"We wanted to give our team some additional help; we're not playing great baseball right now, and we need to boost ourselves. We believe these players can give us that opportunity."
Those are the words of Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, whose club acquired three players in two different deals with two different teams right at the MLB trade deadline on Monday.
In one (technically two) of those deals, the Mets acquired catcher Robinson Chirinos and first baseman/third baseman Todd Frazier from Texas, sending two players to be named later back to the Rangers (and receiving some cash considerations from Texas as well).
The Mets had needed catching help, and look to Frazier as a clubhouse leader, but Van Wagenen liked the acquisitions particularly for what they can do in the box.
"Particularly with Frazier and Chirinos, we're bringing in two right-handed bats, two players who have had success against right-handers in the past," Van Wagenen said. "That's something that we wanted to balance our club out with right now."
Van Wagenen noted that manager Luis Rojas will have final decisions on how to utilize the personnel, but Frazier, specifically, brings versatility and a right-handed bat that can allow the Mets to be even more fluid with their defensive alignments.
"Todd can come in and get a big hit, he can face a tough left-handed pitcher, he can hit a home run, and he can start a game at first base or third base or DH," Van Wagenen. "We've faced a lot of left-handed pitching lately, and because we have so much length in our lineup from the left side, people can stack lefties against us and be effective, so the goal here is to give Luis an additional right-handed bat."
And, of course, as Mets and Yankees fans know, the best way to describe Frazier is high energy, which is something else the GM looks at as a net positive for the Mets.
"It shouldn't be lost that we want Todd's energy to come in and bring some life," Van Wagenen said. "We want him to be a guy who comes in and reminds people what having fun is all about, and someone who has history with a lot of players on our team and had great success in the past."
Added Pete Alonso, who spoke before the trades were made official: "Having Todd would be awesome. He's a hell of a leader, always has a great attitude, and is extremely infectious. He's a great dude and a great teammate, he just brings good vibes wherever he goes. It's going to be fun."
The third deal saw the Mets ship left-handed starting pitching prospect Kevin Smith and a PTBNL to Baltimore for Miguel Castro, who will be arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter and would be under Mets team control through 2022.
"He gives us a late-inning reliever that's young," Van Wagenen said. "He's got controllable years going forward, so we think he's someone who can help us not only in 2020, but looking forward to the roster in 2021."
Moves for now and for later (Frazier and Chirinos both have team options for 2021 as well), but Mets fans were surely cautious when the team added all of its Top Five prospects to the player pool, making them eligible to be dealt.
That wasn't the case, as the team didn't make a blockbuster but did only deal No. 12 prospect Smith and three PTBNLs, which Van Wagenen thought was a good balance between filling need now and keeping eyes on the long-term prize.
"We wanted to make sure that we were looking at a way to keep our business model in place, which is contend right now but not lose sight of the long-term future of the organization," Van Wagenen said. "We weren't motivated to move from the top of our prospect system, but we also wanted to show this team and this market that we are far from quitting on this season; this is a year that hasn't gone as smoothly as we would have liked, but we've got to play better baseball, and I think these guys can help us do that."
