Trevor Larnach. Photo credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The August 1 MLB trade deadline is quickly approaching. The New York Mets have already made two splashes by selling off veterans David Robertson and Max Scherzer. Will their next move be bringing in a reinforcement?

According to the Athletic’s Dan Hayes, the New York Mets have shown interest in Minnesota Twins’ outfielder Trevor Larnach. New York is one of multiple teams reportedly showing interest. The San Diego Padres were the other organization mentioned in the report.

Larnach is a 26-year-old left-handed outfielder. He has spent the past three seasons in the major leagues with the Twins where he owns a career slash line of .223/.315/.380. This equates to a below average .695 OPS.

Throughout the three-season sample size, Larnach owns an incredibly high 34.1-percent career strikeout rate (average is roughly 22.8 percent). However, his career walk rate is slightly above average (8.5 percent) at 10.9 percent.

His career splits indicates a much stronger hitter against right-handed pitching. He owns a career .733 OPS against righties. On the flip side, against left-handed pitching, he owns a woeful .580 OPS. Cumulatively, 74.4 percent of his career at-bats have come against right-handed pitching.

Larnach has spent a majority of his career in left field where he owns a total outs above average (OAA) of negative-2, but a defensive runs saved (DRS) of plus-3. Overall, including the innings he has spent in right field, his career OOA is plus-1 and DRS is plus-9. He also owns a career outfield arm runs (ARM) of 4.4 signifying he has a pretty solid arm in the outfield.

Larnach has struggled again this year, posting a .216 batting average and .715 OPS across 162 at-bats. His OPS against only right-handed pitching is .744. However, this year he has shown encouraging signs  in Triple-A, posting a .824 OPS across 128 at-bats.

The appeal to the Mets is likely how hard he has hit the ball in his time in the majors. The percentile ranking of his maximum exit velocities (out of 100) he has posted over the past three season are 97, 85, and 78, respectively. Of course, this hasn’t led to sustained success yet, as his career .695 OPS and .218 xBA indicate.

He was also once a top-100 prospect in baseball. According to FanGraphs, before he graduated prospect status in 2021 he ranked as the Twins’ second-best prospect and #34 in the majors.

Larnach is a very controllable asset as he’s under team control through at least the 2027 season. He is not arbitration eligible until the 2025 season.

Worth noting, Mark Canha and Tommy Pham are both players the Twins have reportedly shown interest in.