{"id":107376,"date":"2025-07-31T11:08:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107376\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T11:08:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:08:27","slug":"mets-boost-their-bullpen-add-ryan-helsley-tyler-rogers-without-trading-elite-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107376\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets boost their bullpen, add Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers without trading elite prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trade details: New York Mets acquire RHP Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants for RHP Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3, RHP Blade Tidwell and OF Drew Gilbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York Mets acquire RHP Ryan Helsley for INF Jesus Baez, RHP Frank Elissalt and RHP Nate Dohm<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York Mets have been busy at this deadline, using some of their second- and third-tier prospects to boost their bullpen. Wednesday brought two more trades, one that added Ryan Helsley for a song, and one that added Tyler Rogers for what I think is a better return.<\/p>\n

The Mets acquired one of the best relievers available in trade this month and didn\u2019t give up a single one of the top 10 prospects in their system<\/a>. Helsley led the National League in saves last year with 49, which doesn\u2019t matter at all, but I put it in there to see who\u2019s paying attention. He\u2019s a slider\/four-seam guy who gets extremely high whiff rates on the breaking ball, over 50 percent last year and at 45.6 percent this year, throwing both pitches for strikes. He\u2019s been a little worse this year than he was the previous three, partly due to just some typical randomness, but also because his fastball is a little straighter, although it\u2019s still 99-101.<\/p>\n

Helsley is a free agent after the season, so the Mets get two months of his production plus, they hope, some work in October. The Mets\u2019 bullpen took a hit with the injury to Max Kranick, although even before that they didn\u2019t have anyone as effective as Helsley in the bullpen other than closer Edwin D\u00edaz, so the deal is a clear upgrade for their relief corps.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like this for the St. Louis Cardinals, to put it mildly. Yes, Helsley\u2019s a rental, so it won\u2019t be hard for them to end up \u201cwinning\u201d the deal in terms of value returned \u2014 if any of these guys gets to the majors, which is not a guarantee, they\u2019ll probably come out ahead by WAR or your metric of choice. Helsley was one of the best relievers on the market, though, and this can\u2019t have been the best possible return.<\/p>\n

Infielder Jesus Baez is the most talented of the three prospects the Cardinals received, easily top five in the Mets\u2019 system just on raw tools, but he\u2019s not a very good baseball player. His approach at the plate is just bad, he doesn\u2019t play hard on either side of the ball, and he showed up out of shape this season. He has great bat speed and projects to plus power, although he gets ready so late at the plate, I\u2019m surprised he can get to better velocity. He\u2019s hit .244\/.334\/.406 this year in High A as a 20-year-old after spending the first week in Low A, with just a 16.7 percent strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Nate Dohm was popular with model-heavy teams in the 2024 draft, as he gets huge extension in his delivery and his fastball has good \u2018shape\u2019 along with its 92-95 mph velocity. His slider was plus in college but has played a little below that in pro ball, still with sharp downward break to it but not missing bats as much as I expected. He\u2019s been healthy this year after missing half of his draft spring with an elbow injury, throwing more innings in 2025 (62 2\/3) than he did in any calendar year as a college player. He might be a starter, more likely a long reliever.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Frank Elissalt was the Mets\u2019 19th-round pick last year out of Nova Southeastern, and the 23-year-old has had a solid pro debut against younger hitters in Low A, with two relief appearances so far in High A. He sits 94-95 with an average or slightly better slider, with a starter\u2019s delivery, lacking much of a weapon for lefties and perhaps not having the command and control to go through an order more than once. He\u2019s got a chance to get to the big leagues, which is an incredible possibility for a college senior signed that late in the draft.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Drew Gilbert is on his third pro organization since going in the 2022 first round. (Jonathan Tenca \/ Cal Sport Media via Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The Mets were busy Thursday, swinging another deal for a reliever, acquiring submarine right-hander Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants for reliever Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 and prospects Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell.<\/p>\n

Gilbert is a platoon outfielder who can play all three spots and hits righties pretty well, but he\u2019s never hit left-handed pitching in pro ball, and I don\u2019t see any real sign he\u2019s going to start. He\u2019s a good athlete who\u2019d be a plus defender every day in a corner, and if you marry him with a good right-handed hitting platoon mate, he\u2019d probably hit 18-22 homers with a solid OBP in the limited role.<\/p>\n

Tidwell has been a tease going back to his college days at Tennessee \u2014 he looks like he has the size and arsenal to start, but he\u2019s never even sniffed average control, let alone command, and doesn\u2019t really have the kind of feel to change speeds or vary the approach. It\u2019s all power, and that profile might just be better suited to relief. Both of these guys will have some major-league value, though, and Butt\u00f3 is more than just a replacement-level arm.<\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s more theoretical upside in what the Cardinals got, there\u2019s a better chance the package the Giants got for their rental reliever ends up the better one.<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Ryan Helsley: Ross Cameron \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trade details: New York Mets acquire RHP Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants for RHP Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,1266,1305,50,1275,3692,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-107376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york-mets","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-san-francisco-giants","13":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114947536008573592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}