Mets Matt Harvey Conundrum: What if they traded him after 2015?

Texas Rangers

The Deal: Nomar Mazara, Jurickson Profar and Dillon Tate

Nomar Mazara was ranked at twenty-one overall and third among Rangers prospects. He spent nearly the entire year at the major league level in 2016, as he posted 516 at-bats in 145 games, mostly as the DH or right fielder. In his first three seasons, Mazara has been a solid contributor, who averages twenty home runs and eighty RBI, with below 120 strikeouts per season.

Mazara, in his brief career, has not been an ideal average hitter, where his roughly .255 or so average drags down his on-base and slugging percentages.

However, he is still only 23 and honing his craft at the highest level. His relative inexperience has left a sizable amount of raw talent to be molded into a superior player. His tools range from power to contact and he seems to be adapting to the breaking ball, which gave him trouble early on in his young career.

He is evolving and rounding into, at the very least, a consistent outfielder, who is growing into his natural power at a young age. It would not shock many if the outfielder evolved into an excellent player with much power in the upcoming seasons.

The current Ranger could either slot into the top of the lineup, namely in the leadoff spot or towards the middle where his natural power can be put to proper use. The other two components of this deal are valuable to the Mets as well.

Jurickson Profar could have provided some depth from the bench for the Mets in 2016. They suffered many injuries that season and thus he most likely would have been forced into a larger role. The Mets have often lacked players that were versatile and picking up Profar a low value would have been a quality asset to the team. The once highly touted infielder struggled through ineffectiveness and injuries since 2013 until he resurfaced with the Rangers in 2016.

If the Mets had traded for him, they could have done so for a very cheap price and he may have brought them some dividends. Both Mazara and Profar would not only be productive in 2016, however, because they were both on rookie contracts on which many years of team control remained.

The final component of this blockbuster deal is the young pitching prospect Dillon Tate, the sixty-ninth overall prospect on Baseball America in 2016. Unlike the others, he still remains a prospect and has since been involved in two deadline deals. First, he was shipped off at the 2016 trade deadline for Carlos Beltran and then once again in 2018 before the trade deadline as part of a package for Zach Britton.

His true value is unknown at this point, but he has high upside due to his electric fastball. He revamped his delivery to regain top prospect status when he was a Ranger farmhand, however, this has caused him a delay to reach the major league level, which he has yet to accomplish.

Here is a potential 2019 lineup:

1. Brandon Nimmo CF
2. Jed Lowrie 3B
3. Robinson Cano 2B
4. Wilson Ramos C
5. Michael Conforto LF
6. Nomar Mazara RF
7. Todd Frazier
8. Amed Rosario SS
9. Pitcher