New York Mets Rumors: Five potential Queens-bound trade options
By Paul Ashley
The New York Mets already have a solid top of the rotation heading into next season. However, as many teams are looking to retool during the current offseason, there are a lot of options that could help the Mets fill out the rest of their rotation.
The Arizona Diamondbacks came up short in their pursuit of winning the NL West division last season. Due to this, they are now one of the many teams looking to retool this offseason. This could be a benefit to the Mets as they look to upgrade their current roster for a potential postseason run next season.
Zack Greinke is widely known to be available due to the large amount of money remaining on his current contract. Even though his contract does not look appealing, he is still a viable option for the top of any rotation.
During 2018, Greinke earned his fifth All-Star appearance as he compiled a 15-11 record with a 3.21 earned run average (ERA), a 3.70 FIP (fielding independent pitching), and a 1.079 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched). He also compiled 199 strikeouts compared to 43 walks in his 207.2 innings pitched.
Even though deGrom proved that a pitcher should not be judged solely on wins and losses, this past season was the 11th straight season in which Greinke won at least 10 games. This effort shows his ability to give his team a chance to win every time he takes the mound.
Greinke is scheduled to earn $34.5 million in 2019, $35.0 million in 2020, and $35.0 million in 2021 before his current contract expires. Although this is a large amount of money, the Mets currently only have $77.5 million committed for next season and $45.5 committed for 2020.
After arbitration estimates, these numbers increase to $126.0 million in 2019 and $85.0 million in 2020. As the Mets are one of the few teams that could absorb this type of salary, they should definitely pursue the services of Greinke.
If the Mets are unable/unwilling to take on his full remaining salary, they could potentially get the Diamondbacks to take on the remaining salary owed to Jason Vargas and/or Jay Bruce in a Greinke trade. Regardless, acquiring Greinke to pitch alongside Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Steven Matz would give the Mets one of the best rotations in baseball next season.