Despite a sub-par 2019 season, New York Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard‘s value as a potential trade chip remains as high as ever.
Looking past his current 4.36 ERA, 3.67 FIP, would-be career-low 8.87 strikeouts and would-be career-high 2.33 walks per nine innings, there’s still a supernova-bright aura surrounding the fireballing Texas native.
Two years of reasonably-inexpensive team control, plus a vaulted ceiling of talent, have made the 26-year-old one of the most speculated on targets of the mid-summer trade market.
One would assume, with the current core in place here in Flushing, the organization would want to keep the current, criminally low-cost foundation in place and simply try again next year.
But if first-time general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is blown away by an offer, who are we to disagree with the sure-to-be king’s ransom Syndergaard fetches in return?
Landing a small watercraft full of top prospects sets this franchise up for the future, both immediate and long-term. And no team in baseball fits that bill better than the San Diego Padres.
The Friars’ farm system is pretty much the consensus for best in MLB, with eight players in MLB Pipeline‘s top 100, alone and seven in Baseball America‘s midseason top 100 prospects.
Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Syndergaard “remains a prime target” of San Diego’s front office, headed up by general manager A.J. Preller.
At a similar place in the National League standings as the Mets (46-51, 4.5 games back of a wild card berth), but with a jaw-dropping amount of talent coming down the turnpike, adding a frontline starter of Syndergaard’s caliber could substantially speed up the process for the Padres both this season and moving forward.
One would assume a combination of top guys and a few players from a bit further down San Diego’s prospect list is going to be the asking price.
Twenty-year-old left-handed stud starter MacKenzie Gore (1.02 ERA, 110 strikeouts, 20 walks over 15 starts/79.1 innings with Advanced-A Lake Elsinore this season) is almost assured to be off the table in any discussions, but wishful thinking never hurt, right?
However, between right-hander Luis Patino, 19 (3.21 ERA, 89 K, 31 BB, 15 appearances/14 starts/67.1 IP with Lake Elsinore), left-hander Adrian Morejon, who’s having a sub-par season, himself (4.25 ERA over 16 starts), but will make his MLB debut with the Padres this weekend in Chicago, there’s still plenty of high-end talent to be had.
San Diego will also recall highly-touted infielder Luis Urias on Saturday, and his name’s been another floated as a potential chip in recent weeks.
Urias, 22, has an impeccable slash line with Triple-A El Paso this season, hitting .315/.398/.600 with an uncharacteristic 19 homers (his previous season-high was eight), 19 doubles, 50 RBIs, and just 62 strikeouts over 339 plate appearances. Despite a .167/.256/.278 line over 82 major-league plate appearances, the potential is great in the young Mexican native.
That group must be enticing for an organization whose minors system — despite making great strides in recent years — is still very much middle-of-the-road.
Andy Martino of SNY reported on Friday that the Mets’ front office sent Ruben Amaro Jr. to Arizona on Thursday night to scout the Brewers. Milwaukee’s also shown interest in Mets right-hander, Zack Wheeler, as per the report.
Jon Morosi of MLB Network notes that Minnesota had representatives in San Francisco on Thursday night to take in Syndergaard versus likely-departing Giants’ mainstay, Madison Bumgarner.
Clearly, there figures to be plenty of options for Van Wagenen to entertain as the July 31 trade deadline rapidly approaches, and he should carefully weigh each and every offer that comes across his desk; to be frank, it would be imprudent not to.
