NY Mets: 1 third base rental to consider signing this winter

More than anyone else, the one player that would fit in best with the New York Mets next year is Kris Bryant. You’ll see plenty more of me rambling about this until he does end up somewhere else. Then prepare yourself for some ranting and raving about how the team missed out.

Fortunately, Bryant isn’t the only third base option out there for the Mets. Carrying the thought with me that the team only needs a temporary filler until Mark Vientos or Brett Baty can take on the job full-time, I found one temporary rental that could fill the void for a year.

This man is veteran third baseman Kyle Seager.

Kyle Seager isn’t perfect but could become an affordable and temporary option for the Mets at third base

Seager has yet to officially hit free agency but with a $15 million salary headed his way if the Seattle Mariners don’t buy him out, the thought seems to be that he will become available this winter.

Seager has spent his entire MLB career with the Mariners—one which began back in 2011. During this time, he hit 242 home runs while slashing .251/.321/.442. Because he is an older player (around my age) it’s important to see where he is trending.

Last year, Seager found his power stroke. He hit a career-high 35 home runs and drove in 101 runs, another personal best. However, it came at the expense of other numbers. Seager slashed only .212/.285/.438. He struck out 161 times which far exceeds his average of 123 per 162 games.

This might be what we can expect from the veteran third baseman going forward. He hasn’t hit over .250 since 2015 yet he has continued to regularly hit 20+ home runs and drive in runners regularly. He’s very “Todd Frazier” in this regard but with better power numbers.

Defensively, he has slowed down but isn’t a complete butcher yet. The worry with a player of his age might be that next year is the season where it all falls apart.

Perhaps the ideal situation where Seager ends up with the Mets would be with the expectation that Vientos or Baty is MLB-ready before the 2022 season is through. Seager could pass along whatever knowledge he has unless he fell from the same tree as Brett Favre.

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Seager is nowhere near the top of my list of Mets starting third basemen next year. However, with some proven and consistent power and some more favorable defensive performs from him in the past than what we saw in 2021, he could be a temporary starter turned depth piece. This is only an acceptable move if the Mets bolster the rest of the club around him. The mistake with Frazier was that he was a key piece, not a complimentary one.