3 NY Mets to trade with season hanging in the balance
By Kristen Wong
The Mets are staring down the barrel of a terrible second season under Buck Showalter and Billy Eppler. Here are three trade candidates to get NY back on track.
With an estimated $340 million payroll, the New York Mets had better produce results this season.
Being 31-35 and in fourth place in the NL East is not good enough. The excuse of “Pete Alonso is injured” is not good enough. And losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon is worse than not good enough — it’s just plain bad.
The Mets have now dropped eight of their last nine games and are on pace to finish 76-86, well short of 2022’s shining 101-61 record. With the trade deadline coming up in less than two months, we’re now at the portion of the season in which fans voice their unhappiness and frustrations and start calling for certain players to be traded.
The roster could use reinforcements at nearly every position with perhaps a noted emphasis in the bullpen. Which players could the New York put on the market in return?
Here are three trade candidates who the Mets can turn from straw to gold…
Mets trade candidate No. 3: David Robertson
Let’s be honest: the Mets have needed bullpen depth since Edwin Diaz’s injury in the World Baseball Classic.
They got the ball rolling by signing veteran reliever David Robertson to a one-year, $10 million contract; at the time, Robertson was intended to pair alongside Diaz, but he’s taken on a much larger role in Diaz’s absence.
This would be a good time for the Mets to sell high on Robertson and acquire a longer-term player either in the bullpen or another dire position of need. The 38-year-old arm owns a sparkling 1.91 ERA through 28.1 innings, and his success this season piggybacks off of what Robertson achieved with the Cubs and Phillies in years prior.
Many of the Mets’ victories in 2023 have been nail-bitingly close, and Buck Showalter has shown his reliance on Robertson along with Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley to close out games. With Robertson set to become a free agent after this season, the team can look ahead to the future and get the most return out of the veteran reliever by fielding him now; plus, it helps that the bullpen is generally the easiest part of a team to improve midseason.