By John Sheridan

Starling Marte

Position: CF
Bats/Throws: R/R
Age: October 9, 1988 (31)

Traditional Stats: .295/.342/.503, 31 2B, 6 3B, 23 HR, 82 RBI
Advanced Stats: 2.9 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR, 120 OPS+, 119 wRC+
Defensive Stats:

Contract: 2020 $11.5 million team option ($2 million buyout),, 2021 $12.5 million team option ($1 million buyout)

Seeing everything that happened with the Pittsburgh Pirates this year, you have to assume this team is primed for yet another complete teardown. If they were to begin the process, their biggest trade chip is probably Marte.

From 2013 – 2016, Marte was one of the more promising young players in the game averaging a 5.1 WAR per season. He was a real threat on both sides of the ball including his winning a Gold Glove in 2015 and 2016. Due to the presence of Andrew McCutchen, Marte was a center fielder patrolling left field making the Pirates one of the more exciting young teams in all of baseball. In 2016, Marte was a first-time All-Star, and it seemed like things were only looking up for him and the Pirates.

That optimism proved to be well offbase. Marte would be hit with an 80 game PED suspension because tests found Nandrolone in his system. Like everyone else, Marte would claim it was accidental. In that 2017 season, suspicions Marte’s production was PED induced appeared true as he would hit only .275/.333/.379 in 77 games.

After the Pirates appeared in the postseason in each of his first three full seasons in the Majors, the Pirates would not finish higher than third in the National League Central, and they would be over .500 only once. As mentioned above, the worst was this year with many on and off the field issues for the Pirates.

Behind that was Marte having a very good year at the plate. His 119 wRC+ would be the third-best among National League center fielders, and it was the sixth-best at the position across the majors. His 25 stolen bases were the eighth-most in the majors. Overall, Marte proved to be a dynamic threat. By wRC+, this was the third-best year of his career at the plate.

However, this was the worst WAR he’s had in a season where he has played at least 80 games. The main reason was his defense. His -9 DRS and -7.6 UZR was easily the worst he’s had in his career. While he is still in his prime at 31 years old, you at least have to wonder if he needs to move out of center and back to his Gold Glove position of left field.

However, when you dig deeper, you see a player who can rebound defensively. Marte still has elite speed. According to Baseball Savant, Marte has a sprint speed of 29.0 feet per second. That’s the 92nd percentile among Major League players. This shows he has the speed to cover the ground necessary in center.

As we have seen, playing outfield requires more than speed. You need to read and react quickly. On that front, a new stat, JUMP, measures a player’s ability to read and react to plays as well as cover ground. In terms of that stat, Marte got the ninth-best jumps on baseballs in 2019.

Breaking down the speed and JUMP data, it is quite possible Marte’s issues defensively were related to positioning. On that note, there was an interesting 2016 Fangraphs article on this topic noting the Pirates play their outfielders more shallow to react to their organizational philosophy of throwing two-seam fastballs. This could have been part of the issue Marte had this year. It could also be a random poor year for Marte who had entered the season with a -2 DRS in center in his career.

Overall, Marte should continue to be an impact player in 2020. The question right now is where that will occur both in terms of position on the field and in terms of city he will play.

Why the Mets Should Obtain Him

The Mets are a very left-handed team with Pete Alonso providing the only real right-handed counter-balance in the lineup. The Mets can definitely use a bat like Marte’s in the lineup, and it also could not hurt further adding to the team speed.

Even if the Mets don’t view him as a center fielder, they also have the option of moving Marte to left field and allowing Brandon Nimmo to play center. Really, when you break it down, Marte is exactly the type of player this Mets team needs, and at $11.5 million, he is a player who could fit under what is already being described as a tight budget.

Another reason to pursue him is the Pirates’ General Manager. Neal Huntington has completely undervalued his assets. He traded away Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows, and Shane Baz for Chris Archer. He traded away Gerrit Cole to the Houston Astros settling for under-performing young players (headlined by Colin Moran and Joe Musgrove) and not getting a top prospect in return.

Why the Mets Shouldn’t Obtain Him

Much like the Pirates shouldn’t trust Huntington to trade Marte, the Mets shouldn’t trust Brodie Van Wagenen to make a trade of this magnitude. The Robinson Cano trade has proven to be an unmitigated disaster with Justin Dunn accumulating a higher WAR than Cano and Edwin Diaz combined. That’s nothing to say of Jarred Kelenic‘s continued climb up the top 100 list.

Van Wagenen’s other trades have been uninspiring to quite bad. Another example was his giving up a real chip in Neraldo Catalina to obtain Wilmer Font only to move Font to the Blue Jays for cash considerations.

Beyond not trusting Van Wagenen, you do have to wonder if the Mets could absorb another blow to the farm system. Given its current state, it is possible the Mets are going to have to part with a top pitching prospect with David Peterson and Kevin Smith being the closest to the majors. On that note, the Mets have zero starting pitching depth in their organization, and that is before you even consider the fact they need to re-sign Zack Wheeler.

In terms of Wheeler, you wonder just how much money the Mets actually have to spend this offseason. Remember, the team needs a fifth starter and to fix the bullpen. Those are the primary needs before turning the attention to wants like center field and depth. If the Mets only have so much money to spend, you do have to wonder how much Marte would alone mask the lack of a fifth starter and only really being able to trust Seth Lugo in the bullpen.

Verdict

This once again boils down to just how invested this Mets team will be in 2020. If obtaining Marte is a repeat of last offseason where the team added Cano and Diaz while doing not much else, why bother? All you are doing is further damaging the farm system to be the third or fourth-best team in the division again.

Between Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis, Jeff McNeil, Nimmo, and Dominic Smith, there are already enough pieces here to form a good outfield, albeit one very lacking defensively. In reality, the Mets would be better suited to allocate the money and prospects elsewhere.

That is, unless, the team is really all-in and going to do everything they can do to win the 2020 World Series. If that’s the case, the Mets should do all they could do to bring Marte to Flushing.