position himself. McNeil is a far superior outfielder and after Davis made a couple flashy plays at third, there was some optimism he could remain there moving forward.

Now that we have another 269 1/3 innings of sample size though, Davis continues to be a detriment to the Mets defensively. This year, Davis was worth -8 DRS at third base, which is a near mirror-image of his numbers in 2019 (-9 in 220 innings). For whatever reason, Davis fares better in Statcast’s Outs Above Average, but even there he was worth -3 OAA this year.

All of this is to say that Davis is a player that is probably best suited to be a designated hitter or a first baseman if he is going to have a long MLB career. The problem for New York is they already have a logjam at those positions with Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith and to a certain extent Robinson Cano when it comes to DH at-bats. There is also no guarantee that the universal DH will return in 2021.

Due to all of those circumstances, it may be time for the Mets to put Davis on the trade block and see if they can extract some value for the position-less slugger.

On Twitter yesterday, I floated a hypothetical trade with the Texas Rangers that could make sense for both teams.

Using Baseball Trade Values trade simulator, I explored a deal that would send Davis to Texas in exchange for Lance Lynn. Lynn has been on the trade block for some time and has a friendly $9.33 million team option that the Rangers will exercise for the 2021 season.

Lynn may receive some runner-up Cy Young votes this year, after pitching to a 3.32 ERA and leading the MLB with 84 innings pitched. The 33-year-old  has been one of the most durable and consistent starting pitchers in baseball and would be of great value to the Mets, even on a one-year deal.

For the Rangers, Davis could easily find playing time at either first base or DH, as his OPS in a down-year was still better than all of their hitters who received at least 100 at-bats. Because Davis is under control for four more seasons, the Mets could even try to squeeze a relief pitcher out of that trade, with Joely Rodriguez being the arm I included in the simulator.

This is just one potential landing spot for Davis, as his defensive limitations surely affect which teams will be interesting in trading for him this offseason. Still, the Mets are at a point where they have a lot depth in the infield with the emergence of Andres Gimenez and Luis Guillorme and they also have a great need for pitching.

Instead of dipping back into a depleted farm system, Davis could be the trade asset used to add some arms to the stable for another run in 2021.