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Jon Heyman

Jon Heyman

 MLB

Mets were right not to pay too high of a price for Juan Soto

By
Jon Heyman
Published June 2, 2023
Updated June 2, 2023, 12:31 p.m. ET

What may save this Mets season is the kids.

Francisco Alvarez is emerging as a starter, and of course he has to remain the main catcher even after original starter Omar Narvaez returns in a week or so, despite this contrived controversy that still plays on radio airwaves.

Brett Baty is up and producing, Mark Vientos is up, too (and hopefully about to get more ABs), and Ronny Mauricio shouldn’t be too far behind — though, with 11 errors as he transitions to second base, the Mets are understandably being patient.

Anyway, this is a good time to remind everyone the Mets look wise now not to have dived into a Juan Soto trade with the Nationals.

Not that Soto, who easily remains one of the top five hitters in baseball, is doing badly. To the contrary, his 161 OPS plus is four points higher than his lifetime mark despite some overwrought early criticism.

The Mets would have had to pay too high of a price, which likely would have included Francisco Alvarez, to get Juan Soto, The Post's Jon Heyman wrote.
The Mets would have had to pay too high of a price, which likely would have included Francisco Alvarez, to get Juan Soto, The Post’s Jon Heyman writes. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

The issue isn’t Soto but the haul it would have taken to land Soto. Based on talks at the time, the Mets believe they would have had to surrender five or six top guys — surely Alvarez and very likely Baty, Mauricio and Alex Ramirez plus one or two among pitching prospects Dominic Hamel, Mike Vasil and Calvin Ziegler, also among their top-10 prospects. That seems about right considering the stash the Nats did land (not to mention a likely in-division premium the Mets would have had to pay).

It’s fair to wonder whether the Mets are generally too reluctant to trade any prospect. They once boasted they held on to their top 19 prospects!

However, they were right never to get too serious in Soto talks. (Once the Cardinals nixed the idea of trading mega-prospect Jordan Walker, the finalists became the Padres, Dodgers and yes, the sneaky, surprising Rays.)

Now that Alvarez is starring behind the plate, anything that includes him (plus others) is unthinkable. Alvarez has been so good since his call-up, especially offensively, Narvaez’s two-year guarantee can’t even be a consideration when parsing out playing time.

Francisco Alvarez
Francisco Alvarez Getty Images

It’s early, but it looks like the Nats did very well with their deal. Mackenzie Gore is one of two young Nats starters providing hope now that he’s fully healthy (Josiah Gray is the other), and shortstop C.J. Abrams will wow you on occasion with his athleticism.

Meantime, outfielder Robert Hassell and outfielder/first baseman James Wood (.919 OPS), the biggest key to the deal for the Nats (as Alvarez likely would have been for the Mets), were just promoted to Double-A and are the Nats’ top two prospects. They also got Jarlin Susana, a 19-year-old right-hander who has 30 strikeouts but 19 walks in 23 ²/₃ innings at Single-A.

“I like all the guys they got,” one N.L. scout said.

Indeed, Washington did very well. But the Nats might have done even better if the Mets had made the right offer. Or actually, the wrong one.