On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick posted a tweet from a MLB executive that had everybody questioning the minds of the New York Mets’ front office.
A MLB exec on #Mets: “They want a middle of the order OF bat who isn’t going to cost anything — in terms of dollars or players.”
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 21, 2015
That seams reasonable if we’re only talking about the first nine words of that tweet. But of course we’re not. The Mets want a great offensive bat for free. That honestly might be the silliest sentence I’ve ever typed. And yet, despite it’s silliness, it’s true.
The Mets are 48-45 and somehow still in the hunt for the NL East title and the playoffs. With hurlers like Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom all pitching like aces, it’s not surprising they have a reasonable shot at October play. But when your best offensive hitter is Curtis Granderson, it’s a bit more outlandish. Not to mention the fact that New York ranks 28th in wRC+, meaning only the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox have a lesser offense.
Contributing to their offensive woes are injuries to key players. David Wright has appeared in only eight games and Travis d’Arnaud has only seen 19 games. Those two really took a huge bite out of the lineup when they were forced to go on the disabled list.
Nonetheless, the Mets are still in the hunt for October. They do, however, need massive help scoring runs. If they want a middle-of-the-order bat who won’t cost them dollars or players, well, maybe a magic genie will appear. But if they want a middle-of-the-order bat who won’t cost them players, Milwaukee Brewers’ third baseman Aramis Ramirez might be their guy. Ramirez is in the last year of his contract/career and won’t demand much in a trade. If the Mets offer the Brewers one or two fringe prospects, I think a trade could get done. The Mets would have to take on some of Ramirez’s bloated contract, though.
If the Mets were smart, a trade would’ve been done weeks ago.
Over the last 30 days, Ramirez has a 150 wRC+ and a 0.9 WAR. To put that in perspective, out of every player on the Mets with at least 50 plate appearances, only Granderson has been better than Ramirez offensively. If we’re talking about just the Mets’t third basemen, Ramirez has been far and away the better hitter Both Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy have looked lost at the plate over the last month, while Ramirez has been red hot. Ramirez’s overall stats aren’t that pretty, but everyone knows he’s a slow starter. His bat doesn’t warm up until the weather warms up.
If David Wright was scheduled to come back soon, the Mets would have no interest bringing in an aging third baseman, but because he hasn’t even been cleared to resume baseball activities yet, New York has a desperate need to fill the void. I’m shocked they haven’t done it yet, but Ramirez to the Mets makes great sense.
Get it done, New York.
