The Mets traded the remaining of the 2023 season, equivalent to it was, for 2 rookie-level minor league ballplayers. And now, with the trade of the Hall-of-Fame sure Max Scherzer on Saturday, they’re diminishing their possibilities in 2024, as well.
Someone up high with the Mets mentioned in a really candid conversation inside the last two days that they’re a “team in transition” — which is a pleasant way of claiming they felt big changes are nothing wanting crucial.
The Mets hope to redo their front office with a latest leader this winter (David Stearns, are you reading?), they usually are doing their best now to set that leader up for a greater future. As for the current, well, just check the sorry standings.
Give them this: After they see a problem — and a team with an all-time record payroll having to sell to the small-scale Marlins, because the Mets did with David Robertson, clearly shows something is drastically fallacious — they act. Steve Cohen footed the bill of nearly half-a-billion dollars, but he’s a man who plays the chances.
I doubt Cohen relies on Fangraphs, which still had the Mets at a few 17 percent probability to make the playoffs finally look. But he does depend on data, and no person knows the numbers higher than Cohen, who one way or the other made $20 billion plus in equities, that are in regards to the least equitable thing on Earth.
Anyway, Cohen saw a team that nearly all the time took a step back each time it took a step forward, a team that underperformed at almost every spot — aside from Robertson, after all, who was good this season and now’s a Marlin. Mets higher-ups have described the team as a automotive that starts and stops, just sputtering along. That’s not what you’d expect from the best-paid group of ballplayers ever assembled.
Cohen’s stated goal upon buying the Mets for $2.4 billion was to win a World Series inside “three to 5 years.” If next yr is in jeopardy, as it might be, that puts a whole lot of pressure on the 2025 squad for Cohen’s fifth season in orange and blue.
While Scherzer was pummeled in just a few very bad outings this season — including one at Fenway Park on July 22, during which he gave up 4 home runs, including one to a .160 hitter — generally, he has been pretty good, and other teams have coveted each him and Justin Verlander. At the same time as he turned 39 this past week, Scherzer seems to have adjusted to the pitch clock and the sticky-stuff crackdown, to the purpose at which he has been fairly dominant a minimum of two out of each three starts.
The Scherzer deal to Texas, which is bringing shortstop/center field prospect Luisangel Acuña (Ronald Acuña’s brother) had a soap-operatic effect. It took some extra negotiation because Scherzer had a no-trade clause and a 2024 option, and he loved the concept of being in Recent York and having spring training in Port St. Lucie, a forty five minute drive from his Jupiter, Fla., home, however it got done
The Mets’ co-ace, Verlander (who’s tied with Scherzer because the highest-salaried player ever), has been even higher, with a 1.46 ERA over the past six starts. Scouts have drooled over Verlander’s performance, and he would seem like next to go. Verlander seems particularly near Cohen, but at this point, friendship isn’t really a significant factor. There are not any guarantees on the trade deadline, after all, and Verlander has made it clear publicly that he loves it in Recent York, so possibly he would turn down a possible trade.
After all, Verlander may love the City (and I feel he does), but will he need to be on a team “in transition”? That actually isn’t any certainty. His old Astros team would appear to be a logical landing spot if he ultimately is convinced the Mets are transitioning. While the Astros only wanted to offer Verlander a one-year deal over the winter, they might feel they’re in need now, especially with the Rangers looking great and acquiring his running mate Scherzer.
The Mets could, after all, attempt to do a fast reversal, and the free-agent pitching market will probably be especially strong this offseason. Even in the event that they can’t get Shohei Ohtani (and Mets people don’t seem especially optimistic in regards to the likelihood of Ohtani leaving the West Coast), there are Julio Urias, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, and potentially Eduardo Rodriguez and Marcus Stroman (not a possible goal for the Mets). But the idea, based on signs and words a minimum of for now, is that the Mets now are more all in favour of the long run beyond 2024.
Useful outfielders Mark Canha and Tommy Pham, reliever Brooks Raley and other veterans whose contracts are up this yr or next, should prepare for trades. But Verlander is the opposite big one who could go. And based on his recent performance (plus Cohen’s ability to pay down the deal), the Mets should give you the option to get much more for Verlander than they’re getting for Scherzer.