A NY Mets-Pirates trade swapping Huascar Brazoban for 3 prospects

In our latest round of New York Mets trade deadline predictions, Huascar Brazoban ends up with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They recently cut Dennis Santana whose time as one of the league’s better arms out of the bullpen turned out to be shortlived.

The Pirates have been an offense-first team this season which is a bit of a surprise when the exact opposite has been true for many recent seasons. An aggressive winter which brought them players like Ryan O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe has paid off. They could still use another bat and bullpen arms are a must if they’ll do anything more than make noise.

Not in desperate need of a closer, what they really could use is a controllable and cheap arm. This is what Brazoban is even if he’s closer to 40 than 30. To obtain him, the Mets gave up their 22nd ranked prospect Wilfredo Lara at the 2024 trade deadline. In 2026, it’s going to cost Pittsburgh someone ranked higher. This is the deal that might get the Mets to budge.

Why this trade works for the Mets and Pirates

Edgleen Perez is the 8th ranked Pirates prospect according to MLB Pipeline. He’s a 20-year-old catcher and the third in a string of backstops in their ranking. At 6 and 7, they have two others.

Why Perez? His MLB Pipeline scouting report is a selling point:

Defensively, Perez is a natural receiver with fantastic hands and excellent blocking and receiving skills to go along with plus arm strength and accuracy. Young Pirates arms are going to enjoy throwing to him, and he’s already shown a knack for calling a game. His glove gives him a high floor as a backup, and if he can find some offensive consistency, he could develop into more than that.

The positive reviews about his ability to play behind the plate has the Venezulean-born catcher looking like a potential, at worst, pairing to go alongside Francisco Alvarez. While Luis Torrens is signed through 2028, Perez would have an opportunity to develop into a backup or even challenge Alvarez for the starting gig by then. We know how much the David Stearns-led Mets value defense behind the plate.

Acquired last year from the New York Yankees in the David Bednar trade, the one downside to Perez in comparison to some of the other catcher options in the Pirates system is his bat isn’t as fantastic. He is hitting .288/.377/.343 in A-Ball. A promising turn after posting a .600 OPS last season, it’s his defensive outlook that would interest the Mets most.

The Mets also add pitcher Wilber Dotel. Already in the majors with a 4.84 ERA in 22.1 innings, a 10.4 K/9 rate paired with a 3.6 BB/9 show a lot of promise. The Mets are going to need optional relievers with upside available to them next season. Struggles from Ryan Lambert and Dylan Ross have erased two options many of us believed would be here by the end of 2026.

The 15th ranked Pirates prospect makes parting with Brazoban a little easier because he can directly replace Brazoban on the roster. An unexceptional minor league career up to this point, working mostly as a starter, the Mets would have a greater need to utilize Dotel in a bullpen role.

In any deal for Brazoban, it feels necessary to help the team next season. Perez won’t do that although he could become a centerpiece for future trades. Dotel begins his tryout for the 2027 Mets in August and September.

Finally, 6’7 first baseman/DH Tony Blanco Jr. comes to the Mets. A masher with 13 home runs this year in A-Ball, he’s exactly the type of hitter you might expect. He doesn’t hit for much average or even draw too many walks.

A hit-or-miss type of prospect (a fair description of his game as well), his inclusion gives the Mets some added depth at a position with no obvious answer. While the system has Ryan Clifford trying to figure things out in Triple-A, another sizable power bat wouldn’t hurt. You can’t teach size, the one thing Blanco has plenty of.

A highly-contested Mets trade candidate, maybe only surpassed by Luke Weaver, the Mets should be able to get at least three quality prospects for Brazoban. If renting Tyler Rogers cost what it did last year (Drew Gilbert, Blade Tidwell, and Jose Butto), multiple years of Brazoban shouldn’t come cheap either.

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