Mets: 3 trade deadline moves New York is lucky they didn’t make

3) Trade for J.D. Martínez

Unlike Bell and Cron, J.D. Martínez has exclusively been a designated hitter this year, which is part of the reason why the Mets likely passed on him. He didn’t seem to be the Mets first pick for things anyway, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported on Twitter on July 29 that the Mets were scouting the Red Sox if the Cubs’ asking prices for David Robertson and Willson Contreras were too expensive.

The Red Sox decided not to trade Martínez, and the Cubs also didn’t trade Contreras. Not trading Martínez has been a mistake.

The Red Sox have fallen into last place and have been for a few weeks, despite the Orioles selling at the trade deadline and the Red Sox putting themselves in the middle (buying and selling). In the meantime, Martínez has fallen off a cliff from his All-Star-worthy start.

He was hitting .351 with an OPS of .994 entering play on June 17. Given those high marks, it’s easy to see why he was an All-Star but also easy to project that he would fall back to Earth. Entering Tuesday, he had played in 50 games since then: he has hit .192/.262/.277 with one home run and 18 RBI.

Since the All-Star break, he has been a bit better but still not good by any stretch. He has hit .200/.308/.273 with no home runs and six RBI.

The Mets traded J.D. Davis to the Giants because they weren’t getting enough production out of the DH spot, and Martínez’s recent play still would have been a dropoff — a dropoff that the Mets do not need in their stretch run and in the playoffs.