Trade Central: Mets Buttress Bullpen With Mychal Givens

Seeking some more reinforcements for their bullpen, the Mets continued their series of incremental moves in the trade deadline’s final hours by adding reliever Mychal Givens from the Cubs in exchange for minor league righthander Saul Gonzalez.

Givens, 32, has been an effective weapon in the back of the Cubs’ bullpen, where he’s whiffed 51 in 40.2 innings this season. He’s a free agent at the end of the season. 

Gonzalez is a towering righthander whom the Mets selected out of high school in Florida in the 23rd round of the 2018 draft. He missed the 2019 season with injuries, then pitched in the Puerto Rican Winter League after the lost 2020 minor league season. He’s reached as high as Low-A.

METS ACQUIRE

Mychal Givens, RHP
Age: 32

Originally selected by the Orioles out of high school in Florida in the second round of the 2009 draft, Givens reached the big leagues in 2015 and has bounced from Baltimore to Colorado to Cincinnati to Chicago and now to New York. Givens works with a three-pitch mix of a four-seam fastball, a slider and a changeup. The fastball averages around 94 mph and features one of the best spin rates in the big leagues. He backs the fastball with a mid-80s slider and a low-80s changeup. He doesn’t get hitters to chase often, but he does get them to whiff at a fairly high rate. 

CUBS ACQUIRE

Saul Gonzalez, RHP
Age: 22

Gonzalez cuts a huge figure at a listed 6-foot-7, and he uses that size to his advantage. The hulking righty won’t light up a radar gun, but his fastball, which can touch around 95, is accentuated by extension that regularly gets to 7.5 feet. He backs the fastball primarily with a mid-80s slider and low-80s changeup, though he will sprinkle in cutters, sinkers and curveballs as well.