Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
After the trio of signings of Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, there are some players on the Mets whose playing time on the Mets could look a lot different in 2022 than it did in 2021.
One of those players is Jeff McNeil, who despite being slated as the Mets’ starting second or third baseman with the current roster, is drawing interest from other teams in the trade market, according to MMO‘s Michael Mayer. He says that “multiple teams” have reached out regarding the utility man.
McNeil has previously drawn interest from the likes of the Seattle Mariners during the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade talks.
Nevertheless, McNeil is more valuable than his 2021 season showed. It was his worst of three-plus seasons in the bigs, hitting just .250 and slugging .360 after a a slash line of 319/.383/.501/.884 over his first 1,000 plate appearances. (You can read McNeil’s MMO report card for the 2021 season here.)
McNeil is among a group of players including Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis as players who could be dealt this offseason in the right deals. McNeil likely has the highest value of the three due to a longer history of success. McNeil is projected to make around $2.5 million in 2022 in his first year of arbitration.
There’s always the chance the Mets enter 2022 with an overabundance of bench players rather than the perfect amount. Too much depth isn’t the worst issue to have.
