The Mets Should Tear It All Down And Trade Every Player They Can
Rich Schultz. Getty Images.The Old Man Experiment ended up being an absolute disaster. The pitchers themselves weren't horrible. Max Scherzer was 20-9 with a 3.02 ERA for the Mets over two seasons. Justin Verlander has a 3.15 ERA this season. They've been…fine. It's crazy that the best things that these future Hall Of Famers are going to provide the Mets is the return they get in trades.
So Verlander doesn't want to be here anymore. I can't blame him at all. As a Mets fan, I don't want him here either. Don't get me wrong. It's not at all personal. I was there Sunday and had a great time watching him pitch. It's that he can't help this team as it is currently situated.
Look at the return the Mets have gotten from the trades they have already made. This is where the players rank among Mets prospects according to MLB Pipeline:
2. Luisangel Acuna (44th overall) - came over in Max Scherzer trade
7. Marco Vargas - came over in David Robertson trade
13. Coleman Crow - came over in Eduardo Escobar trade
18. Ronald Hernandez - came over in David Robertson trade
21. Landon Marceaux - came over in Eduardo Escobar trade
That means that 24% of the top 21 prospects in the Mets system came over from trades made this year. They need to move anyone they can. Mark Canha and Tommy Pham are both free agents at the end of the season. Deal them both. Brooks Raley and Omar Narvaez are both under team control for 2024. Trade them too. I'm not saying you punt 2024 but if you have an opportunity to build up this system in a market where there are way more buyers than sellers, you need to do that. The Mets are 50-55. No one is helping them.
Gordon Donovan. Shutterstock Images.All of these moves will also give the future president of baseball operations David Stearns a chance to assemble his own major league roster. Billy Eppler (pictured above) will likely get kicked downstairs once Stearns is able to sign with the Mets after his Brewers contract ends. Eppler has done a horrible job assembling this roster by counting on guys like Darin Ruf and Daniel Vogelbach to provide offense even though they and most of this team was older than the cast of The Irishman.
The last puzzle piece is Justin Verlander. He's clearly the best player on the Mets trade block. He's also owed around $90 million dollars through 2025. I have to imagine Uncle Stevie would have to eat 50% of that contract just to get anyone to even begin to discuss a trade. Would he have to eat 75% to get a great return back? Remember, Verlander is owed $35 million dollars when he is 42 years old alone.
Would a small market team like the Rays or the Orioles trade prospects and still pay Verlander $20-$30 million total over the next couple of years? Could the Dodgers jump in and maybe cover more of the deal for a lesser package back to the Mets?
If the Mets can add another 5 guys to that top 30 prospects list (especially on the pitching end), I'd call the deadline a huge success. This season has been a frustrating slog. It's as disappointing as 1991 and 2002 were. I had such high expectations for this team and it's been a forgettable mess of a year. Having a full-fledged fire sale is the only way to make chicken soup of what has been a year of not just chicken shit but all kinds of feces from all sorts of creatures.
Trade Verlander. Trade Canha. Trade Raley. Trade Pham. Trade everyone. It's not about 2023 anymore. It sucks to realize this in July but it really never was.
