The New York Mets get their other starting pitcher, acquiring Chris Bassitt from the Oakland A’s. What’s mildly surprising is that the Mets went the route of a straight “prospects for player” trade, rather than trying to find the perfect match in a deal for Jeff McNeil or JD Davis.
Right-handers J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller are headed to the Oakland A's from the Mets in the Chris Bassitt trade, as others have reported. Ginn is a big, big arm and Oller, though 27, really turned a corner last year and should be big-league ready. Either way, Bassitt huge for Mets.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 12, 2022
How you view the return probably depends on how much you like JT Ginn as a prospect and how much you value one year of Bassitt. I don’t need to get too deep into the weeds, but the short version is that Ginn is thought by some to be a borderline top-100 type (I’m not familiar with Oller, but he appears to be an upper-level, older, relief-only guy), and Bassitt was really good last year, but is now 33 and is projected at $8.8 million in his final year of arbitration. Just about any team – other than the A’s – would love to have Bassitt at that salary, but how much he would net in trade is a different question (this is about the equivalent of the Cubs sending something like D.J. Herz or Caleb Kilian and a quality relief prospect). To me, this looks like a reasonable swap, and understandable for both clubs in their current situations.
The broader impact is multifaceted. The A’s selloff has officially begun, and now we await likely trades involving some or all of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea, etc. The Mets’ exceptional rotation just got even better. Other teams out there that hoped to get a one-year, quality starter just lost out on an option.
