How aggressively should the Mets pursue Garrett Crochet?
Tyrone Taylor has offseason surgery as the Mets gear up to meet with Juan Soto this week
What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎
Outfielder Tyrone Taylor recently underwent a hernia surgery and a separate procedure to remove a loose body from his elbow. He will be ready for spring training
The Mets have discussed a trade for LHP Garrett Crochet with the White Sox (NY Post)
Mets brass will be in Newport Beach this week to meet with Scott Boras and Juan Soto (Read)
Rumor Mill 💭
The Yankees are interested in right-handed late inning reliever Carlos Estevez (Morosi)
The Cardinals are expected to gauge trade interest in veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado (St. Louis Post Dispatch)
Arizona is receiving significant trade interest from teams looking for starting pitching (The Athletic)
The Twins could be open to trading Carlos Correa (New York Post)
Let’s talk about Garrett Crochet… ✍️
The Mets have obviously been linked extensively to high profile free-agents Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes already this winter, and they have their own business to figure out with franchise icon Pete Alonso.
But could the key to the team’s offseason actually be someone currently employed by someone else?
Left-hander Garrett Crochet is very much available to be had via trade. The White Sox just lost a Major League record 121 games, have holes at virtually every position, and desperately need to reallocate their assets. The best way to solve some of their problems is to trade Crochet for a bounty of talented position players to in theory begin to form the next long-term core in Chicago.
For the Mets—and every other team in baseball for that matter—this represents a unique opportunity. Starting pitchers of Crochet’s talent level and age simply don’t become available.
He’s a 25-year-old left-handed ace coming into the prime of his career. He’s under team control for two more full seasons, and is realistically the type of arm that could lead an acquiring team’s rotation for years to come.
Chicago made him the 11th overall pick coming out of the University of Tennessee in 2020 and promoted him to the Major Leagues just a few months later. He made the first 72 appearances of his big-league career in relief from ‘20-’23, while missing all of 2022 due to Tommy John Surgery in between.
This past season the White Sox finally moved him to the rotation, and the returns were immediately impressive.
In 32 starts in 2024, Crochet pitched to a 3.58 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP, while striking out 209 hitters in 146 innings and allowing just a .222 batting average against. He was the lone bright spot for Chicago, and now represents the organization’s best chance to avoid a painfully long rebuild.
He was on an innings limit in 2024 and could be on another one in 2025, although he should be able to throw around 180 innings in the regular season next year.
For the Mets, the fit is obvious.
The only starting pitchers currently under contract in Queens are Kodai Senga, David Peterson, and Tylor Megill. The Mets have indicated a desire to add three arms to the rotation mix, and while some of those may come in the form of bringing back one or more of Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana, it’s clear external additions are going to be made as well.
Thanks to the club’s shrewd trades at the deadline during the disappointing 2023 campaign, the Mets minor league system is currently as well stocked as it’s been in a long time. They certainly have the prospect capital to pull off a difference making trade like the one I’m alluding to; the question becomes how steep of a price is David Stearns willing to pay?
Most teams in baseball will at least check in with Chicago on Crochet. He will be traded this winter, and more likely than not a bidding war of sorts will develop.
If the Mets are going to make any trades this winter, and consider trading their top prospects, this is the kind of asset they should be seeking with such prospect capital. It could take two or three of their top ten prospects to get the White Sox’s attention, but is it worth the Mets paying the price in prospects for a young, talented controllable pitcher? Or are they better off throwing money and years at the problem for an older pitcher?
Maybe the answer is both in certain cases?
The Mets could attempt to build a trade offer that could include names like Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuna, Ronny Mauricio, Jett Williams, Drew Gilbert, Kevin Parada, and Carson Benge.
They could even try to expand a potential deal to include outfielder Luis Robert—an idea that has been floated in recent days.
Stearns undoubtedly has the capital to pull this off, and the need on the roster. But he also knows that he has the luxury of Steve Cohen’s deep pockets to address his rotational needs via free-agency if the price gets too steep.
Regardless of the eventual outcome, this is a situation to monitor for the rest of the winter, and the Mets will be in the conversation regarding Crochet until he is traded somewhere else. It could make sense for the White Sox to wait and see how the free agent market for starting pitchers takes shape before moving on trade offers for their top prize, so this could take a while to play itself out.
Around the League 🚩
The Marlins have hired Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough as their new manager (ESPN)
Cincinnati signed catcher Alex Jackson to a minor league deal (MLBTradeRumors)