With the Cubs recent trade, it looks like Castro may be on his way out of Chicago at the end of the season, or at least someone will be on their way out. It is usual for a team to stock up on so many position prospects, especially infielders, and not stock up on pitchers.
The Mets farm system is essentially the opposite. However, the Mets are, and should be, gun shy about trading Wheeler. Even though the Mets have pitching depth, with deGrom and Matsuzaka being pleasant surprises, they have needed all of their depth. As soon as Gee is coming back, Niese is down. Harvey is still going to be a question mark. What is going to happen with Montero? The time isn’t right to trade Wheeler.
However, pitching prospects is really the only thing the Mets have they could entice Chicago. So what should the Mets do?
The Mets really love their prospects, and a lot of teams now love their prospects. If the Mets end up trading Colon this summer, they should be trading for pieces they can part with for Castro. I don’t know what those pieces look like, but probably pitching prospects. Getting Castro from the Cubs will take more than whatever Colon brings in a trade, so the Mets will probably have to part with some arm currently in their system, or trade another current player for a larger piece.
In my general opinion though, the move that makes the most sense for the Mets is whether they trade Colon or (and I really hope this doesn’t happen) Murphy, they should try to get the best prospect back possible, not tied to a position and they can straighten out the rest in the off season with teams like Chicago that might move position players.
