Mets Beef Up Their Roster With Daniel Vogelbach and Michael Perez
In what has been a relatively quiet July so far on the trade front, the Mets made two minor trades over the weekend, both with the Pirates. First, they picked up designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach in return for reliever Colin Holderman. In a separate transaction, Pittsburgh also sent catcher Michael Perez to Queens in return for the team’s favorite kind of player: cash.
As a power-and-walks hitter without much defensive value, Vogelbach was not a favorite of prospect-watchers, but the internet at least partially fell in love with him due to his Rubens-esque proportions. While his major league career hasn’t exactly resulted in any Large Adult MVP memes, he’s established himself in the big leagues as a power-hitting DH, albeit one with a fairly limited role. You don’t want him in a game against a left-handed pitcher, and ideally, you don’t want him standing in the field with a glove, either. If you need a part-time DH who can also come off the bench and ruin a right-handed reliever’s evening, though, then Vogelbach is your man. His .228/.338/.430 triple-slash in Pittsburgh is hardly eye-popping, but in 2022, that’s enough to get you a perfectly serviceable wRC+ of 118.
As a Met, Vogelbach’s line should look even better than that, as he’s joined a team that has less of a reason to let him face lefties. With an extremely thin roster, the Pirates started him 14 times against left-handed starters, about 40% of the time. They had no lefty-masher on hand to serve as a complement to Vogelbach, and when he wasn’t starting, they regularly turned to Yoshi Tsutsugo, another left-handed hitter, or used the position to rest other players. The Mets, on the other hand, are quite content to use J.D. Davis against lefties — he’s started all 35 games against them — and appear to have finally decided that his best position is DH. If Dominic Smith had been hitting at all, a trade like this would not have been necessary, but with a .560 OPS this year after last year’s .667, the team is basically at wits’ end when it comes to getting consistent production out of him. I’d actually be surprised if Smith is on the roster after the deadline, and at this point, a divorce may be best for both parties.
In return, the Mets give up Holderman — actually a surprisingly steep price for a part-time DH. Usually, contending teams give up lower-level prospects for role players rather than someone contemporaneously contributing to the team. For example: Coming off a stint in Seattle during which Vogelbach was basically the same player he is today, the Blue Jays picked him up from the Mariners for cash in 2020, and the Brewers got him on waivers a week later. The fastball-slider Holderman shot through the minors quickly after being moved to the bullpen a few years ago and had been effective in that role for New York, hitting the upper-mid 90s with his fastball and with a 2.27 FIP in 15 appearances. For our Mets prospect list, my colleague Eric Longenhagen described him as a player who “projects as the third banana in a contending team’s bullpen.” Given that Holderman was third in WAR among full-time relievers in a contending Mets bullpen, one could say the foretold prophecy has already come to pass. Manager Buck Showalter hadn’t been using Holderman in high-leverage situations, so one could argue that it doesn’t matter too much, but my gut tells me that there’s going to be a time when the Mets will wish they had him on the roster.
The Pirates celebrated Jacob Stallings winning his first Gold Glove award by trading him a few weeks later to the Marlins because of, well, let’s just say, the “usual Pirates reasons.” Perez was claimed on waivers after the 2021 season and stepped in as the team’s discount version of Stallings — better, even, as Stallings hasn’t hit at all in Miami; Perez actually has the higher wRC+, 47–40. For the Mets, Perez is basically a quick emergency depth option, as James McCann is still out with an oblique injury, and Tomás Nido is still Tomás Nido.
Neither Vogelbach nor Perez drastically alters the state of the NL East race; the Mets will need to make weightier moves to shake up those projections. But these acquisitions are a sign that they’re trying to buff the edges of the roster as they prepare for the homestretch.
Dan Szymborski is a senior writer for FanGraphs and the developer of the ZiPS projection system. He was a writer for ESPN.com from 2010-2018, a regular guest on a number of radio shows and podcasts, and a voting BBWAA member. He also maintains a terrible Twitter account at @DSzymborski.
