Alex asks…
While every day we see articles about how awful Jay Bruce is doing since joining the Mets, I have yet to see one article about the MVP caliber second half Jonathan Lucroy is having with the Texas Rangers. Why is this news being buried? All the reports I read at the trade deadline were that Lucroy was the Mets’ primary target and that Bruce was fallback option that wasn’t even the right-handed bat nor the center fielder the team needed. I would like to see an article about this.
Joe D. replies…
I honestly had no idea that Lucroy was producing at such a high level for the Rangers. In 39 games he is batting .286/.362/.563 with 10 home runs, 28 RBI and a 138 OPS+.
You compare that to Jay Bruce and his .176/.255/.289 batting line and 41 OPS+ and you really want to cringe.
The Mets did attempt to acquire Lucroy at least two times. They were initially rejected when the Mets offered Travis d’Arnaud in a one-for-one swap in early July. The Mets then circled back just before the deadline and reportedly offered d’Arnaud and Brandon Nimmo. It appeared the Mets were close to a deal until the Rangers came in and knocked the Mets out of contention. Given what the Rangers gave up in top prospects, the Mets made the right move to back away. At that point there was only a few hours left to the deadline so the Mets jumped on Bruce.
There really isn’t enough here to warrant an article and that’s probably why you haven’t seen any. Teams make trades all the time and sometimes you win and sometimes you just roll snake eyes.
My only quibble is that I wonder if the trade was really necessary for the Mets. We didn’t need another corner outfielder or a left-handed bat or someone that had already been mired in a month-long slump with the Reds. To coin a Sandy Alderson phrase, it looked like a square peg in a round hole.
