There seems to be a new team with interest in Pirates All-Star outfielder Andrew McCutchen. After trade talks fell apart with the Washington Nationals, it seemed that the Pirates were going to have a difficult time trading their outfielder. Then, it was reported a few days ago that the New York Mets had expressed some interest in the center fielder and are in preliminary talks with the Pirates for McCutchen. While nothing has gotten serious between the two teams, this would make logical sense for both the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates to pull this trade off.
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First, it would make sense for the Pittsburgh Pirates who are on the record as saying that one of their goals in the offseason is to acquire an ace. I can’t think of a team with an abundance of pitching than the New York Mets with Matt Harvey, Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and so on. While the Mets won’t trade one of their starting pitchers, there are others who the Mets can trade and are very reasonable for the Pirates. Some of the names who could be included in this trade are Zach Wheeler, Robert Gsellman, or Seth Lugo. I only include Wheeler as one of the names being mentioned is he is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. In addition, I could also see the Mets trade either Curtis Granderson or Jay Bruce to the Pirates. Both Granderson and Bruce only have one year left on their deals with roughly $15 million left for Granderson and $13 million for Bruce.
This trade would also make sense for the New York Mets, who can add more off the offense to a team that was 12th in Batting Average with .246, 12th in OBP with .316, and 11th in runs with 671. By adding McCutchen to the lineup would help big time as it would provide a major spark. Last season, McCutchen had 24 homers with 79 runs batted in and batted a .256 batting average. Also, McCutchen would not need to be the leader of the team as he would have other pieces with Wright, Reyes, Walker, and so on.
This is just a rumor and should be taken with a grain of salt.