The Mets made their anticipated splash shortly before the trade deadline on Friday, acquiring Javier Baez from the Cubs to strengthen a lineup that has largely struggled this season, while also addressing a glaring immediate need at shortstop with Francisco Lindor still week-to-week with an oblique strain.
New York also received reliever Trevor Williams in the deal, who was optioned to Triple-A. But with one big move, the front office believes it sufficiently addressed some concerns the team had heading into the final two months of the season.
"We just think this makes our team pretty deep and versatile," acting general manager Zack Scott told reporters on Friday. "We feel like we addressed our pitching depth and some of our position player versatility. It was difficult for us to trade Pete Crow-Armstrong, a player that was obviously a high draft pick for us…but we felt like this was the right thing to do for the 2021 New York Mets."
Baez publicly said before the deadline that he would be willing to shift over to second base if it meant playing with his close friend Lindor, and that will now become a reality. But first, with Lindor out, Baez brings immediate pop to a position of need, while also maintaining versatility for whenever the lineup returns to full strength.
"Francisco's injured right now, which opens up more of an opportunity to play his natural position," Scott said. "We like a lot of our position players, so when we're looking at possible trades for bats, we're looking at how they change our team relative to the guys we have, who we think are good payers. Javy gets the edge over maybe some of our other guys right now, with Francisco being out right now, but he's also excited to move around."
Scott said he hasn't had discussions with Baez yet about his role in the long term, but if this season has been any indication, there could always be a curveball that adjusts initial plans, which is why the team prioritized versatility when it came to improving the lineup.
"We'll wait until he gets here and Luis [Rojas] will have a conversation with him," Scott said. "Obviously for right now, he'll be our primary shortstop while Francisco is out. So there's plenty of time to have that dialogue…especially this year as you know, things can change pretty quickly in terms of availability for different players."
As for what Baez brings overall, Scott said the team looked at all of the components, from his dynamic glove to his strikeout tendencies, but still feel he will provide a valuable boost in all aspects of the game.
"Any time you look at a player you look at their strengths and weaknesses…does he have Brandon Nimmo's approach at the plate? Not necessarily," Scott said. "But he brings a lot of power, elite defense, elite baserunning, plays up the middle, there's a lot he brings to the table. It's hard to acquire perfect players. I don't know how many there are in the game. He's gonna be aggressive. We know that. There's gonna be nights when it's gonna be tough for him against certain pitchers, but there's also gonna be nights where he helps us win games with his power, his defense or his baserunning."
The Mets will get their first look at Baez on Saturday against the Reds at Citi Field.
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