MLB.com’s latest trade-candidate exercise touched every team, and the Mets were no exception. One prospect from each club made the list, and for New York the name that surfaced was Jonathan Pintaro.
That choice makes some sense if the idea is that he could be part of a bigger deal rather than the centerpiece. The comparison floated was the kind of inclusion you see when a player is folded into a larger trade package, like Tobias Myers in the Freddy Peralta deal.
Pintaro is not your typical prospect. He’s 28 and turns 29 in November, and this season he has already logged MLB time as a low-leverage arm, appearing in six games and throwing 14.1 innings. All six of those outings came in Mets losses.
The bigger question is whether the Mets should keep betting on him at all. Pintaro arrived as an undrafted free agent signing in June 2024, and at the time he was hardly an obvious target based on what he had done in independent ball. He posted a 4.40 ERA in three starts in the Pioneer League in 2024, and his overall Indy Ball numbers were even rougher, sitting at a 6.60 ERA in a little more than 10 innings.
Since joining the organization, though, he has been much better. His Triple-A line over the last two seasons is a 4.41 ERA across 81.2 innings, and the Mets have already moved him away from starting and into a multi-inning relief role, which seems like the best way to get value out of him.
There’s also the practical side of the roster equation. The Mets held onto Alex Carrillo on the 40-man roster for a while even as he struggled in the majors and in the minors, and they had a similar experience with Tyler Zuber after adding him at the 2024 trade deadline. Pintaro has been better than either of those situations.
His big-league ERA sits at 4.40, which isn’t eye-catching, but the 0.83 WHIP points to something worth watching. The sample is tiny, and it’s messy too: three of the seven hits he’s allowed have left the yard.
So while Pintaro’s spot on MLB.com’s list may have been driven more by the need to name somebody than by any real expectation of a move, he does look like a player who could appeal to a contender in his current role. He has one minor league option left after this year, and he remains controllable for several more seasons, even if the upside is limited.
He threw two shutout innings on Saturday against the Miami Marlins, which could help his profile a bit. It also snapped a run of three straight appearances in which he had allowed a run.
For now, this feels like one of those cases where the Mets can afford to wait a little longer before deciding what Pintaro really is.
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