Fascinating NY Mets rumors reveal attempt to trade for someone else’s Nolan McLean

Joel Sherman must think Sunday’s snowstorm is going to be bad because he went apocalyptic with information. From stuff about the Texas Rangers locker room and its toxicity to information about the New York Mets offseason that gave us plenty of things to think about, he helped fill up a snowy weekend with plenty of fun new topics for fans.

Among them was the reveal of some fresh and fascinating Mets rumors. According to Sherman, among the Mets trade targets this offseason were a pair of young Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers. The Mets had apparently inquired about Johan Oviedo before getting traded to the Boston Red Sox as well as Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler.

The Chandler one is most outstanding because he is ranked as the 11th best prospect in MLB according to Pipeline’s latest update from this weekend. It would have been essentially like adding someone else’s Nolan McLean, a guy ranked 6th.

The Mets already have a loaded farm system with pitching, so why the Bubba Chandler inquiry?

We like to think the Mets are focused on keeping their young pitchers within reason. Trading Brandon Sproat in a package for Freddy Peralta is acceptable due to timing. Could they have, perhaps, thought about packaging him and Jett Williams in a trade with the Pirates for Chandler?

It wouldn’t have been so outrageous and would have likely included a major league player for the bullpen. Chandler is an upgrade over Sproat, however, the Pirates also get a bat that can play a variety of positions. Williams might be their answer at second base.

Sherman didn’t have much about the actual talks or how far along they went. Pittsburgh might’ve laughed at David Stearns at the mere thought of thinking Chandler was for sale. 

A third-round pick by the Pirates in 2021, the 23-year-old has posted good but not outrageous minor league numbers. He had a 4.05 ERA in Triple-A last year in 24 starts. At the major league level, in 31.1 innings, he had a 4.02 ERA but added a promising 8.9 K/9 and 1.1 BB/9 rate to show off how much he has tamed his wildness from the early part of his career.

McLean, a third-round pick from 2023 by the Mets, is already 24 but right there alongside Chandler as one of the most promising pitchers in baseball. We know how exactly he has been. Picking up Chandler would have been a major and unexpected win for the Mets offseason no one saw coming.

The interest at least sheds some light on the Mets’ openness to a variety of possibilities. In a week where Ken Rosenthal criticized the Mets for not having a plan this offseason, Sherman’s reporting seems to suggest the plan was to do anything possible to make the team better.

Sometimes no singular plan is the best one.