The Tampa Rays and the New York Mets have agreed to a trade. The details are as follows:
New York Mets Receive:
Brett Jackson, OF and Russ Canzler, 1B,3B, OF
Tampa Rays Receive:
Lucas Duda, OF, 1B and Zach Wheeler, SP
While this trade does not completely fit the plan for Tampa to deal off pitching depth for offense, it does provide an immediate offensive boost for our OF. Jackson is a great talent and will most likely be in Chicago shortly, but he is no lock for opening day. Canzler is a good talent that will have every chance to succeed now that he's been moved into a probable starting role with the Indians. However, due to some positional flexibility of players like Zobrist and Murphy, we should be able to address the need of CI without breaking the bank in Free Agency.
After dealing Joyce in our previous trade with Detroit, Tampa needed to fill the 3OF void and we feel that we accomplish that with Duda. Wheeler is a solid talent that (assuming the Mets minor league staff doesn't mess it up), could have #2 starter upside.
It's a straight-forward trade that sacrifices some long-term upside for a chance to fill a hole in my roster.