3 righties the Mets should shop for a lefty reliever upgrade

Are you sick of the lefty reliever chatter yet? It’s the one bruise on the 2022 plan for the New York Mets to go 162-0.

Chasen Shreve is the current front-runner to take the job. An underwhelming choice, to say the least, the Mets decided not to aggressively target the top available free agents. There are still a few guys out there yet none seem to have the same potential for a great 2022 season as Andrew Chafin or even Brad Hand.

One way for the Mets to solve this at the last minute is to make a trade. Keeping it simple in a straight one-for-one deal with maybe a prospect or some cash involved as well, what if the Mets did something a little more unconventional and traded a righty for a lefty?

The Mets could still trade J.D. Davis or Dominic Smith for a lefty reliever but that feels less likely

Trading a position player with the same pedigree as J.D. Davis or Dominic Smith for a left-handed reliever feels wrong. It’s the kind of desperate move to only make when you are in a pennant race and have nothing else to do. The Mets would probably be wiser to gamble on Shreve pitching well and then seeing what’s available midseason. I’d even take signing an unappealing free agent rather than dealing Davis or Smith or a guy that will only appear in 50 innings at most all year long.

A left-handed reliever is important but there are other ways to acquire one.

This idea I want to explore a little further is swapping a righty for a lefty.

Maybe the Mets can flip Miguel Castro for a lefty reliever also nearing free agency

Miguel Castro is a free agent after this season and one of those guys whose fate with the Mets is undeterminable. He’s a middle reliever, after all. You don’t extend those guys early. Rarely do you even re-sign them. Relief pitchers are the most well-traveled of journeymen in this game.

Trading Castro now could work for the Mets to pick up a lefty in a similar position. He was a workhorse for the Mets last season, pithing more innings in relief than anyone else. It’s his best quality.

The one problem the team could encounter with this kind of move is they won’t get equal value back. A lefty of Castro’s same abilities is more coveted. And considering he only has a season of control left, the Mets may only be able to get another upcoming free agent back or maybe a younger arm trying to figure things out.

Fortunately, there are two other relievers to look at.

Trevor Williams’ ability to work as a starter could intrigue other teams to make a deal with the Mets

Spring training is the time of the year when pitchers get hurt like they’re a kid in the 1990s at Discovery Zone. Remember those? The scar on your knee does.

Inevitably, some major pitchers will get hurt. If they do, they’ll begin to reach for some alternative options. Could Trevor Williams be one of those pitchers?

I’m not too keen on trading Williams but thought he was worth mentioning. Expected to be the long man out of the bullpen this season, his ability to start games gives him a leg up on Castro and Smith. Would a team trade a lowly left-handed reliever to the Mets in exchange for a guy who could become their fifth starter? I think they would, but only if they had an alternative on their roster already.

That’s the biggest problem the Mets will run into when looking for a trade for a lefty. Most teams don’t have too many to spare. The quality is also not very good.

If there’s any silver lining to watch, spring training can also be a time when players unexpectedly rise up the ranks. Perhaps a team can find themselves in a pickle with more lefty reliever candidates than they realize. If so, maybe there’s a righty for a lefty deal for the Mets to make.