Mets Should Go Get Francisco Lindor
With the Cleveland Indians getting a very modest package in return for Corey Kluber, it is very possible the team hastens trading Francisco Lindor. After all, by trading him sooner rather than later, you are maximizing the return you would receive in a trade. That’s important considering the Indians have already indicating they WILL NOT be re-signing the superstar shortstop.
In an attempt to figure out what the Indians could get for Lindor now, MLB.com worked out six potential trades including a possible trade with the New York Mets. The proposed trade had the Mets sending Amed Rosario, J.D. Davis, David Peterson, and Brett Baty to the Indians to obtain Lindor.
Shockingly, for some reason MLB believed the Mets may walk away with the deal feeling the offer is too much. In reality, it is likely the Indians would want more. Of course, that presumes the Indians do not see Rosario as a star in the making, or that they could see Peterson thriving in their pitching system.
Really, if this is it, the Mets should absolutely at the opportunity.
Lindor, 26, is already the best shortstop in baseball, and he is about to enter his prime seasons. As he enters those seasons, he already has two Gold Gloves (one Platinum Glove), two Silver Sluggers, and five All-Star appearances. His 4.7 bWAR this year was his “worst.”
Since his Major League debut in 2015, his 27.2 fWAR is the seventh best in the majors. Among shortstops, his 119 wRC+ is fifth best among shortstops, and his 55 DRS is third best.
When you break it down, Lindor is a legitimately great player. He’s a superstar, and having him on your team brings your franchise that much closer to being a true World Series contender. When you look at the Indians, when you have a player like Lindor and a loaded pitching staff, you can get to the World Series.
When you break it down, the only thing the Mets need to do what the Indians did in 2016 is to get Lindor. Yes, Lindor would matter that much to this team, and yes, even on a team with Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, and Brandon Nimmo, Lindor would be the team’s best position player.
With all due respect, he’s a significant upgrade over Rosario, even with Rosario scratching the surface in the second half last year. That improvement is in the field and in the lineup. That type of upgrade lengthens the lineup, improves the defense, and it makes everyone better.
That makes having Jake Marisnick in center everyday more palatable. It allows the Mets to sit Wilson Ramos more for a much better framer behind the plate. It allows for a lot including the team overcoming some of their problems to become a real World Series contender like the Indians were.
Sure, we can argue the Mets need a bullpen more, a backup catcher, an everyday center field, or anyone of their significant holes. More than that, the Mets need the talent to take them to the next level. Lindor is that talent, and if you are lucky, the Mets will be in a position to extend him as Cohen grows in his power over the team.
Overall, the Mets need to do what they can do to get Lindor. While is is very possible to overpay for him, in all likelihood, it is quite difficult you could argue there is s way to overpay to obtain him. Even if you do overpay, you are still walking about with a top 1o Major Leaguer who makes your team better in every aspect of the game.
To that end, if the Indians are dangling Lindor, the Mets should do all they can do to obtain him because he is that great, and his acquisition is that important. No one should stand in the way, especially those mentioned in the mock trade. When you boil it all down, Lindor is exactly what the Mets need. Lets’ hope the Mets can find a good package for him.
“With the Cleveland Indians getting a very modest package in return for Corey Kluber,…”
—-**THIS** (and signing Grandal) is the deal I thought the Mets should make (before signing Porcello and Wacha, though I suppose that’s obvious). The Mets offense is difficult to upgrade significantly. Not that they shouldn’t try, but with McNeil pencilled in at 3B and having spent $100 million on 2B last offseason (an experiment they’re not going to quit on in 2020), the Mets have strong players at 1B, 3B, RF and an immovable object at 2B. They have a very cheap platoon worth about 2 wins in LF. Nimmo and Marisnick are headed for 3-5 wins in CF. They have a 2 win SS with upside, and a 2 win catcher.
In short, you get more from upgrading the 5th starter slot with Kluber where you’ve got just replacement level and worse pitchers (0.0 WAR and worse), than you do upgrading from a position player like Rosario who is already worth 2+ wins. The Mets FO should have recognized that they were a .500 team, at most a couple of games above, a team that needed to add two very, very fine players to have a decent shot at the postseason. With Corey Kluber–who from 2014 through 2018 was better than a guy named Jacob deGrom–the Mets had a chance to get, very cheaply, a tremendous starting pitcher who is still capable of a Cy Young season.
Upgrade from Ramos to Grandal and it costs you only 6-7m more by AAV to add 2-3 wins. Apparently the Mets had the money for both moves, and made neither.
—-As for Lindor, it just comes down to how much you want to decimate the farm in order to bump the team from around 84 to 87-88 wins. Marginal wins, ie the wins that help a team projected to win in the low to mid-80s, are incredibly valuable. It’s such a different place than a team that projects to win 75. I think it’s too late though, tbh. They needed to add two premium players, and if they add Lindor they’d need one more to be more than just on the fringes. If a team is loading up, will get around and even over the luxury tax cap, has already sacked its farm, and now is dealing two more valuable pieces along with a young and improving regular and a very good bench player in Davis just to get to 87-88 wins… that has to be unwise.
You do this kind of thing, dealing for Lindor, if you’ve already picked up Kluber, and especially if you’ve effectively swapped Grandal for Ramos, and spent the 5m total AAV it would have cost to beef up the pen with Guerra and that guy with the funny name, both of whom were signed about 10 days ago. **THAT** is going for it. This, just fiddling around with bits and pieces because, as Wags said, they had to rather than wanted to (whatever that meant) then slapping Lindor onto the problem, gets the worst of all worlds: Continuing to gut the farm, but failing to become a REAL contender, a team with a solid shot at winning it all.
What the Mets need:
Not Yoenis Cespedes, not Rick Porcello, not Francisco Lindor, not Robinson Cano.
LF: Marcel Ozuna (or Dominic Smith)
CF: Starling Marte
RF: Michael Conforto
SP: DeGrom, Syndergaard (or equivalent), Lugo, Stroman, Matz
RP: someone to replace Jeurys Familia.
3B: JD Davis
2B: Jeff McNeil
SS: Amed Rosario (not Luis Guillorme)
1B: Pete Alonso
C: Wilson Ramos or Contreras
and prospects
What the Mets need is to be significantly better, and Lindor accomplished that.
I’d also note the last thing the Mets need is J.D. at third.