Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was impressed with the prospects the Mets got back in their deals with the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros for Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
“We liked the prospects that the Mets got back for both of those pitchers,” Rizzo told 106.7 The Fan’s The Sports Junkies on Wednesday.
“They paid a lot of money for the prospects and that’s another way that money talks, you know what I mean?” he continued. “You can more or less buy prospects at the trade deadline which is what they did. When you include 50-something million dollars in a Verlander deal and get the No. 1 prospect of Houston that’s a way of building your farm system and I think they did a good job of that.”
In the deal for Scherzer, New York received 21-year-old shortstop Luisangel Acuna, the No. 44 overall prospect in all of baseball. Through 84 games at Double-A this season, he has 25 doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 51 RBI while slashing .315/.377/.453 for a .830 OPS. He also has 42 steals on 47 attempts
And for Verlander, the Mets added 22-year-old outfielder Drew Gilbert, the No. 68 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, and the Astros’ No. 4 prospect 19-year-old outfielder Ryan Clifford.
Gilbert has split time between High-A and Double-A this year and has 19 doubles, 12 home runs and a .274/.363/.458 and an .822 OPS over the two levels in 81 games. Clifford has split time between Low and High-A and has 16 doubles and 18 homers with 61 RBI and a .291/.399/.520 with a.919 OPS over 83 games.
Acuna is now New York’s No. 2 prospect, with Gilbert at No. 4 and Clifford at No. 6, which is a good haul, but it did cost owner Steve Cohen millions of dollars and two tremendously good pitchers.
“And on the other hand, both teams got Hall of Fame pitchers that are not afraid to pitch in Game 7 of the World Series,” Rizzo said, before adding about Scherzer and Verlander, “All I know is they’re gonna lay their guts on the line, they’ll leave it all on the mound both of ’em. They’re both Hall of Famers and they’re both big game hunters.”