The buzz is that the New York Mets are still looking for improvement at shortstop. They currently have Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada there and honestly neither of them are bad options, the duo ranked 10th in Wins Above Replacement in MLB last season.
But baseball is now entering a golden age for young shortstops like the Astros’ Carlos Correa, Indians’ Francisco Lindor, Cubs’ Addison Russell and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager, whom could all be impact shortstops in 2016.
Then there’s the Red Sox’ Xander Bogaerts who is already a proven shortstop. Finally there are highly-regarded shortstop prospects who could be making their major league debuts sometime next season in the Phillies’ J.P. Crawford, the Nationals’ Trea Turner and the Brewers’ Orlando Arcia.
The Mets have a shortstop prospect of their own in Amed Rosario but he won’t be ready until 2017 at the earliest, most likely in 2018. There are also a couple of wild cards in Matt Reynolds and Gavin Cecchini who we could see in 2016 at some point, but neither are in the same class as Rosario on the prospect scale.
Joel Sherman of the NY Post, proposes two trades the Mets should consider to improve their shortstop position.
1. Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs
The Cubs are looking to deepen their rotation outside of Jon Lester and potential Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta. Chicago has a lot of depth at shortstop with Starlin Castro, Addison Russell and Javier Baez all quality options, while the Mets have rotation depth and could deal a starter. Both teams have already discussed a swap as recently as the July trade deadline.
The Mets reportedly had strong interest in Castro last offseason, but have since cooled on him as a shortstop option and now are said to prefer Russell or Baez. The Cubs are more willing to deal Baez, and Sherman believes the two teams could get something done if the Mets were willing to deal right-hander Zack Wheeler for him.
Baez, 22, is a talented young player with plenty of room for growth and development, who’s strong defensively and has a power bat with tremendous bat speed like a Gary Sheffield. But Baez is also a big swing-and-miss guy, especially against righty breaking balls and we saw plenty of that in the NLCS vs the Mets. Baez has struck out 119 times in his first 309 major league at bats. If he could get his strikeouts down, we are talking about a 30-homer player who plays quality defense at shortstop and is an All Star caliber player.
Wheeler of course, is still trying to comeback from Tommy John surgery and isn’t expected to be ready until June or July.
2. Jurickson Profar, Texas Rangers
Jurickson Profar was ranked the No. 1 prospect by Baseball America when he made his major league debut in 2013. However he has suffered through multiple shoulder surgeries and has not played a major league game in the last two years. He’s currently playing DH in the Arizona Fall League and so far reports suggest he looked fine, according to scouts.
The Rangers currently have rising star Rougned Odor at second base and Elvis Andrus at short so Profar could be expendable. Although the Rangers would prefer to trade Andrus because he still has seven year, $103 million left on his deal, no team has showed any willingness to take that contract on. That could open the door for the Rangers to deal Profar and perhaps the Mets could buy low on this once untouchable prospect.
Both Baez or Profar come with risk and potentially high reward, much like Zack Wheeler who could be the impetus for the Mets to get something done.
Is Sherman onto something here? Are the better off sticking with Flores or do either of these players give the Mets an upgrade as Sherman suggests? Do you have your own suggestions?
