The New York Mets have agreed to a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates which will send pitcher Jon Niese to the Steel City in exchange for second baseman Neil Walker, pending medical reviews reports Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
Source: #Mets agree to trade Niese to #Pirates for Walker, pending medical reviews.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 9, 2015
The Mets make the move after missing out on Ben Zobrist, who opted to sign a four-year deal with the Chicago Cubs. Walker is a decent fall-back option. The 30-year-old is coming off a strong season that saw him hit 16 home runs and 71 RBI while batting .269 average with a .328 OBP in 151 games. He won a Silver Slugger in 2014 after hitting 23 home runs, but the 15-20 range is what the Mets should expect.
Defensively, Walker is an average second baseman, posting a -2 DRS last year. He’s eligible for arbitration this offseason and is a free agent at season’s end. If it wasn’t obvious before, the Mets are moving on from Daniel Murphy. The Pirates will likely end up manning the position with either Josh Harrison or Jung-ho Kang, with the other player starting at third base.
The Pirates get a replacement for the recently departed J.A. Happ, and he comes with some control. The 29-year-old lefty will make $9 million in 2016, and has a $10 million option ($500k buyout) for 2017 and a $11 million option ($500k buyout) 2018. Niese is a solid, but unspectacular, pitcher who will provide consistent innings. In 2015, he posted a 9-10 record with a 4.13 ERA (4.41 FIP) while throwing 176.2 innings.
He’s fairly vanilla, as he won’t strike out a ton of batters, yet has decent control. The Mets could afford to trade Niese given their tremendous young pitching depth. He joins a great rotation which features Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano. Who knows, maybe the Pirates can rub some of their ace magic dust on Niese like they did with Happ and Edinson Volquez, and turn him into a very good pitcher.
So it’s not the biggest move in the world, but one that fills big needs for each team. The Mets finally get a Murphy replacement (at least until Dilson Herrera is ready) and the Pirates address a hole in the rotation.