I really like Vogelbach as he kills righties he put up a 146 wRC+ this year against them and has a career wRC+ of 123 vs righties. That said, I was very surprised that it took Holderman to get him as I was very impressed by Holderman’s stuff this spring and he’s pitched very well since coming up getting strike outs and grounders at good rates and imo is better and more trustworthy than Smith, a declining Lugo and really everyone in the pen not named Diaz or Ottavino. The Pirates did very well in this trade but the Pirates sending down Holderman to get service time back is a very weak move.
Also surprised, but also in a “why him, specifically?” kind of way. Holderman seems very useful to the Mets, especially when you need all the power relievers you can get in the postseason. And conversely, a fully actualized reliever seems like not the ideal kinda thing for the Pirates to target. Feels like both teams would have had an incentive to find someone else as the return there.
Mades me wonder if the Pirates were startled by the offer from the Mets and grabbed it, fully intending to flip Holderman. But then sticking him in the minors goes against that theory so it could be the Pirates simply knew they were getting much the better of it, made the deal, then evaluated. Still, sticking him in the minors now is a D- move.
Eppler says the Pirates were insistent on Holderman and he tried his best to keep him out of the trade but you know. The Braves were reportedly in on Vogelbach too.
Thanks, DK! That shines useful light.
The buzz was that multiple teams were in on Vogelbach. That probably explains the price.
Vogelbach seems to be a very good addition for a playoff team where his typically excellent PAs against RHP can swing a short series.
I think they sent him down to avoid DFA’ing a current reliever but it could be service time as Holderman would qualify for Super Two if he wasn’t sent down. To manipulate Super Two for a reliever seems excessive even for the Pirates; we’ll see after the deadline because I think if he’s up next week he’ll still be in line for Super Two.
It’s also possible that he’s dealing with a minor health issue (believable given his history) and they want to be sure he’s fully healthy before putting him in a major league game.
That’s exactly why they sent him down. They are actively trying to trade a reliever or 2 and every reliever with the club is out of options so they would need to DFA. He’ll be back up after August 2.
Moves don’t get much weightier than trading for Vogelbach.
I’ll show myself out😃
“But these acquisitions are a sign that they’re trying to buff the edges of the roster as they prepare for the homestretch.”
—and a further sign that if there’s a problem that money alone can’t solve, the Mets FO will continue to look like a 3 year old with a chessboard. Giving up Holderman, controllable through 2027 or later, for a 29 year old platoon DH who’s replacement level for his career? Jaysus.
The claim that Holderman is a precious asset is grounded in little evidence. He was never impressive in the minors until 14 AAA innings this year. As to his performance in MLB over 17 innings, his impressive FIP benefits mightily from his unsustainably low HR/9 rate of zero. His xFIP is 3.54, which puts him 116th among relievers with at least 10 innings. For a team with a lot of payroll flexibility going forward, he is the definition of replaceable. Since he is not that valuable to begin with, five years of control doesn’t mean that much.
It would have been nice to keep him, but you can’t get something for nothing.
As to Vogelbach being replacement level in terms of overall value, that rather spectacularly misses the point. As a prior commenter noted, he has stellar numbers against righties this year, and excellent numbers against righties throughout his career. The Mets had a very specific hole. Filling it does not require defensive skill, nor the ability to hit left-handed pitching. What it does require is exactly what Vogelbach offers, hence his very significant value to the 2022 Mets.
Fair points but I believe Holderman was a failed(and injury prone), starter until last year and has been a pretty good reliever since being moved to the bullpen.
True, he was a starter. I don’t think that renders his past performance irrelevant to assessing his future prospects, but I take your point. I agree, in fact, that Holderman is a pretty good reliever, I just don’t think he is more than that, which many of the lamentations over his exit have implied.
“When you’re poor, you don’t trade for players. Straight cash, homie.”
-The Pirates, probably.
In all seriousness, what would it look like if a team was like “just pay us the $45M value equivalent you’d have with prospects” (or whatever number)?
Could a team like the Nationals walk away with 100s of millions? Someone just pays them $200M cash for Soto?
