Short Answer: Yes? But they aren’t very good. Or if they are good, they aren’t very likely.
Metsblog posted yesterday that the Mets will try to trade Dillon Gee over the next 7-10 days citing the time frame from Sherman and collecting a list of teams from various beat writers. Interested teams include the Diamondbacks, Padres, Giants, Red Sox, Marlins and Rockies.
For the purposes of this article, lets set the parameters that the Mets are trying to upgrade shortstop for Dillon Gee, which after writing this article, the chances of those conditions are pretty slim.
Arizona has two shortstops that might be moveable in Nick Ahmed and Chris Owings. Since the Diamondbacks had already traded Didi this off-season, it is unlikely they would do this but they do have Cliff Pennington and Jake Lamb as back up options. The Mets shouldn’t go after Nick Ahmed at least right now because he is not an obvious better candidate than Flores and looks similar to options the Mets have the minors right now. Chris Owings is probably one of the better shortstops on teams that are looking at Gee, but his value has increased with Didi being moved.
The Padres have no one really interesting or remotely movable at shortstop that would be ready for this year.
There are two shortstops for San Francisco that are interesting. One one hand you have the more established Brandon Crawford, and it would be incredibly unlikely the Giants move Crawford for Gee, some other players on the Mets side would also have to be included. Similar to Owings, this isn’t just about Crawford’s ability, its about Crawford’s value to his team. The next option would be Matt Duffy, which MLB.com sees as the Giants 17th prospect. Duffy would fall into a similar category as Ahmed. Not ready for this season, not obviously better than internal candidates. The benefits of trading for Duffy would be to add another shortstop in the system if the team cannot produce an establish on this season or sign an establish one this season or next off-season. With the shortstop drought in the majors having more in the system could be nice for trading chips, but they could also logjam themselves in the system.
The Red Sox have an obvious choice of a shortstop that would be interesting in Bogaerts. First, obviously, the Red Sox are not going to part for Bogaerts for just Dillon Gee. There’s a narrow scenario where the Red Sox could trade him if they could play Hanley at short this year and sign Moncada/Desmond or someone else over the upcoming season/off-season. On the Mets side, out of all of the shortstops that could be acquired in an expensive trade, Bogaerts excites me the least, so I hope this specific scenario won’t happen (and it probably won’t happen because it is extremely improbable).
The Marlins do have Hechavarria. Roadblocks to a potential deal here would be normal things that happen withing trading in a division. I’m also not convinced that Hechavarria is a better option than Flores (in terms as an overall shortstop).
The Rockies have Tulo but lets not discuss that here. The other options they have include Adames, Rosell Herrera and Rafael Ynoa. In my opinon, Adames is the least exciting of the three. Herrera and Ynoa are interesting but are not options for 2015. Herrera needs seasoning and Ynoa is on the older side for a prospect.
As you probably could have said yourself before reading this article, there are shortstop options via a Dillon Gee trade. The trade becomes more expensive for the Mets than just Gee if they want someone who could be marginally better or significantly better than Flores. Gee on his own, or Gee with a lower prospect can net either a back up shortstop or a small name shortstop prospect.
