The Royals were dealt tough news when they found out that long-time catcher Salvador Perez needed Tommy John Surgery. Perez had surgery on Wednesday and will miss the entire 2019 season.
As things currently stand, the only catchers on the Royals 40-man roster are Cam Gallagher and Meibrys Viloria. The two players with a combined 114 major league AB’s with no real stats or memorable tools to speak of.
The Royals are a rebuilding team, so they could conceivably just lick their wounds and stick with Gallager and Viloria. However, there’s multiple reports saying they have talked to free agent catcher Martin Maldonado. Meaning they’re looking to upgrade at the position, which brings us to the Mets and Travis d’Arnaud.
The Mets signed Wilson Ramos and brought back Devin Mesoraco (potentially as deGrom’s personal catcher) in the offseason, which could possibly leave Travis d’Arnaud out to dry.
D’Arnaud, 30, is just coming back from his own Tommy John procedure from last year and is in his last year of team control. He is due to make just $3.5 million this season.
Looking around what could be a possible return for d’Arnaud, I reached out to a good friend of mine who is a die hard Royals fan, and we work on some possible deals and eventually worked on two possibly deals that could leave both teams happy.
Proposal 1
Mets trade Travis d’Arnaud for for RHP Kyle Zimmer
Zimmer, 27, is a former 5th overall pick in the 2012 Draft and hasn’t been able to break the major leagues yet. He missed the 2018 season due to injury, but has the experience as both a starter and a reliever, which is the type of versatility that the Mets love. Pair that with with a very high K/9 rate (career 10.9 K/9) a moderately low walk rate (career 3.1 BB/9) a mid-90’s fastball and a plus curveball and he could possibly be the final piece to a much improved Mets bullpen for 2019.
The former top 100 pick looks to be healthy, he’s thrown 4.2 scoreless innings this spring.
Proposal 2
Mets trade Travis d’Arnaud for CF Bubba Starling and 3B Emmanuel Rivera
Starling, 26, is another failed former top prospect of the Royals, ranked as high as 17th in MLB’s top 100 prospects in 2012, but offensive struggles and lingering injuries have held him back. However, Starling is a player that used to be seen as a five-tool guy, and maybe a change of scenery is what he needed. Rivera is seen as the Royals 16th overall prospect according to MLB.com. He’s a natural third baseman that has started to tap into some very real hard contact and raw power with a solid glove at the hot corner as well.
