Just Mets

To this point in the season, the Mets have remained idle on the trade front despite obvious needs on the front line and continuing to fade towards irrelevancy in the standings.

But recently, scouts from both the Mariners and Brewers have been watching the Binghamton Mets, reports the New York Post.

In addition, scouts from the Cubs have recently attended games at NYSEG Stadium.

It remains unclear if the scouts are watching anyone in particular, but the Binghamton Mets currently have Michael Conforto, Gavin Cecchini, LJ Mazzilli, Michael Fulmer, Akeel Morris, Gabriel Ynoa and Brandon Nimmo among notable prospects on their roster.

In regards to the Brewers specifically, the Mets have been reportedly connected to Aramis Ramirez and Jean Segura, although Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports said in early June there isn’t much traction in trade talks between the Mets and Brewers regarding Ramirez.

Ramirez is a diminished player at this point in his career and he has talked about retiring at the end of the year. He isn’t very good anymore, and his diminished skill set was on display against the Mets on Tuesday night on both sides of the ball.

Besides, any deal for Ramirez would require the Mets to take on the remainder of Ramirez’s $14 million salary for 2015, Marc Carig of Newsday wrote earlier this month, which would not be ideal for a diminished player like this.

As for Segura, he does have some qualities the Mets sorely need, such as his speed. He is still young and inexpensive, and there’s no question he could come with some upside going forward. However, he has qualities the Mets don’t need more of, such as his inability to get on-base and his poor and often lackadaisical defense, both of which were also on display against the Mets on Tuesday.

The Mariners don’t have anyone standing out in particular, either.

They could consider someone like Mark Trumbo, who the Mariners just acquired from the Diamondbacks, and platooning him with Curtis Granderson. He’s been average in the outfield and at first base this season, but he hasn’t had a good year at the plate and wasn’t particularly good in 2014 either, as his power has greatly diminished over that time. Overall, he isn’t a great value at $6.9 million in 2015, and an escalating salary through arbitration next season, but he has hit left-handed pitching well this season and in general over the course of his career.

Regarding the Cubs, they obviously have numerous players which could help the Mets, both today and going forward. They were reportedly interested in acquiring Addison Russell over the winter, and while I had heard the Mets did in fact make some of their top shelf pitching prospects available under the right circumstances this past winter, presumably for someone they felt was a transformational-type player.

But for now, the Mets appear intent on holding onto their premium pitching. And with the Cubs sitting atop of the Wild Card standings, they’d probably look to add to what they have right now, rather than subtract.

However, the Cubs and Mets could eventually come together on a deal. In fact, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times last month a deal will, “happen at some point,” between the Mets and Cubs and expects to speak with the Mets in the future.

“We haven’t made a deal yet, but there’s been matches that made sense, and I’m sure we’ll talk to them in the future,” Hoyer told Wittenmyer in May.

To clarify, Hoyer could simply be suggesting the two clubs matchup well to fit each other’s needs (which they have, do and will continue to do so), and it’s not a surprise at all the Cubs – or anyone for that matter – would be interested in the Mets pitching prospects. It’s all about price, for both sides, and whether or not they can eventually agree to terms of a deal. That may or may not happen, considering both sides have assigned extremely high values to their chips.

Wittenmyer believes a deal is more likely to involve Javier Baez, who has played some shortstop at Triple-A Iowa. In fact, Wittenmyer recently reported the Cubs reached out to the Mets about Baez.

Baez comes with his share of problems, specifically with his high strikeout rate and inability to adjust. He got a cup of coffee last year with the Cubs and showed all of that power potential at this level, but also featured a big, one-dimensional swing which didn’t produce much else. He hasn’t played in the big leagues this year and broke his thumb recently, so maybe the two sides could eventually come to terms on a deal at a reduced cost for the Mets.

There’s no denying Baez is young, has a ton of power potential, has decent speed and could eventually evolve into the transformation bat they seek. The problem is, that may not happen this year.

Whatever the Mets decide to do, they need to find a way to not only improve the offense, but fix the defense as well. After all, the blueprint of this team centers around quality young pitching, and the Mets have well below average defense at all but one position behind them.