Don't be surprised if Mets aren't major buyers at trade deadline
Mets general manager Billy Eppler speaks during a news conference at Citi Field to announce the Mets' re-signing of Jeff McNeil on Jan. 31, 2023. Credit: Jeff Bachner
Trade deadline season is coming, and for the Mets it might get awkward.
They are playing like sellers. Losers of nine of their past 11 games, they plummeted to 10 games back of Atlanta in the NL East (and four games out of the last wild-card spot) entering play Thursday. No section of their roster, no aspect of their game, has proved to be a strength. The devolving quality of their play, including a sequence of ugly oopsies in a split of the two-game Subway Series this week, is that of a club whose issues have become psychological as much as physical.
But they still have the expectations — and budget — of buyers. Already, this is Year 3 of owner Steve Cohen’s three-to-five-year window in which he said he hopes to win his first World Series title as Mets owner. The Mets have by far the highest payroll in the history of baseball. They are a veteran-based team very much built to win now.
Those conflicting realities could create difficult conversations for Cohen, general manager Billy Eppler and other Mets decision-makers as the Aug. 1 trade deadline draws near.
“If things present themselves and we can be better,” Eppler said this month, before his team’s most recent skid, “we will be open-minded to it.”
Here is the obvious caveat: Trade deadline season is merely coming. It has not arrived. The deadline itself is still more than six weeks away. Trade talks typically don’t begin in earnest until about a month from now, when the season resumes following the All-Star break. Executives’ rule of thumb is the players will tell the front office, via on-field goings-on, what midseason reinforcements the roster needs and deserves. That remains the case here.
So the Mets certainly have time to straighten out. Maybe they will parlay a walk-off win against the Yankees on Wednesday and a weekend with the Cardinals — who are an NL-worst 27-42 — into real momentum for the first time since mid-April.
Between the expanded playoff field and the general mediocrity of the National League, they should remain in the picture. The bar is so, so low — every NL team above .500 currently holds a playoff spot — that the Mets being out of it come late July would be flabbergasting.
Even in a version of the events where the Mets are buyers, though, it is not clear how aggressive they would be in making major additions. Much like last season, when the Mets took something less than an all-in approach to the deadline despite having a significantly better team, Eppler has maintained a strong preference for not trading prospects, in service of his and Cohen’s vision for a more homegrown perennial contender in the future. That is understandable, but it limits their ability to supplement now.
At this time of year, Cohen’s billions matter little. Prospects are the relevant currency. The Mets can’t simply throw their financial weight around to add whoever they want like they did in December.
“There’s a longer-term blueprint here that we talked about last year, this wintertime,” Eppler said. “That hasn’t changed. So we’ll be very thoughtful as we approach those types of transactions and really have to weigh the short and long term.”
Cohen recently wrote on Twitter, echoing a sentiment he expressed in spring training and previously: “We have to draft and develop players for continued success. The Mets won’t succeed long term depending only on free agency.”
As buyers, the Mets would have two obvious areas of need:
* Pitching. As Brandon Nimmo put it recently, “One of the things that we’ve been missing during this stretch, it’s no mystery, is pitching.”
The wish for an additional late-inning reliever or two is clear. And although the rotation is closer than ever to being whole with Jose Quintana’s anticipated return in a few weeks, they know that can change in a hurry.
“We can always address pitching,” Eppler said. “That’s always an area where you can never have enough of because you’re a couple of circumstances away from having to reinforce.”
* Designated hitter. Despite rolling through a half-dozen guys here since the DH became a permanent NL position at the start of last season, they still are looking for a real answer. Daniel Vogelbach has been bad at hitting this year. The Mets don’t like and/or trust Mark Vientos enough to give him a real shot.
The Mets have time before they need to decide. Maybe a third option — staying the course, neither strongly buying nor selling, hoping that the group Eppler & Co. so strongly believed in coming into the year gets hot — is the most likely path.
“It feels like every year you talk about everything waiting till the last minute. That’ll probably bear out again this deadline,” Eppler said. “Yeah, you got playoff teams and you have a lot of teams hovering around .500. It stands to reason it’ll come to the last minute.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
