Mets Acquire Jose Siri in Trade with Rays

By Nate Miller

Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images

November 19, 2024

The New York Mets upgraded their outfield by landing Jose Siri in a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. The trade, which took place on Tuesday, will see reliever Eric Orze head south for the 2025 season. Both players were on their teams’ 40-man roster, so the trade doesn’t have any impact on Tuesday’s Rule 5 protection deadline.

More Power, Less Average

The 29-year-old outfielder spent two and a half seasons in Tampa Bay. The Rays acquired him from the Houston Astros in a three-team trade at the 2022 deadline. Siri has been the Rays’ primary center fielder going back to the start of the ’23 season. He connected on 25 home runs in 364 plate appearances that year. While the power was enough to make Siri a productive player, he hit .222 with a .267 on-base percentage.

Those numbers fell even further in 2024. Siri hit .187/.255/.366 in a career-high 448 plate appearances. He launched another 18 homers but ranked last in OBP among the 207 hitters with at least 400 trips to the plate. Only Mitch Garver had a lower batting average. Since the start of the ’23 season, Siri owns a .203/.260/.424 slash line.

Free Swinger

Jose Siri has issues making contact against pitches both within and outside the zone. He went down on strikes at a massive 37.9% rate in 2024 and has fanned in nearly 36% of his career plate appearances. Siri strikes out far too often to be a consistently effective hitter, but he has 20+ dinger potential at the bottom of a lineup. The important thing is that Siri has elite athleticism that makes him one of the best defensive players in baseball. He’s a top-of-the-scale runner with elite arm strength. Siri has posted excellent numbers for his defense in center field.

Defensive Runs Saved credited him as 12 runs above average in a little over 1,000 innings this past year. Statcast was even more bullish, rating him 15 runs above par. By measure of Statcast’s Outs Above Average, Siri was tied for second with Cardinals rookie Michael Siani among outfielders in defensive value. Only Jacob Young of the Washington Nationals narrowly surpassed him. Brenton Doyle and Daulton Varsho are the only outfielders with more Outs Above Average since the start of the 2023 season.