The New York Mets looking to sell at the trade deadline and they could help fix their farm system by making deals with the Milwaukee Brewers.
With the Major League Baseball trade deadline a week away, the New York Mets have plenty of players that they could trade to help improve a below-average farm system. It is up to the general manager trio of John Ricco, J.P. Ricciardi, and Omar Minaya to make that happen and find the right team to make deals with.
While they traded Jeurys Familia to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, a lot of people within baseball have thought the return was not good enough for a pitcher of Familia’s caliber. That puts extra pressure on an organization that hasn’t been able to do many right things the entire year.
If there is one team that could be a perfect trade partner for the Mets, it is the Milwaukee Brewers, who are trying to win the NL Central for the first time since 2011. They are 2.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central and currently in the first Wild Card spot despite being 9-11 in July.
Last year, the Brewers did not make a big splash at the trade deadline and it ended up costing them a playoff spot as the Cubs went out and made the blockbuster move with the Chicago White Sox for Jose Quintana. After missing out on Manny Machado (Dodgers), will the Brewers make a big move in 2018?
The Mets have a couple of players that could help Milwaukee’s push to a postseason berth. One of those would be second baseman, Asdrubal Cabrera. He is hitting .280 with 17 home runs and would be an instant upgrade for Craig Counsell’s squad at second base.
This year, Milwaukee’s second basemen are hitting .235 (tied for third worst in the National League) and the 93 hits they have are tied for the fourth least in the league. Cabrera would bring instant offense at the position and can be versatile in terms of hitting in any spot in the order.
Now, since Cabrera is a free agent at the end of the year, don’t expect a big return for him. However, Milwaukee does have one of the better farm systems in the league and they were in the run for Machado at one point.
The big need for Milwaukee at the moment besides second base is in the rotation. It is a group that has been hit hard by injuries with Zach Davies and Jimmy Nelson on the disabled list. Plus, they just lost Brent Suter, who has a torn UCL:
#Brewers’ Suter has torn UCL, sources tell The Athletic. Likely Tommy John.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 23, 2018
Despite those injuries, the Brewers do have a starters ERA of 3.84 (fifth in the NL), so they have been able to withstand their misfortune.
In a market that does not have many great options in terms of starting pitching, the Mets have options with Zack Wheeler and maybe even Jacob deGrom. Milwaukee has the top prospects and young MLB position players like outfielder Domingo Santana to make that kind of a move happen.
Wheeler has one year left on his contract after this season and does have a 3.06 ERA in three career outings at Miller Park. In this kind of market, the Mets could get a top 10-15 prospect in the deal if they play their cards right. If anything, New York could package Cabrera and Wheeler in the same deal and improve their return.
The fact of the matter is that Ricco and the front office have a lot of damage control to do after a lot of people did not like the Familia deal. While all judgment on these deals should wait until after the trade deadline, they need to maximize their returns on other deals between now and the 31st.
In this situation, the Brewers may be the perfect trade partner because they are trying to get back to the postseason and are trying to not make the same mistakes they made last year.
Don’t be surprised if a deal is done between New York and Milwaukee is done in July for the first time since Francisco Rodriguez in 2011 (Neil Walker trade happened in August last year).
