Almost A Met: Kris Bryant
For a while there, everyone thought Bryant was going to the Mets.
Welcome back fellow Mets fans! We’re going more recent today and exploring how 3B Kris Bryant seemed to be destined to be a member of the New York Mets.
We all know that never worked out, but there was A LOT of buzz about him wearing the orange and blue for several seasons.
While there was definitely a fit for some time… did the Mets dodge a bullet by not acquiring him?
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Let’s get into it.
Andrew
There were connections between Kris Bryant and the Mets
We’ve spent a lot of time in the early 2000s-era Mets. So today, we’re going more recent: There were a few moments within the last five years when everyone seemed to think 3B Kris Bryant would be a member of the New York Mets.
The 2021 Mets were a weird team. Their front office was in flux, after the firing of GM Jared Porter before the season even started after it was revealed he sent inappropriate text messages to a female reporter. Former GM and then-Team President Sandy Alderson was once again in charge of the team.
They began the offseason by making what might end up being one of the most impactful trades they’ve ever made by acquiring SS Francisco Lindor from the Cleveland Guardians. It was supposed to be the exclamation mark on what was a new era for the team.
For a while, it seemed that way. The team spent 103 days in first place in the NL East, and as well all know it didn’t end that way. But around the trade deadline, they clearly wanted to upgrade the roster. A match seemed to be possible with the Chicago Cubs, who were selling the core of their historic 2016 World Series winning team.
There were a lot of fits between the Mets and Cubs. Bryant, SS Javy Baez, C Wilson Contreras, and others all seemed like potential trade targets for the Mets to acquire.
But the Mets apparent interest in Bryant went back further than that trade deadline.
Were the Mets ‘this close’ to acquiring Kris Bryant?
Before the 2021 season, it looked like the Mets wanted to add more to their lineup than just Lindor. SNY’s Andy Martino noted in February 2021 that the two teams talked about a “potential trade” numerous times.
That potential deal could have included 3B J.D. Davis (Editor’s Note: J.D. Davis was a personal favorite of mine, who among us has not gotten attached to a random player?)
However, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer came out a few days later to call the talks inaccurate.
The heat was so strong that Bryant apparently got a text message welcoming him to the Mets.
While a trade never materialized, things heated up again ahead of the 2021 trade deadline, as I mentioned before.
It’s not hard to see what the Mets liked. Bryant—who was a super hyped prospect who helped the Cubs end their historic World Series drought—had hit 18 home runs, drove in 51 runs for the Cubbies so far that season, bouncing back after a disappointing COVID-shortened 2020 season.
Adding him into a lineup with Lindor, 1B Pete Alonso, OF Brandon Nimmo, and others would have helped the team. Additionally, he would be a free agent at the end of the 2021 season, meaning the Mets could either try to extend him or simply let him walk. It was a classic player rental situation as the Amazin’s tried to push for a playoff spot.
With a four-game lead in the division at the time, then-acting GM Zack Scott told Baseball Isn’t Boring that the Mets felt that they “have to be buyers” and that he had “a lot of conversations” with the Cubs about “different players.”
At one point in the discussions, Scott said there was talk of a “seven-player deal … that would have filled several needs on the team”—presumably involving Bryant and others who were eventually traded to the Mets (more on that in a minute).
There was some reporting that the Mets were “this close” to acquiring Bryant at the 2021 trade deadline.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported that the Mets were discussing a trade that would have sent Bryant, Baez, SP Trevor Williams and a fourth major leaguer to the Amazin’s in exchange for OF Pete Crow-Armstrong—a top prospect at the time—another top prospect, and a major league player under team control, who we are going to assume was Davis.
In a recent interview with MLB Now, Hoyer said the Mets were unwilling to include 3B Brett Baty or C Francisco Alvarez, both top prospects at the time, in a trade.
Was DeGrom’s injury the reason Bryant wasn’t a Met?
Scott went on to say that a “bad report” on the health of SP Jacob DeGrom on deadline day made him “pivot a little bit” away from the “all-in type deals” that he was discussing with the Cubs.
“That didn’t stop us. I didn’t look at it as ‘well, we got to give up on the season,” Scott told Baseball Ins’t Boring. “You don’t give up on the season when something like that happens. You still have a four game lead. It wasn’t clear that he was going to miss the rest of the season, but I knew there was some chance of that. So it wasn’t great. So I kind of pivoted a little bit away from the kind of more of the all-in type deals.”
DeGrom was sent to the injured list on July 18, and wouldn’t pitch for the Mets until 2022.
I guess this makes sense, as your dreams of a deep postseason run get a little murkier when the best pitcher on the planet won’t be heading your rotation. Ultimately, the Mets never made the blockbuster mega deal Scott discussed.
Instead, they went smaller.
The team decided against acquiring Bryant, and instead got Baez and Williams, in exchange for Crow-Armstrong. Bryant was instead traded to the San Francisco Giants.
The Mets would ultimately miss the playoffs, finishing with a 77-85 record.
Even more Bryant-to-the-Mets buzz
But even after the season, the rumors of a Bryant and Mets match wouldn’t die down.
Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that the right-hander was among the players the Mets would discuss with super-agent Scott Boras during the GM Meetings in November 2021.
Amid the Mets 2021-2022 offseason spending spree—which saw them acquire SP Max Scherzer, OF Starling Marte, OF Mark Canha, and 3B Eduardo Escobar—there was a lot of chatter about the Mets and Bryant. A month after the New York Post report, MLB Insider Jon Heyman tweeted that the Amazin’s were among the teams that had “shown interest” in the slugger.
In the end, Bryant surprisingly signed a 7-year $182 million deal with the Colorado Rockies in March 2022. It still doesn’t make much sense, and the Rockies are dealing with the consequences.
While Bryant may have helped the Mets avoid a disastrous run down the stretch in 2021 after a trade, it's probably a good thing he didn’t sign long-term with them the following offseason.
Since signing with the Rockies, Bryant has dealt with a dizzying amount of health issues that have made the contract an albatross. The Rockies are currently in the middle of a historically bad season.
Could have Bryant made the 2021 Mets season end differently? Maybe. Who knows—just look at how OF Yoenis Cespedes changed the Mets in 2015. But if we are looking at the contract he signed the following offseason, the Mets probably dodged a bullet here.
❓ Would you have made the trade?
Let’s get in the GM chair. There was talk of a mega deal that would have sent 3B Kris Bryant, SS Javy Baez, SP Trevor Williams and more for (likely) 3B J.D. Davis, OF Pete Crow-Armstrong, and another top prospect. Would you have made the trade?
Next newsletter we’ll share the results of the poll! So stay tuned.
Results from last newsletter: 83% of Almost A Met readers said they would have traded for SS Barry Larkin in 2000 and signed him to a thee-year extension, while 17% said they wouldn’t have.
⚾ Mets news you need to know
Yankees broadcaster and radio personality Michael Kay is continuing to have a full-blown meltdown over the very awesome Mets’d Up podcast. It is obvious that he is mistaken about who is living “rent-free” in whose head. (Awful Announcing) (@GiraffeNeckMarc/X)
15 years ago last week, the Mets selected SP Matt Harvey with the 7th pick in the 2010 MLB Draft. I miss those “Harvey Days.” (@NYMHistory/X)
“The Mets have as much pithing depth as they ever have” (Jorge Eckardt/MetsMerizedOnline.com)
It was Steve Cohen’s birthday on Wednesday. (@SNY_Mets/X)
👀 Next time on “Almost A Met”
Next newsletter we’ll be look at the saga of SP Roy Oswalt almost becoming a New York Met. Stay tuned!
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