Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
According to Jon Heyman of MLB, the New York Mets are amongst other teams that are in on Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Tyler Anderson.
Heyman notes that the Pirates would prefer to make a move to trade the left-hander prior to him making his scheduled start tonight at PNC Park against the Milwaukee Brewers.
SNY’s Andy Martino first reported about a week ago that the Mets had the 31-year old left-hander on their radar. Even with the Rich Hill addition, as Zack Scott said yesterday, the Mets seem to be looking to bolster their pitching depth rather than making a big splash in the rotation.
Anderson pitched against the Mets at Citi Field back on July 10 and allowed two runs on six hits while striking out two and not issuing a walk over five innings. He also added a home run of his own in the Pirates 6-2 win.
He has posted a 4.36 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 86 strikeouts, and allowed 16 home runs on the season for the Pirates. Much of his success can be credited to his career-low 2.2 BB/9 on the campaign.
While Anderson certainly isn’t an ace, he would provide the Mets with some solid depth towards the back-end of the rotation. With Carlos Carrasco due back this weekend, and hopefully Jacob deGrom right behind him, this is exactly the type of arm the Mets could use moving forward.
Both Anderson and Hill would serve as nice back-end pieces behind deGrom, Carrasco, Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker, and Tylor Megill in the rotation.
Also, since Anderson is set to become a free-agent at the end of this season he likely wouldn’t cost as much, which would allow the Mets to save their better prospects for a bat and/or bullpen piece.
We’ll keep you posted on the Anderson sweepstakes and all of the Mets trade rumors as we draw closer and closer to the July 30 trade deadline.
