It’s not like this was unexpected, but it’s still a little shocking. In the midst of one of the most disastrous seasons in franchise history, the New York Mets and owner Steve Cohen have put the entire roster in a yard sale as many of their big-name offseason signings have been traded away at the deadline.
This Mets season will be one upcoming and future GMs and owners will be taught to avoid when all is said and done.
Despite once having the largest payroll in the MLB and starting the season as the clear World Series favorites, the New York Mets just put out a Cosco-level selloff of their roster at the trade deadline as the team has failed each and every expectation put before them. And, even though I have a few issues with a move or two, this wholesale was the best move for the Mets…with some restrictions.
Now, as I said in the intro, it’s really no surprise that the Mets just sold off most of their team and key players at the deadline as they might literally be having one of the worst seasons in MLB history when it comes to preseason expectations and how the season actually ended up turning out.
After spending nearly $500M in free agency ($492.1M to be exact) on massive names like Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Edwin Diaz (resign), and Brandon Nimmo (resign), the Mets entered the 2023 MLB season with both the highest payroll ($353M) and the best odds to win the World Series. Funnily enough, their crosstown arch-foes, the New York Yankees, were second in both categories as well…which is really funny how both teams are struggling and failing so miserably to live up to their expectations.
But, getting back to the Mets, with them completely FLOUNDERING this season as they sit 4th place in the NL East on a painfully average record of 50-56 and are a full 7 games outside of the 3rd WILD CARD spot, let alone the division title, it was inevitable that owner Steve Cohen would look to move on from his monstrous payroll by dishing out the highest earners.
Actually, it was the only thing he was going to do when he made it clear a few months ago that the Mets were not going to move on from manager Buck Showalter or GM Billy Eppler, yet the team was going to see massive change due to his displeasure over results. So, a mass clear out was the only way a change could happen…and a mass clear out is what we saw over the month of July and the trade deadline yesterday.
In a single month, the Mets traded away David Robertson (4-2, 2.05 ERA, 48 K), Max Scherzer (9-4, 4.01 ERA, 121 K), Zach Muckenhirn (0-0, 6.00 ERA, 3 K), Dominic Leone (1-3, 4.40 ERA, 33 K), Tommy Phan (29 runs, 68 hits, 36 RBIs, 10 HR, .268 AVG.), and Justin Verlander (6-5, 3.15 ERA, 81 K). Now, they did get some players back, but these guys made up most of their starting rotation of pitchers and were some of the biggest earners on the Mets roster.
Plus, it’s pretty obvious the Mets now have an extremely lightweight pitching core with them trading away five pitchers and Edwin Diaz still out with an injury, which is probably the biggest surprise about their moves in my opinion. Of course, the Mets needed to move on from some of these massive contracts, such as Verlander’s and Scherzer’s, but did they have to also trade away Dominic Leone, Tommy Phan, and David Robertson too?
And, did they actually have to get rid of BOTH Verlander and Scherzer as Verlander had actually turned his season around completely and has regained his Cy Young winning form he had last season with the Astros.
Maybe these deals will all work out in the end and the Mets will go out into next year’s market and spend big on free agents…again, but I just don’t see why they had to trade nearly their ENTIRE pitching bullpen. They could have kept Scherzer or Verlander around for another season to have some stability, though that’s a word Steve Cohen is clearly allergic to.
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