Mets Acquire Luis De La Cruz From Orioles

The Orioles announced that they have traded infielder/outfielder Luis De La Cruz to the Mets as the player to be named later from the James McCann trade.

De La Cruz, 20, has spent the past couple of seasons in the Dominican Summer League, playing first base and the outfield corners. In 60 games over those two seasons, he’s hit .252/.405/.316. He has just one home run but has walked in 16.4% of his plate appearances compared to an 18.5% strikeout rate.

McCann signed a four-year, $40.6MM contract with the Mets going into 2021, but he struggled in the first two years of the deal. In flipping him to the O’s for a player to be named later or cash considerations, it was mostly about getting him off the roster and clearing some money off their ledger. They’re still on the hook for $19MM of the $24MM owed to McCann, but that $5MM drop will actually save them more than that since they are well into luxury tax territory this year and seem likely to be in the same position next year. But in addition to the cost savings, they’ve now added a young player to the lower levels of their farm system.