Still in hunt for NL RBI leader after Lucroy offer is rejected
In an effort to swing a deal to boost their struggling offense, the Mets sweetened their recent trade package to the Brewers for Jonathan Lucroy on Saturday. But Milwaukee apparently spurned their offer and came to an agreement to deal the slugging catcher to the Indians.
The Mets, meanwhile, are still talking to the Reds about outfielder Jay Bruce, according to industry sources, although they have a lot of competition with several teams interested in acquiring the National League RBI leader.
There’s plenty of history between Bruce and the Mets. They liked him when the Reds took him with the 12th pick in the 2005 draft and they went deep into discussions about him with the Reds at last year’s trade deadline, dangling Zack Wheeler. The two sides talked on the morning of the deadline last year before the Mets turned to Yoenis Cespedes instead.
But as a lefthanded-hitting corner outfielder, Bruce may not be a perfect fit for the Mets, who already have a surplus of corner outfielders, including lefthanded hitters Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto as well as the righthanded hitting Cespedes.
A baseball official familiar with the Mets’ plans said the club is pursuing multiple trade avenues, not just the Cincy star, although the Reds have scouted Kevin Plawecki in the Mets minor leagues as well as several other Met prospects, according to sources.
Bruce, 29, has 25 homers and 80 RBI in 370 at-bats for Cincinnati this year. He is batting .265 with a .316 on-base percentage and a .559 slugging percentage.
If the Mets were to acquire Bruce, that likely would mean Granderson would shift to center field and the Mets would have to carve out at-bats for both him and Conforto there while Bruce manned right field.
The Brewers and Indians are exchanging medical information on the players involved in their Lucroy agreement, according to a baseball official with knowledge of the talks. The deal is not yet final because Lucroy has limited no-trade protection and Cleveland is one of the eight teams he can refuse.
It’s unknown who the players are that the Indians will reportedly send to Milwaukee, though several media reports indicated catching prospect Francisco Mejia, outfielder Greg Allen and lefty Justus Sheffield were involved. Fox’s Ken Rosenthal first reported the agreement and that the Brewers will receive four players total and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan first reported the clubs were poring over medical reports.
Travis d’Arnaud was the centerpiece of the Mets’ offer to Milwaukee, which also included young outfielder Brandon Nimmo and one other player. It was unclear who the third player was, but one source said the Brewers viewed Nimmo as a fourth-outfielder type, so it would’ve had to be a significant prospect. Dom Smith, a first baseman highly-regarded by the Mets, has been mentioned, but it was unclear which of the two teams brought his name up.
Two baseball executives not connected to the Mets or Brewers said they doubted Milwaukee would take a package headed by d’Arnaud and Nimmo for Lucroy, 30, a two-time All-Star who is batting .300 with 13 homers and an .844 OPS this season. Lucroy is also controllable for 2017 because there is a reasonable $5.25 million team option on his contract.
Lucroy was held out of the Brewers’ lineup Saturday because the club was “progressing” on trade talks involving him, manager Craig Counsell was quoted saying in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Counsell said GM David Stearns came to him and told him not to play the catcher.
“David stopped down and said he’s progressing on something and we just thought it best (Lucroy) not be in the lineup today,” Counsell told the paper. “He has not been traded. He is available for us today .... But (Stearns) is making progress, so we thought it best not to play him.”