Steve Cohen gets another opportunity to show off his financial prowess.
The Boston Red Sox had a busy weekend, acquiring Chris Sale to the Braves in exchange for Vaughn Grissom and signing Lucas Giolito to a contract that the New York Mets ought to have topped. After signing Giolito, the Red Sox strengthened their starting pitching, which was their greatest vulnerability, but they immediately made a step backward by dealing Sale.
The Red Sox seem intent on using the free agency market to get additional pitchers, as they obviously need more. According to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo, “the Red Sox have told at least one free agent target that they need to shed more payroll before pursuing him as aggressively as they want to.” This kind of penny-pinching by a major market giant like the Red Sox is absurd and reminds me a lot of the Wilpon Mets of old.
The Mets are fortunate to have Steve Cohen, who can exploit clubs trying to make a quick cash move. The Mets have already done it once this summer, sending Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor to the Brewers in exchange for Coleman Crow. Any of these three players can be viewed as viable options that the Mets can try to acquire, but the Red Sox won’t move talents like Rafael Devers or Masataka Yoshida to clear money.
1. Kenley Jansen
One player that Cotillo lists as a “obvious trade candidate” is reliever Kenley Jansen, who is still very excellent but has a $16 million 2024 contract. The Red Sox are so focused on cutting costs that they don’t seem to care if Jansen is still a good reliever. In fact, he might not even cost much to acquire.
With the Dodgers, Jansen is renowned for his dominance. Even though his career isn’t exactly as great as it was, he’s still a great high-leverage reliever and would be a great choice to set Edwin Diaz up. In 51 games and 44.2 innings pitched for Boston last season, he recorded a 3.63 ERA while turning 29 saves out of 33 chances.
The four terrible September appearances before he was placed on the injured list are largely to blame for the ERA, which may be a little high. As August came to a conclusion, his ERA was 2.74.
The team still needs a primary set-up man, and Jansen would fit that role and offer expertise that this bullpen lacks. He is rather unseriable due to his age of thirty-six and high price, but this also implies that obtaining him wouldn’t be difficult. There aren’t many better free agent choices available for the Mets to sign. I don’t see any harm in going after this if Boston is genuinely just dumping salaries. If it doesn’t work out, the year is still young.
2. Chris Martin
Though he is a different reliever and has just finished a fantastic season, Chris Martin is maybe the best option the Mets can possibly deal for.
Martin pitched 51.1 innings for the Red Sox last season in 55 appearances, recording a 1.05 ERA. He wasn’t even their closer, but he was so good that he placed 12th in the AL Cy Young voting. With just two home runs and eight walks (three of which were intentional) during the season, he demonstrated incredible command.
Although it’s quite unlikely that Martin will be as good the next season, he has always been a reliable player. In 324 MLB appearances over the course of portions of eight seasons, he has a 3.36 ERA; the Braves spent two and a half of those outings in the NL East.
Emilio Pagan agreed to a $16 million, two-year contract with the Reds this summer. Cincinnati gave a less effective reliever a higher AAV and an extra year. The Pagan arrangement is perfectly acceptable, but it does highlight Martin’s value at his pricing.
The Mets sorely need Brooks Raley and at least one, ideally two, late-inning relievers to establish a bridge to Edwin Diaz. The Mets would be extremely fortunate to get Martin in a salary dump that wouldn’t require making many concessions, as he is projected to earn just $7.5 million in 2019.
3. Nick Pivetta
Right now, the starting rotation for the Mets is a complete mess. To accompany Jose Quintana and Kodai Senga, they acquired Adrian Houser through a trade and signed Luis Severino. A player like Tylor Megill, Jose Butto, or Joey Lucchesi might be added in-house to complete out the rotation, but it’s difficult to imagine them not adding at least one more.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Dodger, despite the fact that the Mets were all in for him. Before Boston signed Lucas Giolito, they also appeared to be quite interested in him. There are other starting pitchers available to them as free agents, but considering the high cost of average starting pitching, don’t be shocked if the Mets try to bolster their rotation through trades.
Although Nick Pivetta is not a particularly exciting addition, Spotrac projects that he will get $7.5 million in his last arbitration year. For a pitcher with severe durability issues and a 6.65 ERA last season, the Mets handed Luis Severino nearly twice as much as Pivetta, thus $7.5 million for a season is a good deal.
Mets fans are more familiar with Pivetta from his time with the Phillies, but he has performed better since joining the Red Sox. He’s not an ace by any means, but he’s more like Giolito in that he’s a guy they can actually count on to give them innings and starts. In 2021 and 2022, he made 63 starts for the Red Sox combined, pitching 155 or more innings in each of both seasons. That is worthwhile.
Pivetta alternated between the rotation and the bullpen throughout the previous campaign. Despite his ups and downs, he concluded the season as a starter with a 2.37 ERA across his final five starts. In Baltimore, he pitched seven scoreless innings to round out his season, giving up just two hits and 10 strikeouts.
Although he hasn’t performed well at all, Pivetta has certain advantages and is also a reliable innings eater. They can do worse for a fifth starter, but he’s hardly the best pitcher they can get.