3 best prospects Mets could trade at the trade deadline

Mets 20th ranked prospect Hayden Senger projects to be a solid backup catcher for a rebuilding club.

The Mets drafted Senger in the 24th round in the 2018 draft and is one of the few mid-to-late-round prospects from that draft to stick around the organization and not give up on his major league teams.

Senger’s offensive game finally took off last season in Double-A, hitting .254 with a .337 on-base percentage and a .387 slugging percentage. The Mets saw enough of him both offensively and defensively to reward him with a spot in the Arizona Fall League where he got on base a lot.

Senger was then promoted to Triple-A Syracuse earlier this month after providing backup for Francisco Alvarez during the first two months of the season in Binghamton, where he batted .231 with 9 extra-base hits in 117 at-bats. Senger has gone 6-for-23 in six games in Syracuse since his promotion.

The Mets saw in his days playing for Miami (Ohio) that although he doesn’t have a great arm for a catcher (he was a linebacker on his high school football team), he can throw runners out on the basepaths with his instincts and good reaction time. That’s exactly what happened last year, when he threw out nearly 40 percent of potential base stealers against him.

Senger figures to be someone closely aligned with Tomas Nido, meaning his defensive and catching abilities project better than his offense. And with James McCann in New York through 2024 and Francisco Alvarez set to be the Mets’ franchise catcher, there might not be any room for the 20th ranked prospect in the Mets' system according to MLB.com on the roster if he is deemed major-league ready.

Teams like the Royals, A’s, and Cubs might want to scout him to be part of a potential return package.