Pros and cons of all 3 Athletics pitchers

Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, and Frankie Montas are all expected to get shopped before the 2022 MLB season begins. The pair of Oakland Athletics pitchers are beyond making league minimum and now trade targets for teams like the New York Mets to steal away.

Each comes with some good and some bad both in performance, the years of control remaining, and the expected cost. The Mets have been careful about not overpaying in trades. They’re hugging their best prospects tightly, something that should be a consideration when looking at any possible deals the team will make.

Pulling all of the factors together, let’s see if we can come away with a decision as to which of the three Athletics pitchers fits best with what the Mets need.

Pros and cons of NY Mets trade candidate Chris Bassitt

Bassitt is probably the least known of the three despite having some success for several seasons. He’s coming off of a 12-4 performance with a 3.15 ERA in 27 starts. Now two consecutive seasons finishing in the top ten of the Cy Young vote, he has quietly established himself as a top pitcher in the American League.

Bassitt isn’t an overpowering strikeout pitcher but makes up for it with good control. He has only one season on his resume with an ERA over 4.00, something that happened in 2016 when he made only 5 big league starts.

His one year of control can be looked at two ways. On one hand, there’s little commitment to him. The Mets can swing a trade for this one-year rental and see from there whether he fits the rotation moving forward. It should also reduce how much they need to give up in a trade for him. Oakland definitely needs to move on from Bassitt at some point in 2022 whether it be before Opening Day or the trade deadline.

The big con against Bassitt could be his age. This year will be his age 33 campaign. And while this isn’t incredibly old and he hasn’t logged a whole lot of innings, bodies do tend to break down. The thing the Mets could least afford to do is trade for a pitcher who ends up on the IL for weeks or months.

Bassitt has only two seasons under his belt of reaching 100+ innings. A fear for some could be that he runs out of steam. We saw it with Taijuan Walker last season. Could it happen with Bassitt?

Pros and cons of NY Mets trade candidate Sean Manaea

Another player headed to free agency next winter, Manaea also falls into the “must trade” category for Oakland. Letting him play out the season would be foolish if there is no intention to sign him or do everything in their power to compete in 2022. Everything seems to indicate the A’s will not plan on winning for at least a few more years.

Manaea has been a well-known pitcher for a couple of seasons now. A relatively healthy arm with the exception of the 2019 campaign where he made only 5 starts, he’s the lone lefty on this list which definitely adds to his value.

The Mets currently don’t have that trusted lefty in their rotation. Whether it matters or not, it should be something to mull over when deciding how they plan to build a better roster.

Manaea has been excellent at finding the plate in his career and managed to raise his strikeout rate to 9.7 per nine last season—a new career-best. He fits in with what the Mets really need.

The same sentiments about his control that are true of Bassitt are there for Manaea as well. Having him around for one year is helpful and should lower the price tag a little bit. This can allow the Mets to regroup next offseason and assess whether he returns or not. In Manaea’s case, a lot of whether or not the Mets should trade for him comes down to the asking price. Anything outrageous and it’s time to turn elsewhere.