5 trades the New York Mets new owners can make to get fans excited

Officially under new ownership now, here are five trades the New York Mets can make to get fans excited.

It’s official, finally. On Friday, MLB owners voted to approve Steve Cohen as the new owner of the New York Mets. He will take over from the group headed by Fred Wilpon, which also included his son Jeff and brother in-law Saul Katz.

Now, the work begins. The Mets went 26-34 during the shortened 2020 season, and they’ve now not made the playoffs since being a Wild Card in 2016. But there are a couple nice building blocks, in two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and 2019 NL Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso.

The NL East is loaded, with two playoff teams from this year (Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins), the 2019 champion Washington Nationals and a Philadelphia Phillies’ team that’s always noteworthy. So it will take big moves for the Mets to make headway and have staying power, and Cohen is sure to give GM Brodie Van Wagenen free reign to be aggressive.

From a projected payroll perspective, with some options already decline (Wilson Ramos, Todd Frazier, Robinson Chirinos) and arbitration projections built in, are middle of the pack right now ($117.99 million). Even in a tough economic environment, there’s room to add and Cohen is presumably ready to open his checkbook.

Focusing purely on trades, here are five deals the Mets should make to get their fans excited.

5. Lance Lynn From The Texas Rangers

A slow free agent market bit Lynn heading into 2018, and he had rough campaign that year split between the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees. But he has rebounded well over the last two seasons with the Texas Rangers, with a 3.57 ERA, a 10.3 K/9 and a 2.6 BB/9 over 292.1 combined innings.

Lynn was the subject of trade rumors heading into the Aug. 31 deadline. As the Rangers reconsider their balance sheet (i.e. reduce payroll), the one year left on his deal at a reasonable $8 million is a potential trade commodity this offseason.

With Noah Syndergaard recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Marcus Stroman probably gone in free agency after opting out of the 2020 campaign, the Mets have deGrom and David Peterson and not much else to rely on in the starting rotation. Lynn has re-established himself as an old-school workhorse, and he’s just what the Mets need.

Here’s a starting point for a deal to bring Lynn to the Mets.