WASHINGTON — The endless speculation and theorizing can finally come to an end. On Tuesday, just hours before the trade deadline, the Mets sent third baseman/DH J.D. Davis and three prospects to the San Francisco Giants.
In return, the Mets receive Darin Ruf, a designated hitter who sometimes moonlights as a corner outfielder or first baseman. Ruf, 36, is hitting .216/.328/.373 (.701 OPS) for San Francisco this season. More relevant for the Mets, though, he has an .886 OPS against lefties. With him handling DH duties against lefties and Daniel Vogelbach getting the starts against righties, the Mets are essentially trying to create one above-average DH out of two players.
The players going to San Francisco are Thomas Szapucki and High-A pitchers Nick Zwack and Carson Seymour. Neither Zwack nor Seymour are considered top 30 prospects in the team’s system according to MLB.com, though FanGraphs’ rankings has Zwack in the 17th spot. Szapucki, who appeared in one MLB game for the Mets in 2021 and another in 2022, had a 3.38 ERA in 64 Triple-A innings this year.
With Davis now officially out of the picture, the Mets are moving on from both a long-discussed trade chip and a perennially underperforming hitter. He heads to San Francisco with 10 extra base hits in his last 154 plate appearances. After hitting .285 in an injury-plagued 2021 season, Davis hit .238 for the Mets in 2022 with -0.1 Wins Above Replacement and never quite figured out same-handed pitchers, striking out 31.6% of the time he faced them. Combined with his subpar defense at third base, the Mets finally decided it was time to move on for good.
Davis was milling around the visitors’ clubhouse at Nationals Park on Tuesday but was not made available for comment.
