In response to which young arm or arms the Mets should trade for a bat this trade deadline or offseason…
I actually believe that Rafael Montero is the least likely to be traded among all pitching prospects in the organization right now, at least as long as this front office is in place.
There´s a pretty obvious pattern. The front office wants pitchers who throw a lot of strikes and control the strike-zone. They want hitters who only swing at strikes and control the strike-zone.
That (and an emphasis on coachability / work ethic – however you want to measure that) has been a common theme for them when targeting prospects.
Montero is the biggest strike thrower of them all – though it seems that Matthew Bowman and Matt Koch also have pretty good control, even if their stuff isn´t as crisp as Montero´s and their command not as good (yet) either.
Noah Syndergaard & Michael Fulmer actually fit that mold too. They have posted unusually low walk rates for very young pitching prospects.
More likely trade bait could be someone like Domingo Tapia or Cory Mazzoni or even – eventually – Zack Wheeler if he doesn´t improve his control in a similar fashion like Matt Harvey has from the minors to the majors.
That´s the mantra – for pitchers: “Throw Strikes and good things will happen” ; for hitters: “Don´t swing at Balls and good things will happen”.
And I´d assume that this will also be an assumption as part of trades – unless an organization is really willing to pay a high price. If the Rockies want Montero and are willing to give up Dexter Fowler, sure, he´s gone. But all things equal, the Mets would try to use Tapia or DeGrom or Mazzoni or even two of them instead of Montero, I´m quite sure.
(Photo Credit: Gordon Donovan)
