The Mets are discussing right-hander Drew Smith in trades, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. Smith can be retained via arbitration, with the deadline to tender contracts for such players coming up tonight at 7 pm Central.
Smith, 30, has had some decent seasons for the Mets but a few things went in the wrong direction in the past year. In 2022, he made 44 appearances with an earned run average of 3.33, striking out 28.3% of opponents while walking 8%. In 2023, his strikeout rate fell to 24.6%, his walk rate ticked up to 11.9% and his ERA was almost a full run worse, finishing at 4.15. He was also given a 10-game sticky stuff suspension in June.
The righty is now down to his final year of club control. He made a salary of $1.3MM in 2023 and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a bump to $2.3MM next year. That’s a perfectly reasonable salary for a guy who’s shown some strikeout potential in his career but it seems the Mets are at least considering going in another direction.
Since he would be just a one-year rental and is coming off a down year, the return in any trade would undoubtedly be modest. But on top of whatever comes back to the Mets, they could also repurpose some of their cost savings elsewhere or perhaps just pocket them. The Mets were competitive balance tax payors in each of the past two seasons and are slated to do so for a third straight year. Roster Resource has their CBT number at $281MM for 2024, well over the $237MM base threshold, before even factoring in potential moves in the months to come. As a third time payor, they would pay a 50% tax on any overages and even higher taxation rates for going beyond the other tiers, which go up in $20MM increments.
Owner Steve Cohen hasn’t been shy about spending money since taking over the club but it seems they may be considering something of a step back in 2024. That could still see them spend on some notable big-name free agents, but perhaps they also consider a bit of penny pinching to go along with it.
As long as Drew Smith is off this team, I don’t care if hes sent to Single A. Hes the reason we missed the playoffs this year, blew our lead over the Braves last year, and he blew 2021 as well. He blows every single close game. When we are up by 7 runs he pitches well. If we are up by a run or tied, he never comes through. He has no secondary pitches, his slider gets hit for a homerun almost every time
Frank is that you?
The royal “we”
Tell me how a $350m team’s 5th best reliever cost them the playoffs this 75-win season.
@raisinsss they use Drew Smith in close games all the time. All it takes is one guy to ruin a game. The amount of close games we lose is horrible. Hes the biggest comtributer to that
Hmm, and here I thought it was all Vogelbach’s fault!
Actually the reason “We” missed the playoffs this year is because the whole team stunk! “We” did almost everything wrong and maybe 5 things right!
Drew Smith has a lot of talent. Maybe a good Pitching Coach can help fix what “At times” went wrong with him in 2023. There were actually times when Drew was on, but we only remember the bad times!
This guy needs a change of scenery and it seems many of the Mets’ stories posters would like that too.
He developed bad habits in 2023, and didn’t stay focused thru the whole at bat. After totally fooling a batter on a pitch/pitches, he would relax on his mechanics and make that middle of the plate mistake.
Always did as a Met. More-so last year than ever before.
@EasternLeagueVeteran Drew Smith’s opponents in tie games had a 1.600 OPS agaisnt him last year. Around a .900 OPS in 1 run games and a high .800 OPS in games within 2/3 runs. He is god awful
With teams in Japan or Korea?
Smith, Jose Butto, Alex Ramirez, Calvin Ziegler, and cash to Milwaukee for Brandon Woodruff and Devin Williams.
Who says no?
Woodruff might be a steal for ‘25 if they do cut him loose. Williams being one of the best relief pitchers in the game – would they trade him? Also are the Mets really in good position to make a trade like that?
@sfes pretty sure Woodruff is a free agent in 2025, so you basically acquire him for 2024 in hopes that he comes back in September? I would not do that, especially for his salary owed
@LFGMets: Not even as part of a deal for Devin Williams?
Why not? The farm system is fairly deep now, and there is speculation that the Brewers want to move Williams’ contract.
He has two more years until free agency and it’s estimated that he will make roughly $6.1 million next year.
I have no idea how that would be valued in trade negotiations.
If they were closer to contention I’d say yeah but it’s hard to pinpoint where the Mets see themselves
Adding Williams to the bullpen certainly would bring them a lot closer.
They will be contenders this year. Diaz comes back and they will add players. It’s not hard to compete for playoffs and roll the dice.
Brewers
@Blue Baron the Brewers aren’t idiots. Why would they want our garbage for a top 10 reliever? Just look at what the Braves got for their own garbage yesterday. Aaron Bummer for a package thats easily better then the one you just listed
I never said they’re idiots. I was just throwing some names around.
How was their package better when they were non tendering all but one?
He’s not as bad as many NYM fans seem to believe. By no means a high leverage guy but not 4A. Like Vogelbach he seems to have become the scapegoat for NYM poor roster construction and underperformance. It takes a whole team to stink
Smith developed a lot of bad habits in mid 2022 that got worse in 2023. I am not sure what Jeremy Hefner and the other coaches were working with him on, but Smith changed a lot of things since July 2022 that made him much more likely to throw a softball sized pitch to the plate than a golf ball sized pitch.
I know he has talent but has messed up mechanics or at the least, no confidence, that his next stop should be anywhere but New York.
A team that needs pitching wants to trade a pitcher? Me thinks he probably not a pitcher for my team
Change of scenery
Very good stuff but has struggled in high leverage spots — the kind of guy that a pitching coach would say “yeah I can fix him”… Wouldn’t shock me to see him emerge down the line as a very good reliever as it’s not a question of ability
Cohen saw the haul the White Sox got for Bummer and Smith is slightky better so he probably thinks he can get better, though I think Getz either got Anthopoulos drunk or had a few incriminating photos.
Yeah, Smith’s not better than Bummer.
Fg had a good article on why Bummer’s still actually a very good middle reliever. Smith is not that.