The huge news of the day in regards to the sports world would be the Mets acquiring potentially the best shortstop in the league, Francisco Lindor. However, in that same deal the team also got their mitts on Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco.

While the talk about Lindor won’t die down for quite a bit and understandably so, we have to recognize that Cookie might be an absolute steal in this transaction.

Let’s start with the Major Leaguers on their way to Cleveland. While Rosario has shown flashes of being a good ball-player, the youngster has shown to be more inconsistent than anything. Unfortunately, this entails bad pitch recognition as well as pitch selection.

They also gave up a potentially great shortstop in Andres Giménez. While he may never develop to be the type of player Lindor is, Giménez is without a doubt one of the most defensively gifted players in Major League Baseball, right now. He may never hit 25 home runs, however we’ve seen that there is sneaky pop in that bat of his.

Let’s get back to Carrasco, he legitimately is undervalued. I’m actually not sure if it’s just me or if others feel this way, but he was overshadowed on a rotation with Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger and even current FA Trevor Bauer.

Carrasco is a five pitch righty that has a four seamer that regularly hits 94 on the gun. He also throws a Slider, a Change-up, and a Curveball to go along with his two-seamer/Sinker.

His fastball is a tick above the league average in pertains to velocity, however his movement on it towards the top of his class. When it comes to his curveball, he ranked in the 94th percentile during the 2020 campaign and has added approximately 6 inches to the drop in that pitch between 2017 and 2018.

So while he’s not blowing anyone away with his heater, the amount of movement he uses on his primary and secondary pitches has been a vital part to his success.

Since 2014, Carrasco owns a 3.41 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 10.23 SO/9, and a 2.3 BB/9. As Tim Healey put so well on Twitter, this includes a two month stint in which he pitched poorly, found and he had cancer, beat cancer, and even returned to pitch in September… wow.

In his career, he’s the owner of a 88-73 record and a 3.77 ERA in 242 games pitched. While he’s going into the 2021 season at 34 years young, Carrasco will prove that he’s a pitcher and not just a thrower. Slotted just behind deGrom, Carrasco will have two season in Flushing before his deal is set to expire.

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