Mets: A blockbuster trade idea with the Brewers for Josh Hader and more

Josh Hader is the big fish the New York Mets could look to acquire from the Milwaukee Brewers, but there are others who could help improve the 2020 team.

The New York Mets continue to fall behind the rest of the division and the in-town rival New York Yankees this winter. Watching from afar, I’m trying to think of different ways of how the Mets can look to correct some of their own issues with their current roster and actually put them ahead (at least on paper) of the Phillies, Braves, Nationals and even the Yankees for the upcoming 2020 season.

So, as I study the current Milwaukee Brewers roster, there are some players that could make or break our 2020 season.

With the Brew Crew saying they would listen to offers for Josh Hader and his two strikeouts per inning, the Mets should look to jump on this opportunity before the Darth Vader and Darth Sidious look to seduce him to the dark side.

But as mentioned in my check-in with the Kansas City Royals the Mets should target, it seems likes the front office is determined to prove that their 2019 free agent signings and trades where good moves, instead of taking those results at face value and looking to upgrade for 2020.

The Brewers have more than Hader to offer the Mets and everyone else. Let’s look at him and others as well as what the Mets may need to surrender in a potential deal.

Josh Hader

Josh Hader has been the most dominant lefty reliever in the game for the past two and a half years. His career numbers include 2.42 ERA / 0.850 WHIP and 15.3 K/9 over 204.2 innings. He’s a total game changer and now that he is available I think the Mets should go into win-now mode and do whatever it takes to get him.

The possible addition of Hader makes the Mets the most complete team in the National League East, in my opinion. The Brew Crew needs a new shortstop and someone to replace Hader as the closer. I know of a couple of guys that would be perfect to send back to Milwaukee.

We’ll get to them in a bit.

Manny Pina

Manny Pina is a top-notch defensive catcher with some pop in his bat. He would be a great running mate for Wilson Ramos and could possibly be used as Thor’s personal catcher. His career .257/.317/.407/.725 slash line along with 35% career CS percentage is what you would expect in a solid BUC.

Pina could be a perfect fit for the Mets.

Orlando Arcia

I have talked all winter long about upgrading the up-the-middle defense of the Mets, and do think from a defensive perspective, Orlando Arcia does provide an upgrade to the incumbent Amed Rosario. And since I think we would need to possibly include Rosario in the package to Milwaukee, Arcia can keep shortstop warm for Andres Gimenez who should be ready in a year or two.

If Milwaukee prefers to obtain Gimenez, then Rosario could be converted to third base since Arcia is a much more accomplished defensive shortstop. Arcia doesn’t hit for a high average but does have some pop and can be counted for 15+ home runs batting in the bottom part of the lineup.

Matt Albers

Veteran reliever Matt Albers could be a useful bullpen depth piece, pitching in the mop-up/middle reliever type role. His numbers are pretty bad, but he has lasted 14 years in the MLB and has logged close to 800 innings. He seems to be a workhorse type that finishes up those 10-2 blowouts by providing a solid couple of innings, saving your top relief aces for the next game(s).

So now we see which players we would want to target in a trade, who would the Mets be able to trade to obtain either some or all of these players? Would the Brewers be interested in Amed Rosario and/or Andres Gimenez to replace Arcia at shortstop? How many prospects would it take to make the Brewers feel like they received some value for Josh Hader? Do the Mets have the type of prospects to make that happen?

These are all great questions so let’s see who the Mets have available to trade. With the main focus being Hader we would need to make more players available for a possible swap:

Dominic Smith, Robert Gsellman, Steven Matz, Edwin Diaz, Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, and David Peterson

I know some people are talking about not wanting to trade Amed Rosario because he has a bright future and can hopefully build on a solid 2019, but you need to trade something of value to get someone on the level of Hader. Hader is a definite game-changer.

So looking at both sides, I think the most realistic trade would be Dominic Smith, Edwin Diaz, Amed Rosario and David Peterson for Josh Hader and Orlando Arcia. If we can find a way to get Manny Pina included in the trade that would be an added bonus. But the goal is to secure Hader and his bullpen excellence for 2020 and beyond.

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What do you think would be a good New York Mets/Milwaukee Brewers trade this off-season?