Should The New York Mets Trade These Top Prospects For Juan Soto?
With a disappointing 2023 campaign in the rearview and a vital 2024 season on the horizon, the New York Mets are in the midst of a massive offseason faced with many big questions in regards to their roster.
While last season made it seem like New York is quite a ways away from contending for a World Series, team owner Steve Cohen does not seem keen on waiting any longer to bring a contender to Mets fans, expressing his desire to be aggressive on the free agent and trade markets.
One name being tossed around quite a bit with his contract due to expire soon is San Diego Padres superstar Juan Soto.
Soto is a rare player that can vault any organization into a different level of play. Instantly, he makes the middle of the lineup deadly next to Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, and, if Cohen can add more high-quality pitching, the team could find themselves back in the picture next season.
However, when a guy like Soto is available, it is going to cost quite a bit to get a deal done. New York will likely have to take a look at their top prospects and decide which ones they’d be willing to move for him.
The Mets had a couple outstanding performances from a few of their young guns this year, including infielder Ronny Mauricio and catcher Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez was the team's primary catcher last season at the ripe age of 22, making 123 appearances while hitting 25 homers for 63 RBI with a .209 BA and is expected to take another leap next season in regards to appearances and performance.
Mauricio, on the other hand, appeared in only 26 games, but made a strong impression, batting .248 for two homers and nine RBI, while also claiming responsibility for the hardest hit ball by a Met all year (117 MPH) when he hit a double off Logan Gilbert in his MLB debut.
It is fair to say that, out of the Mets' prospect pool, these two would be most likely to stay and have a role on next year's squad.
Two other names to look out for are Mark Vientos and Brett Baty.
Baty has been with the team for two seasons now and has struggled to find consistency in the majors. This past year he only hit .212 with nine home runs and 34 RBI in over 100 appearances. Once looked at as a big time hitter, Baty showed his inconsistencies at the plate, but is someone who still has loads of potential.
Vientos is in a very similar situation to Baty, being added to the roster in 2022, and failing to find consistency across parts of two seasons. Vientos hit .211 for nine home runs and 22 RBI in 65 games. It is likely, with both Baty and Vientos playing the same position, that one of them would be on the move along with a prospect like Mauricio.
The last prospect to keep an eye on is one who has not made an MLB appearance yet, but is ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the organization by MLB.com. His name is Luisangel Acuña. A shortstop/second baseman, Acuña burst onto the scene in the minor league world in the last two years, hitting .289 in that stretch with 20 Home Runs and 110 RBI to go along with MLB-level fielding skills. He also has immense speed, swiping over 50 bases last season in Double-A. Acuña has potential to be one of the top two-way infielders in the league at his peak, but that peak may not come for a while, and Cohen may look to leverage his potential in a blockbuster move for Soto.
It is safe to say any and every prospect in the organization could be included in a Soto package, but a package centered around Acuña and Mauricio could make both sides happy, giving San Diego potential stars for the future to put around Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, and adding Soto to a Mets team that already has a few cornerstone pieces. It is just a matter of how aggressive Cohen will be this year.
