Nicely, the Mets actually did it. On Tuesday, they lastly went out and landed the electrical Dominican outfielder with the massive instruments and the ebullient character, the one they’d been dreaming of for therefore very lengthy. Nicely, they landed one of many electrical Dominican outfielders they’d been dreaming of, anyway.
In a one-for-one swap, the Mets acquired heart fielder Jose Siri from the Rays in alternate for right-handed pitching prospect Eric Orze. Siri is an exciting participant with 4 jaw-dropping instruments: energy, protection, pace, and throwing. The whole absence of a success software leaves him sort of like a ship with the world’s biggest bilge pump and a gaping gap within the hull. He’s eternally battling to mash sufficient moonshots and make sufficient unbelievable catches to remain afloat regardless of working a strikeout price that falls someplace between catastrophic and cataclysmic. In a transfer that can shock nobody who’s even passingly acquainted with the Rays, the workforce turned Siri right into a pitching prospect the second he may conceivably start to price them precise cash. The Mets now management Siri for his three arbitration years, and MLB Commerce Rumors tasks him for a $2.3 million wage in 2025 (plus a luxurious tax penalty). Provided that the commerce went down Tuesday, the Rays have in all probability already turned Orze right into a bona fide ace.
The transfer may point out one thing of a sample for the Mets, who signed the glove-first Harrison Bader to a one-year contract earlier than the 2024 season. Right here’s how comparable the 2 gamers are: On the time of his signing, Bader was 29 years outdated and had posted a profession wRC+ of 90 whereas averaging 20 OAA per 150 video games. Proper now, Siri is 29 years outdated and has posted a profession wRC+ of 89 whereas averaging 19.1 OAA per 150 video games.
That transfer didn’t precisely pan out. Bader managed to keep away from the injured listing for the primary time since 2020 and his 85 wRC+ wasn’t far under his profession mark, however it wasn’t precisely the bounce-back season the Mets had hoped for. He began almost each sport towards right-handed pitching, however towards lefties, he went from ceding the occasional begin to Tyrone Taylor firstly of the season to sitting most of the time by the tip of it. This wasn’t very best contemplating Bader has a profession 109 wRC+ vs. lefties and an 84 wRC+ vs. righties. By the point the playoffs rolled round, he was the odd man out. He obtained into almost all the workforce’s postseason video games, however began simply twice and made simply six plate appearances.
In all, the Mets obtained simply 1.6 WAR in heart discipline in 2024. That ranked twenty second in all of baseball, and it was the bottom rating of any place on the sphere for the workforce. The one different spots on the diamond the place the Mets have been even within the backside half of the league have been beginning pitcher, catcher, and proper discipline. With Bader and Jesse Winker coming into free company and Taylor present process surgical procedure to restore a hernia and take away a free physique from his throwing elbow, Siri is unlikely to be the final outfielder the Mets purchase this offseason.
The Athletic’s Will Sammon cited sources who reported that this wasn’t the primary time the Mets had sought to get their fingers Siri, and it’s not onerous to see why. Siri is as tempting a mission as any participant within the sport. He’s an extremely gifted defensive heart fielder with mild tower energy and completely no semblance of plate self-discipline or contact means. The workforce that might get him to chase just a bit bit much less, to whiff just a bit bit much less, would have a monster on its fingers. Nevertheless, Siri is coming into his age-29 season, and it’s onerous to think about that even the workforce that wished him badly sufficient to danger the humiliation of buying and selling a pitching prospect to the Rays actually expects to lastly unlock him. Not like lower-back ache, plate self-discipline isn’t one thing you simply occur to choose up when you hit your 30s. In 2024, Siri ran a 37.9% strikeout price. Amongst gamers with 400 plate appearances in a season, that’s the third-highest mark in main league historical past. His 35.8% profession strikeout price ranks 14th on our profession leaderboard, and 5 of the 13 gamers forward of him have been pitchers.
Similar to Bader in Flushing, Siri began dropping taking part in time because the 2024 season went on. Jonny DeLuca, who in 2024 featured – and cease me for those who’ve heard this earlier than – wonderful pace and protection to go together with some hassle getting on base, absorbed that taking part in time and can presumably be beginning in heart for the Rays subsequent season. This time, the Mets obtained their stable, if flawed, heart fielder on the commerce market as a result of there actually aren’t any available in free company. Understandably, they’re not eager to experience the Bader practice once more. Michael A. Taylor and Manuel Margot, the one different true heart fielders on the free agent market, are each on the mistaken facet of 30 and coming off their very own extraordinarily down 2024 seasons. Siri’s manufacturing might look quite a bit like Bader’s, however he’s obtained a greater monitor report in terms of well being, and since he price a prospect slightly than a free agent contract, he’ll include a smaller luxurious cap hit.
In Orze, the Rays landed a 27-year-old multi-inning reliever with a killer splitter and a modest monitor report of minor league success. The Mets chosen him within the fifth spherical of the 2020 draft out of the College of New Orleans. If you happen to’re acquainted with him already, you’re both conscious that he has survived two forms of most cancers otherwise you’ve heard about his unlucky main league debut. On July 8, Orze entered within the sixth inning towards the Pirates and allowed a stroll and two singles with out recording an out. All three runners would rating and he’d be tagged with the loss to go along with his infinite ERA. Orze would make only one extra look with the Mets.
Regardless of an unspectacular 29.7% chase price within the minors in 2024, Orze has had wonderful strikeout charges all through his minor league profession. Nevertheless, these strikeouts have come hand-in-hand with dangerously excessive stroll charges. In 2022, Eric Longenhagen ranked Orze seventh in Mets system, writing that he was a “near-ready multi-inning reliever… an excellent beneficial piece for a contending workforce, and an enormous draft and dev feather within the cap of the org.” Sadly, Orze stalled out, posting a 5.13 ERA at Triple-A Syracuse in 2022 and a 5.31 ERA there in 2023. After the ranked portion of the workforce’s 2024 prospect listing, Eric wrote merely that Orze “has a plus-plus changeup and struggles to throw strikes.” He wasn’t mistaken. Amongst minor leaguers with at the very least 75 plate appearances tracked by Statcast in 2024, Orze’s 44% zone price put him within the simply thirteenth percentile.
To be truthful, Orze’s peripherals outpaced his ERA, particularly in 2022. In 2024, he had a 2.92 ERA with a 3.65 xFIP. He seems to be like a traditional pronator, capable of make the ball run to his arm facet at will. Each scouts and stuff fashions are in love along with his splitter, and his slider must be serviceable. His four-seamer is the issue. The pitch averages a hair beneath 94 mph, and as you possibly can see from Max Bay’s Dynamic Lifeless Zone app, its motion profile is unlikely to idiot too many hitters.
See how the pink oval of the pitch’s precise form matches up virtually completely with the sunshine blue ovals that point out the form {that a} batter would anticipate? That’s no good. If the Rays are going to show Orze into their subsequent star, they’ll want to assist him along with his command, they usually’ll want to assist him unlock a greater fastball. Nonetheless, we’ve been doing this lengthy sufficient to know that when the Rays put up one thing like this on Bluesky, everybody must be afraid.
