Winker dealt to Mets for the Next Wookie

[imref]

If Tejeda did sign, Nats have Wood at 6'7", Tejeda at 6'8" and Stewart at 6'9".   Damn!

need to scrimmage again the wizards.

[OfftheBat]

just the size of Stuart reminds me on Jon Rauch.

Good comp, 6"9 ain't no joke! 

[Elvir Ovcina]

The only explanation for this trade is the Nats think they can unlock something with Stuart. Otherwise, I’d prefer Winker on this roster through end of the season, even as DH.

Must in part mean Crews is near.

It's not an "unlock," is this:

Fangraphs dings you badly if they think you're a reliever, which is what results in the ranks Slate quoted.  They're also right.

just the size of Stuart reminds me on Jon Rauch.

It's actually a very good comp in terms of stuff, too.  Stuart's final start as a Binghamton Rumble Pony was a Wednesday matinee in Richmond this week, and certain lazy bastards like Elvir Ovcina like attending Wednesday matinees. 

Very tall guy (not as beefy as Rauch) with long arms.  Two pitches that will work in MLB, pounds the zone with both, two more very fringy pitches.  Probably a velo bump as a reliever given that he wasn't going max effort over 6 (I think it was).  The Squirrels are terrible on offense but they weren't making good contact.  I don't see a ton of room for growth with Stuart unless he can get a third pitch.  He's not entirely dissimilar to Rutledge in a lot of ways.

[Senatorswin]

I think the high floor and the fact that he does not need to be added to the 40 man roster have to be factored into Stuart's value. Sounds like at a minimum a reliever with 2 good pitches and team control through his late 20s / early 30s. Perhaps with a year of work in the system he can be a Lord or even an Irvin, but they don't have to make that decision before the end of the year.

If he could be an Irvin that would be a steal but that's not going to happen.

[imref]

Two months of a mlb minimum player for a guy with a decent shot to get to the majors as a reliever seems like a decent deal.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Two months of a mlb minimum player for a guy with a decent shot to get to the majors as a reliever seems like a decent deal.

Winker I thought was making $2 million once he made the team

[imref]

Winker I thought was making $2 million once he made the team

Statrac says $1.5 million with a $508,000 payroll number.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

So double mlb minimum, with 1/2 million remaining

[KV]

Mets wasting no time getting him in a game.  1 AB as a PH. Struck out

[imref]

Mets wasting no time getting him in a game.  1 AB as a PH. Struck out

bust.

I wonder if he got booed? He's been unpopular with Mets fans since the time he taunted them after making a sliding catch when he was on the Reds.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jesse-winker-is-a-straight-up-met/

Davey Andrews:

Winker hasn’t played more than 100 innings in right field since 2019, but with Starling Marte out since June 22 due to a knee injury, that seems like the most logical fit. The Mets are currently platooning Jeff McNeil and Tyrone Taylor out there. Against righties, Winker could allow McNeil to move second base, pushing Jose Iglesias, who started out red-hot but has just one hit over his past six games, back into a bench role.
...
Now for Washington’s side of the deal. Because I want to spare you pain, I’m not going to make you read a list of all the players the Nationals have traded away over the last four seasons. I won’t even make you read a list of the bounce-back candidates they’ve signed to one-year deals for the express purpose of flipping them at the deadline. But this is what they do. They pump, they dump, they repeat. It is their strategy. This year, it worked with Winker and seems to be working with Dylan Floro, but not with Joey Gallo or Nick Senzel. The real question is whether this might be the strategy’s last hurrah. The Nationals are on pace for their best record since 2019, and, thanks to the implosion of the Marlins, their first non-last-place finish. Management has been making noises for two years now about how close the team is to finishing its rebuild. We’ll find out in a few more months whether all this means that they’ll finally sign a player they’d actually like to keep around for more than four months.
...
Eric Longenhagen ranked Stuart 27th (as a 35+ FV) in the Mets system back in May, and he seems likely to be a back-end starter. Stuart doesn’t have great velocity or stuff, but he fills up the zone, and is currently walking 5.6% of batters and running a 47.5% groundball rate; per Eric, his durability and command give him a high floor. As Eric wrote in May, “He is mostly going to live in the low 90s with both a two- and four-seamer while commanding an average slider to his glove side.” Stuart is still working on developing a decent offspeed pitch, and his future seems to be dependent upon whether or not he can crack it. If he can’t figure it out, he’s more likely to end up as a fastball-slider reliever.

Big gap in the return for Winker and Thomas. 2 months vs a year and 2 months is some of it, and the article talks about expected regression from Winker (fewer great pitches to hit, drop in BABIP, etc...). If the Mets are looking to play Winker in the outfield, then that knocks out another basis for paying more for Thomas.

[nobleisthyname]

Winker is a better hitter and on the strong side of a platoon as well. Really doesn't make sense to me but I'm not complaining.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Winker is a better hitter and on the strong side of a platoon as well. Really doesn't make sense to me but I'm not complaining.

Well, as Elvir has pointed out, we may be over-rating the return for Thomas. Ramirez is a power hitting infielder who can't make contact, so how valuable is the power. Tena is blocked at 2d and 3d in Cleveland, and Clemmey is far enough away that there's the TINSTAAPP issue. Very much a roll of the dice trade where if there's one hit on Clemmey or Ramirez, then it is a great result. OTOH, the Winker deal is a high floor kind of deal, where the Jon Rauch look alike has enough now to be a reliever and may turn into something like a back end starter.

I'd love it if the Nats signed Winker to 2 year deal with an option to be the primary DH. I think it would be affordable but not sacrificing quality for price.

[imref]

6-20 since the trade, all singles (plus a walk).

The Mets data has sapped his power.