The Mets Declare Their Season Over By Selling At MLB Trade Deadline
The Mets entered this year coming off a 101-win season in 2022. After sending David Robertson to Miami and Max Scherzer to Texas, it is safe to say that New York has officially considered 2023 a lost year.
We are over 100 games into this season and one of the best ways to describe the 2023 Mets is that they are simply underperforming. The roster is pretty much the same as last year and there are no significant injuries on this team that you can use to point the blame.
Sell, Sell, Sell
It’s embarrassing that New York has to call this season quits before the month of August. Getting off to a slow start is one thing, but to have this team play so poorly for two-thirds of the season so far is just inexcusable.
However, the Mets are aware of their situation and seem to be making the necessary steps to help re-tool this roster for next season.
The Mets received two prospects for sending David Robertson to Miami, INF Marco Vargas and C Ronald Hernandez. Vargas and Hernandez now become the Mets’ No. 7 and No. 18 ranked prospects within the organization.
In their return for Max Scherzer, New York acquired SS/2B Luisangel Acuña, Ronald Acuña Jr.’s 21-year-old brother. Acuña is ranked as the second-best prospect within the Mets’ organization, behind C Kevin Parada, and is currently the 44th-ranked prospect in all of baseball.
The 2023 MLB trade deadline is this Tuesday, Aug. 1st at 6 p.m. ET and we will likely see the Mets make another move or two. Players like Justin Verlander, Mark Canha, and Tommy Pham have been discussed as possible departures.
According to SNY’s Andy Martino, the Mets are listening when teams call regarding Verlander, but holding onto the three-time Cy Young Award winner is a “strong possibility.”
What If The Mets Were Buyers?
New York owned a record of 48-54 and was seven games back of a wild card spot before trading away Robertson and Scherzer. At this point in the season last year, the Mets were in first place in the NL East with a record of 65-37.
With that being said, if you had asked me before these two trades occurred, I would’ve told you that I could have seen this team as buyers instead of sellers at the deadline.
As I previously mentioned, New York is underperforming. An attempt could've been made to address the areas where they lack the talent to compete, mainly the bullpen. Mets fans, for better or worse, could have had the opportunity to see if this team had any chance of recapturing their success of last season.
Trust me, I am aware that it would have been a long shot, but there’s a chance that I could’ve gotten behind this organization believing in what they had accomplished the year prior, and using that to fuel a potential playoff push with 60 games left to play.
Speculating on what could have been is fun, but the reality of the situation is that the Mets are already in off-season form. Of course, there are pros and cons to these decisions and I’m sure the Mets weighed those outcomes before coming to the conclusion that they are sellers.
As the deadline looms, we will see what more is in store for this franchise in the next couple of days.
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