I’m reasonably certain that the commissioner’s office would have to shut that down just for the sheer uproar it would generate. I’m unsure if MLB has a rule on the books allowing the commissioner that sort of authority (the way the NFL does with the “patently unfair acts” rule), but I don’t think that would matter. No one is going to accept that trade and commit media suicide.
I think the commissioner has to approve trades where money (probably over a certain amount – I doubt he approves every minor leaguer for cash considerations trade) is involved.
Yep, anything over $1M the commissioner has to approve.
The Athletics tried that in ’76 with three players. Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi were going to be sold to the Red Sox for $1M apiece. Vida Blue would go to the Yankees for $1.5M. Bowie Kuhn nullified the trades citing a vague integrity clause and I don’t think a similar trade has been attempted since.
I’m probably wrong, but I thought V Blue going to the Red’s was nixed. Not NYY. I’m a Cinti guy, but was in kindergarten when that deal/money was proposed.
The Mets’ front office has stated that they believe there will be a crunch on bats prior to the trading deadline, and that relief help will be more available. That’s why they believed it made sense to trade a valuable reliever for a platoon DH.
The implication is they plan to buttress the bullpen with further moves in the near future.
The Pirates deserve the cash jokes, but Perez is a guy who was worth the proverbial bag of balls, and that’s what they got for him. They first claimed him off waivers after the 2020 season as Stallings’ backup; they spent (a little) actual money to replace Stallings with Roberto Perez who promptly suffered a season-ending injury.
Michael Perez rides into Bucco history as the most unlikely participant in a pretty unlikely record, one of three players on the team to have a 3-HR game in a single month.
The Pirates should be close to being competitive and their biggest need is, arguably, bullpen help. As strange as this might sound, this deal as one where they’re buyers as well as sellers. Shelton has overused the Pirates’ two best bullpen arms (as of last week Crowe led all relievers in batters faced and Bednar led all closers in batters faced) so adding Holderman should help keep these two healthier this season and help form a strong back-of-the-pen for ’23 and after. Why they sent him to AAA is a bit puzzling but it’s likely just so they don’t need to DFA a reliever (very few of their relievers have options left) before they clear space by trading one.
They need a couple of guys that can hit more than .260 as well.
Yeah, a team with a collective 653 OPS and 84 wRC+ isn’t just a few bullpen arms away from being competitive.
Eppler and Showalter apparently said breaking the news to Holderman was tough. “Kid, you’re going from a first-place team in New York to a rebuilding team in Pittsburgh.” Hard to break that one gently, right?
Agree with all posters above, essentially. Holderman’s probably average or slightly better. Vogelbach kills righties. Vogelbach should have cost less. Holderman’s probably replaceable. The Mets have BP needs and gave away a bullpen guy; the Pirates should be targeting something other than relievers (though point well taken about the overuse of the top two guys, jmb2171).
The sad thing here, as a Mets fan, is that the money owed to Cano + the lingering hope in Smith/Davis = not getting a DH in the winter, and now you lose an asset.
Relievers are flexible assets, whereas DHs floating around replacement level are not. The Pirates may not need a reliever, but it would not be especially hard to flip him if his performance doesn’t crater.
The Pirates traded Stallings at peak value for a good return and the way he’s performed this year more than justifies the trade. That was a good move. Yes, the Pirates have a cheap owner but “usual Pirate reasons” is just lazy and ignores context. Same with the trading Perez for Cash comment. Dude was DFA’d. He was only around cause Perez was injured and the Pirates best catcher prospects are still in AA. I’m surprised they even got cash for Perez. He’s terrible. You’re a better writer than this. You know what Ben Cherington is doing in Pittsburgh and he’s been doing a pretty good job.
Or maybe they realized a guy who had 2.3 fWAR in his career to that point put together a career season with 2.6 fWAR and decided to “sell high” on him, especially since they just selected a college senior catcher with the first overall pick in the draft.
Just a hunch.
And whoa, that same guy they traded for “usual Pirates reasons” is the 6th worst player in MLB this season by fWAR
Not to mention Stallings replacement, Roberto Perez, signed for 2x more than what Stallings makes this season.
I know “Pirates” and “cheap” are easy low-hanging-fruit-zings, but you were off on this assessment.