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This past week, the Mets made major waves throughout baseball by trading for Francisco Lindor & Carlos Carrasco.
Lindor is a shortstop who’s MLB career has been spent in Cleveland. He helped power them to the World Series in 2016 when they fell to the Chicago Cubs in a 7-game series. Lindor debuted in 2015, since then he’s been a four-time all-star, two-time Gold Glover, two-time Silver Slugger, & in 2017 he was selected to the All-World Baseball Classic Team (a global tournament featuring the best players from around the world).
For those of you who watched Jose Reyes play for the Mets will be taken back when Lindor suits up in the Orange & Blue. Lindor’s game is wildly similar to Reyes in his prime, but Lindor does have more pop at the plate.
Along with Lindor, the Mets brought in Carlos Carrasco. The right-handed starter is 88-73 in his career with a 3.77 ERA & 1,305 strikeouts. Carrasco was 2019’s Comeback Player of the Year after returning to the mound from his battle with leukemia.
How this affects the NL East
The signing of Lindor & Carrasco definitely improve the Mets by leaps & bounds. They don’t make them a division contender though, not yet. The minute Lindor steps on the field in New York he’ll become one of the top two or three position players in the NL East. Their arrival makes them my pick for division runner-up, as it stands. However, we all know everybody will keep adding pieces between now & Opening Day.
The Mets have a solid lineup, it’s their bullpen that holds them back. Their bullpen had one of the worst lead/win conversion rates in Major League Baseball last season. Meaning they were one of baseball’s worst bullpens in holding a lead from their entrance to the game’s final out.
New owner Steven A. Cohen has the money to rival any division foe, and so far he’s putting it to use. And I don’t think he’s done.
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