Oakland A’s start firesale, trade Chris Bassitt to New York Mets

The New York Mets have shored up their starting rotation even further and the Oakland A’s have started their firesale all with one move. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Mets are set to acquire Chris Bassitt from the Oakland A’s in a trade.

The Oakland A’s have traded Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets

Chris Bassitt is one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball but now that the Oakland A’s have traded him to the New York Mets, he will likely get more recognition than he got before.

Bassitt was an All-Star for the first time in 2021 and he went 12-4 in 27 starts with an ERA of 3.15. He also had a 3.34 FIP, a 130 ERA+, a 1.055 WHIP, and a strikeout-to-walk ratio that was better than 4:1. However, he missed about a month, as at the end of August, he suffered a facial fracture after a 100 MPH liner hit him in the face. Despite that, he still finished in 10th in AL Cy Young Award voting.

In 2020, he had an ERA of 2.29 in 11 starts. He had a 3.59 FIP, a 183 ERA+, a 1.159 WHIP, and a 3.24:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. By rWAR, he was 3rd and 8th in AL in pitcher WAR.

He joins Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, who have each finished in the top ten in Cy Young Award voting in every season since 2016 (and in the top five in each season since 2013 for Scherzer).

According to Joel Sherman of The New York Post, the Mets will trade two minor leaguers to the A’s in return: RHP J.T. Ginn and RHP Adam Oller.

Ginn, 22, was the Mets #5 prospect, according to MLB.com. He made his professional debut in 2021, pitching in both Low-A and High-A, where he combined to have a 3.03 ERA in 18 games.

Oller, 27, had been a low-level prospect for much of his career but his stock has gone up in the last year. He split the 2021 season between Double-A and Triple-A and in 23 starts, he had a 3.45 ERA and he combined to strike out more than 10 batters per nine innings in comparison to 3.5 walks.