Mets send Canha to Crew for RHP prospect Jarvis

KANSAS CITY -- When the Mets traded closer David Robertson to the Marlins last week, it signaled to the baseball world that they are selling. When they dealt starting pitcher Max Scherzer to the Rangers over the weekend, it indicated that no one on the roster is safe.

Much of the rest carries an air of inevitability. To that end, the Mets traded outfielder Mark Canha to the Brewers on Monday for pitching prospect Justin Jarvis. As they have done in previous deals, the Mets are paying down all but the Major League minimum of Canha’s $11.5 million salary, according to a source, while Milwaukee will either pick up his $11.5 million team option for 2024 or buy him out for $2 million.

TRADE DETAILS
Mets get: RHP Justin Jarvis (Milwaukee's No. 30 prospect)
Brewers get: Mark Canha, cash

Using that strategy, the Mets were essentially able to purchase the 30th-ranked prospect in Milwaukee’s system. Jarvis, 23, will be ranked 13th in New York, which shows how far the Mets still need to go to amass the type of Minor League depth that other teams possess. In particular, the Mets lack upper-level pitching prospects such as Jarvis, who recently earned a promotion to Triple-A Nashville after going 6-4 with a 3.33 ERA in 14 starts for Double-A Nashville. Those numbers included 91 strikeouts over 75 2/3 innings.

Jarvis joins Mike Vasil, the Mets’ 10th-ranked prospect, as a Minor League pitcher close enough to the Majors to be an option in the short-term future. Most of the organization’s other top pitching prospects, including Blade Tidwell and Dominic Hamel, are further from the Majors. None of the Mets’ Top 5 prospects is a pitcher, and the three other prospects the team has acquired this month -- Luisangel Acu?a, Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez -- are all position players.

Although Jarvis may seem like a relatively modest return, the Mets couldn’t expect much in exchange for two months of Canha, who had been a part-time outfielder for them. Signed along with Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar prior to the 2022 season, Canha produced a .266/.367/.403 slash line last year but, like many Mets, took a significant step back this summer. At the time of the trade, he was hitting .245/.343/.381 with six home runs in 89 games.

Canha did offer the Mets excellent defensive versatility, given his capability of playing both corner outfield spots and first base. He also served as DH on occasion.

Because Canha is on an expiring contract, he was a near lock to move once the Mets declared themselves sellers. The same is true for another Mets outfielder, Tommy Pham, who is likely to be traded before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. Relievers Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino are also prime candidates, along with several others on the active roster.

The great unknown remains Justin Verlander, who like Scherzer is a candidate to move before the Deadline. But a deal of Verlander would be complicated, with the potential to hurt the Mets’ chances of competing in 2024. For that reason, it is not inevitable in the way a trade of Canha was.