NY Mets Trade Rumors: An upgrade to pair with Michael Conforto

As more and more New York Mets trade rumors make their rounds online, it’s time for the adults in the room to really get down to business.

Headlining potential Mets acquisitions include Chicago Cubs relievers Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel (Chafin ended up landing in Oakland), along with infielders Javier Báez and IF/OF Kris Bryant, the Twins’ Josh Donaldson and José Berrios, Washington’s Max Scherzer, Reds’ pitcher Jon Gray, and a few more.

At first, some would argue that Javier Báez is more reliable at the plate and is hotter as of late, but upon thinking about it, Kris Bryant makes so much more sense.

Of the Mets trade rumors, they would be wise to go after Kris Bryant.

Enter Michael Conforto: we know he’s struggling. He seems way too good to stumble for this long. His lifetime batting average is .254 with a .828 OPS. This year, he’s treading around .200, but that isn’t the concern. The real concern is how he handles left-handed pitching.

Michael Conforto is hitting .133 against lefties with an .OPS of .466. You could argue that his hard-hit rate is also low, but his hard-hit rate is low across the board.

That’s where Kris Bryant comes in.

When facing lefties, put Bryant in right field to replace Conforto, but keep Conforto in and move Bryant to third base against right-handed pitching. JD Davis is dominating lefties this season, but only over a small sample size.

In 2019, Davis’ performance against righties and lefties was virtually the same. His stats against LHP: .913 OPS and 8 HR (18% of his hits going over the wall). His stats against RHP: .886 OPS and 14 HR (17% of hits being home runs). He seems to hit everyone no matter which side of the mound they throw from.

Kris Bryant would be the perfect platoon partner for Michael Conforto.

Bryant’s numbers against left-handed pitching are akin to Pete Alonso. Like Alonso, around half of his home runs this season are against LHP. Bryant’s slugging percentage is also 1.145 against LHP. Not to mention, Bryant comes up in clutch situations.

Bryant is 3-for-9 when a runner is at third base. In those three hits, he has a double and two home runs. 24% of his home runs were with runners in scoring position, including a grand slam.

Want your voice heard? Join the Rising Apple team!

Write for us!

It’s hard to see why Bryant would be a bad addition for the Mets at this point. He’s as versatile around the field as Jeff McNeil is and could easily man right field and be used at third base. If the Mets are seriously interested in winning a World Series, they’ll do whatever it takes to get him on a plane to New York tomorrow.