New York Mets running out of trade destinations for Dominic Smith

There aren’t many places left for the New York Mets to trade Dominic Smith.

Dominic Smith is still the number one trade candidate on the New York Mets roster. With no obvious path to regular playing time, it’s logical to expect them to shop him heavily this winter.

Unfortunately, the trade destinations for Smith are drying up quickly.

At the end of November, I took a look at three places I believed Smith could be a fit. To spoil the ending in a very “Bruce Willis was dead the whole time” kind of way, those teams were the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Toronto Blue Jays. Now in early January, the Tigers and Blue Jays aren’t nearly as in need of a guy like Smith as they were in the early part of the winter.

The Red Sox are still a potential landing spot, but with prospect Michael Chavis currently as the starter per their depth chart, I’m not so sure they have much interest in a guy like Smith. Unless the Mets are taking on a big contract—such as David Price—it’s probably not happening. And with six starting pitchers currently on the roster, the Mets aren’t doing this.

The Tigers have since added C.J. Cron and the Blue Jays look ready to go into 2020 with Travis Shaw at first base. We can cross them off the list for now.

Another place I figured Smith might end up, the Chicago White Sox, now employ Jose Abreu and Edwin Encarnacion. There is now little room on the Southside of Chicago for Smith.

The Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers are two more teams some have speculated Smith could end up. The Royals have a few pitchers they could offer the Mets, potentially in a salary dump type deal with a veteran like Ian Kennedy headed to Flushing.

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Meanwhile, the Rangers have had an active offseason and would surely like an upgrade over Ronald Guzman. In return, the Mets may be able to pair Smith with Jed Lowrie as was previously speculated earlier this offseason. This takes some of the gusto out of wondering what the Mets can land in return for Smith—a guy many believe still has some promising years ahead.

A few more moving parts may open up other possibilities for Smith.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates trade Josh Bell, they could look at Smith as a younger and more controllable option. The San Francisco Giants are another team in rebuild mode who may qualify.

Let’s also not forget the crosstown rival New York Yankees. I imagine with football over in New York, a trade between the Yankees and Mets involving Smith will highlight at least a few radio talk shows over the next two months.

Trading Smith isn’t a requirement for the winter. If nobody offers a sweet enough deal, he’s a good left-handed bat to have off the bench. When the trade deadline arrives, he’d give the Mets one more weapon to unload in order to stock up on a win-now player for 2020.

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Unfortunately for Smith, his time in Flushing still seems like it could and probably should end in the near future. We’ll always have Game 162 of 2019, though, won’t we?