The New York Mets head into Wednesday’s action with a 12-16 record and in fourth place in the National League East. Even during a truncated season that will see over half the league make the playoffs, this does not look like a postseason team.
Despite this, there’s rumors out there suggesting that New York will be looking to upgrade its roster over the next week.
Rivals expect Mets to be active ahead of trade deadline
“A rival executive predicts the Mets will be a ‘surprising player’ at the trade deadline, reasoning the team gained financial flexibility when right-hander Marcus Stroman and outfielder Yoenis Céspedes opted out of the 2020 season,” Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.
Other executives around the baseball world told Rosenthal that the expectation is that general manager Brodie Van Wagenen wants to be aggressive as a way to make one final playoff push and potentially save his job.
New York has financial flexibility after both Marcus Stroman and Yoenis Cespedes oped out of the 2020 season.
Although, Van Wagenen wouldn’t necessarily commit to the organization making major moves with the deadline less than a week away.
“I think the aggressive approach we’ve taken in the past is not something we will eliminate from a possibility, but we recognize we’ve got a 30-game season effectively — less than that — once the trade deadline comes and goes and so we have to be responsible for the future of the organization and still be opportunistic in ways to improve the club,” the embattled GM said.
At issue here is the pending sell of the Mets. Organizations that are in this situation don’t typically take on contracts. They don’t want further financial commitments in terms of player salaries. As for the Mets, final bids for the franchise are due Monday — the same day as the trade deadline.
New York finds itself only 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the National League. Whether that plays a role moving forward this week and into the deadline remains to be seen.