![On Wednesday night it was announced that the New York Mets traded Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians. [Image via Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/8/9/660x290/b_502x220x82/on-wednesday-night-it-was-announced-that-the-new-york-mets-traded-jay-bruce-to-the-cleveland-indians-image-via-wikimedia-commons_1501505.jpg "On Wednesday night it was announced that the New York Mets traded Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians. [Image via Wikimedia Commons]")
The trade deadline may be over, but moves are still being made around baseball. On Wednesday night it was announced that the New York Mets traded slugging outfielder Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians. The first place Indians are looking to close out on their second straight AL Central title while the banged up Mets have been in sell-mode this season.
The deal was finalized last night and it was revealed that the Yankees were also making offers for Bruce, but the Mets wanted to dump more salary and the Indians offered to take on more. When the trade was all said and done, the Mets acquired RHP Ryder Ryan and dumped all of Bruce's remaining contract.
With the Indians having to place DH Michael Brantley on the DL, this gives Bruce a perfect spot to play on this team.
Sources confirm: #Yankees offered two prospects for Bruce and $1M in salary relief, as @MarcCarig, others said. #Indians took entire $3.7M.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 10, 2017
What Bruce brings to the Tribe
Jay Bruce has been known for his power-hitting abilities and not so great defense in the field. As previously mentioned he will be doing a decent amount of DH duty, which works out perfectly for the Indians. Bruce is putting up his pretty typical slash numbers so far this year, .256/.321/.841 in 103 games. He has hit 29 home runs already and is just five away from matching his season high of 34.
He may not be an on-base machine, he never really was, as his current OBP of .321 and career OBP of .318 is pretty much average, but he slugs the ball and drives in runs. He has 75 RBI so far and he should put up plenty more playing on a team that is the fifth-best team at getting on base. With the likes of Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana batting around him, his already good production should just go up.
It is interesting to note that though it seems like Bruce is older, he is only 30 with plenty more left in the tank. Hard to know what his long-term future will be, but for now he should be a great addition to this Cleveland club.
On the Mets end
Things have gone pretty south for the Mets this season. Injuries to key like Noah Syndergaard, David Wright, Jeurys Familia, Zach Wheeler and Matt Harvey in addition to controversy on how some of those injuries were handled, have resulted in the Mets being fourth place team and sellers.
They have already sold off Lucas Duda to Tampa and now Bruce.
The player they got in return is a minor-league Ryder Ryan. He is a 22-year old reliever currently playing in the A ball Midwest League. Ryan in 33 games this year sports a 4.79 ERA with a 1.476 WHIP and 49 strikeouts in 41.1 innings pitched. The Mets were clearly looking at Bruce as more of a salary dump seeing as they turned down more prospects to get rid of the contract with this move. Who knows if Ryan will even see the majors and many question if this was the right move, but the Mets relieve more salary which makes you wonder what they will be planning in the offseason.
