3 moves Mets should make besides trading for Juan Soto

Jorge López

As stated earlier, the Mets could use some bullpen depth. Multiple teams will be looking for help in the same area, so this could create bidding wars for the top arms. If the Mets do decide to go this route, Jorge Lopez makes sense for the franchise.

Lopez has been pitching out of his mind this year. He currently holds a 1.62 ERA, 10.35 strikeouts per 9 innings, 0.61 HR per 9 innings, and a 2.98 FIP.

Now, he is due to regress some with his left on base percentage being 78.4% and his expected FIP being 3.00 and expected ERA being 2.99. He also has been a bit lucky, as his BABIP against him is a measly .219.

When you trade for a player, you trade for what they can do in the future, not what they have done in the past. For this reason, it makes sense to look at the expectancy stats for Lopez.

Lopez has been fantastic in his expectancy stats. His expected ERA, batting average against, slugging% against, weighted on base average, and strikeout rate are all in the top 18% or better in MLB.

Lopez is under team control through 2024 and only would cost the pro-rated amount of $1.5 million this year, so he will not come cheap.

The biggest question is if the Baltimore Orioles feel they will be in a competitive window before Lopez walks in free agency, having already won more games than they did in all of 2021.

Playing in a strong AL East division, it will take nothing short of a miracle for the O’s to make the playoffs in 2022, and they could accelerate their rebuild if they get the right trade package in return.  So, there is a chance that Lopez becomes available for the Mets.