The New York Mets have had a relatively quiet offseason, but it appears that both the trade and free agency markets will be lively in January.
According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, Omar Narvaez, who picked up a $7 million option for the 2024 season, could be traded by the Mets.
With just 49 games played in the 2023 season, Narvaez’s playing time was restricted by Francisco Alvarez’s dominance on the team. The catcher has indicated that he would like to play for a different team where he can be sure of getting more playing time.
The Tampa Bay Rays are the team that Narvaez and the Mets should sign.
The only catcher on the Tampa Bay Rays’ 40-man roster for the upcoming season is Rene Pinto, who is not particularly experienced in Major League Baseball. This is why the team believes they need to add a catcher, preferably a veteran with defensive abilities to bolster a young rotation that has been decimated by injuries.
The Rays rotation would benefit from Omar Narvaez’s high ability to frame pitches, which is necessary in today’s game given the caliber of pitchers the team has in Shane Baz, Taj Bradley, and the recently acquired Ryan Pepiot. Furthermore, free agency lacks trustworthy options that fit this description, and its financial position would make it more difficult to acquire a value addition in the trade market.
These factors make the match between these two teams evident, as does the Mets’ capacity to assume a sizable chunk of Narvaez’s 2024 contract. The Mets have two options in this regard. Take less financial risk and acquire a middle-aged veteran reliever, or assume a large portion of the contract in order to acquire a young, controllable reliever.
In the first option, the Mets could look at MLB-ready talent reliever Yoniel Curet, the number 22 prospect in the Rays organization. Curet, just 21 years old, has an electric fastball that touches 98 mph and a slider that has generated an elite amount of swing and miss in his time in the minors but has a weakness in his control, generating a high percentage of walks.
The return value would drop if the Mets decided, as in the hypothetical scenario, to only take a portion of Narvaez’s contract; instead, they could acquire more experienced and less predictable relief options, like Chris Devenski or Tyler Alexander. The Mets would receive middle relievers with a respectable swing-and-miss percentage and the capacity to produce outs in both scenarios.