NL East Notes: Prado, Mets, Wright, Phillies

Here’s the latest from around the NL East…

• The Marlins are undecided about trying to re-sign Martin Prado in the offseason since Derek Dietrich could become their third baseman of the future, the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson writes.  Dietrich entered today’s action with a .303/.392/.479 slash line over 166 PA while playing mostly second base in place of the suspended Dee Gordon.  The 26-year-old Dietrich is under team control through the 2020 season while Prado is a free agent this winter.  Prado is himself having a solid year from an average and OBP perspective and the Fish have long valued his clubhouse leadership skills, to the point of demanding a huge return in trade discussions last year.  It’s also worth noting that Dietrich has played only 49 games at third in his entire pro career, so he’s not exactly a seasoned option at the hot corner.
• The Mets should be planning for life without David Wright, Newsday’s David Lennon writes, as it’s quite possible the veteran third baseman will miss the rest of the season recovering from a herniated disk in his neck.  Even the best-case scenarios have Wright not returning until late August at the earliest, so Lennon figures the Mets need to obtain another third baseman if Wilmer Flores isn’t able to step up as an everyday option.  Lennon notes that up to 75% of the roughly $81MM owed on Wright’s contract through the 2020 season could be recouped by insurance if Wright is too injured to play, which creates some financial leeway for the Mets.
• The Mets are again struggling to score runs and may not have the prospect depth to correct the problem as they did at last year’s deadline, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes.  The Mets held onto their position player depth over the offseason to guard against another offensive slide, yet they’re still one of the league’s lowest-scoring teams.
• The Phillies have a league-high spending pool (just under $5.62MM) for the upcoming July international signing period, and Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports that the club is planning to spread out its money on several players.  Badler profiles five young Venezuelan players the Phillies have been linked to in the July 2 class, including 16-year-old Francisco Morales, a 6’5″ right-hander whose fastball has already hit 96mph.  One scout tells Badler that Morales is “probably the No. 1 pitcher in the class.”
• The Braves’ 23 homers is easily the lowest of any team in baseball, and Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscription required) notes that the team also doesn’t have any burgeoning slugging prospects in the farm system.  This lack of power is why Bradley feels the Braves will keep Hector Olivera once his domestic violence suspension is up, as Olivera at least displayed some home run-hitting ability in Cuba (though not yet in his brief MLB career).