According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Mets discussed a potential blockbuster deal with the Cubs during the trade deadline before they made the deal for Javier Báez.
Rosenthal reports that the Mets backed off the blockbuster after finding out that Jacob deGrom would miss more time only a couple of hours before the deadline.
Here’s the deal they were talking about:
- Mets get Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Trevor Williams, and another major leaguer
- Cubs get Pete Crow Armstrong, another highly thought of prospect, and a big leaguer with multiple years of control
The Mets ultimately sent just Crow-Armstrong to the Cubs for Báez and Williams.
Now, it’s tough to fully assess the deal without all the names, but I think we can do some educated guessing on players.
In terms of the other big leaguer from the Cubs, both relievers Ryan Tepera and Andrew Chafin make sense. Both of the veterans were traded at the deadline to other teams.
For the big leaguer on the Mets side, that description sounds like Dominic Smith or J.D. Davis.
The prospect piece is definitely the tougher to figure out, though Rosenthal described the player as “a prospect they regarded even more highly (than Armstrong)”. That basically narrows it down to Francisco Alvarez (never going to happen), Brett Baty (still don’t see it), Ronny Mauricio (still think it’s a tad much), Mark Vientos, Matt Allan, and J.T. Ginn.
We know that the Cubs like Allan from their pursuit of him in the 2020 draft and sources told me they liked Ginn during their talks with the Mets.
For discussion purposes, let’s go with the Cubs sending Bryant, Báez, Williams, and Tepera to the Mets for Crow-Armstrong, Davis, and Ginn. Would you have done that deal, Mets fans?
