After more than three months dormant during the lockout, the Mets are making major moves again.
A’s pitcher Chris Bassitt is heading to Queens in a trade for two prospects, the team said.
Bassitt has been a stud over the last two years, finishing in the top ten in AL Cy Young voting in 2020 and 2021.
Last year, he pitched a career-high 157.1 innings, finishing with a 3.15 ERA and making his first All-Star team.
Pitching prospects J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller are headed back to Oakland in the deal.
With questions about injuries throughout the rotation and a thin back half, the Mets desperately needed to beef up their starting pitching.
With free agent Yusei Kikuchi and Carlos Rodon quickly agreeing to deals with the Blue Jays and Giants, respectively, a trade looked increasingly likely for the Mets. And they paid a price for Bassitt. Ginn was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft and rated as the 5th-best prospect in the Mets system, according to MLB Pipeline.
Oller, a 27-year-old journeyman, was named the Mets’ minor league pitcher of the year after a career season in AA and AAA in 2021.
Bassitt should figure prominently in the Mets’ rotation behind Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. He was excellent for the A’s the last four years after missing all of 2017 with Tommy John surgery, pitching to a 3.23 ERA in 70 starts since 2018. He did miss significant time last summer after taking a horrifying line drive to the face, but returned to pitch in two games in September.
For now, Bassitt appears to slot in as the No. 3 starter in an all-righty, all-veteran rotation, with deGrom and Scherzer ahead of him and Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco behind him.
With a tight spring training window after the lockout — and the recent injury history of many Mets starters — more than five starters will likely be needed in the early months. Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Jordan Yamamoto can all provide rotation depth.
Bassitt is slated to hit free agency in 2023, underscoring how all-in the Mets are for 2022.
FAMILIA TO PHILLY
Mets mainstay Jeurys Familia isn’t going far: the longtime reliever is headed 90 miles south to the Phillies. Familia had been a key piece of the Mets’ bullpen dating back eight years, appearing in 469 games for the team since 2012. Only John Franco and Pedro Feliciano have pitched in more games for the Mets. (The Mets briefly traded him away for the 2018 stretch run with the A’s but he immediately returned that offseason.)
He was suspended for 15 games in 2017 under the domestic violence policy after a 2016 arrest.