The New York Mets traded plenty of players at the trade deadline and brought in nine new top 30 prospects in a lost season.
The New York Mets were one of the few bona fide sellers at the trade deadline this season and they cashed in by trading six pitchers and an outfielder in the final days leading up to the 6 p.m. EDT deadline on Aug. 3.
The Mets had to get as much as it could for expiring veteran contracts, including right-handers Freddy Peralta and Clay Holmes, the two players New York got the most in the form of prospects.
New York sought big returns for Peralta and Holmes despite Peralta having the worst season of his career – and the Mets got what they were looking for. Given how bad Peralta had been, it was a miracle they got three top 30 prospects from a team looking to add a veteran starter with playoff experience.
Peralta was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for outfielder Aidan Smith (Mets No. 12 prospect), second baseman Émilien Pitre (No. 15) and right-hander Gary Gill Hill (No. 17). He made his Rays debut on Tuesday and was shelled, so it’s safe to say the Mets already won the trade given that he’s a free agent at the end of the season.
The ask for Holmes, who was having a great year prior to breaking his leg in mid-May, was much larger and although New York brought in just one prospect in the deal that sent him and outfielder Tyrone Taylor to the Chicago Cubs, it’s a top 100 prospect and the new No. 1 in the Mets’ system.
Infielder Jefferson Rojas is having a monster year in Double-A and figures to be fly up the Mets system soon. President of baseball operations David Stearns did good work with what he had, prompting ESPN to give the Mets praise for getting enough value at the deadline.
“The Mets demanded a significant return for Clay Holmes, according to several teams that checked in, and they wound up getting their new No. 1 prospect from the Chicago Cubs in shortstop Jefferson Rojas,” Alden Gonzalez wrote Tuesday.
“The Mets added a top 100 prospect in Rojas who could be a factor in late 2027, then a plethora of depth for the system of different sorts, with RHP Gary Gill Hill and SS Sammy Stafura having the most notable upside of that group for the development staff to work with,” Kiley McDaniel added.
New York added nine new prospects to their top 30, a nice deadline for a team that has been dead in the water after making a ton of roster changes going into the year.
