It may not be A.J. Pollock or Bryce Harper, but the New York Mets have made a move to improve their outfield depth. The Mets announced on their Twitter account that they have made a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, acquiring center fielder Keon Broxton from the Milwaukee Brewers. Three minor league players, headlined by reliever Bobby Wahl, are headed back to Milwaukee in exchange for Broxton.
Broxton, 28, batted .179 with four home runs and 11 RBI’s in 78 at bats for the Brewers in 2018. Milwaukee used Broxton as their starting center fielder in 2017, when he hit .220 with 20 home runs, 49 RBI’s, and a .719 OPS in 143 games. Broxton was phased out of the Brewers’ plans when the team acquired Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich the following winter, spending most of 2018 in AAA before coming off the bench in the second half.
The Mets didn’t give up much to acquire Broxton, with Wahl being the headliner. Wahl was one of two players the Mets acquired in the Jeurys Familia trade and he didn’t distinguish himself in his big league cameo last summer. The other two minor leaguers, righty Adam Hill and infielder Felix Valerio, are not currently ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects according to MLB.com. Wahl was ranked 28th on that list prior to the deal.
The move makes a lot of sense for the Mets, especially if they didn’t want to give Pollock a long term deal given his injury history. Broxton is still only 28 years old and is an excellent defender with tremendous speed, so perhaps the Mets have belief that he will be a late bloomer and turn into a starter in center field. The move, at minimum, gives the Mets insurance against Juan Lagares’ troubled injury history and gives them a defensive center fielder if Lagares leaves in free agency after the season.
The Mets’ outfield now consists of Broxton, Lagares, Michael Conforto, and Brandon Nimmo. The fifth outfielder will likely come from a spring training competition between Rule V draft pick Braxton Lee and veterans Rajai Davis and Gregor Blanco. This does not factor in any contributions from Yoenis Cespedes, who Omar Minaya recently indicated is not a consideration for the Mets at this point. This is the correct attitude to take, but by adding a second defensive center fielder in Broxton the Mets will need to add more offense elsewhere if they hope to win in 2019. A utility infielder with some pop, like Marwin Gonzalez, could be a good fit. The Mets could also use some of their remaining free agency dollars towards more reinforcements for the bullpen, which still needs help even after the additions of Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia.
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