Heading into the season with the largest payroll in baseball, many expected the New York Mets to be much closer to the top of the MLB power rankings than near the bottom. Meanwhile Shohei Ohtani is strengthening his case as the best player in baseball, earning recognition as a top AL MVP candidate.
Yet, Ohtani is in the final year of team control with the Los Angeles Angels and is set for free agency at the conclusion of the baseball season. Trade rumors have lingered for years, of the Angels potentially dealing the biggest name in the sport.
Unlike the Mets, the Angels are above .500 and are still firmly in the Wild Card race, sitting just 2.5 games back. They’re in no rush to think about trading their face of the franchise any time soon, barring a freefall down the AL West standings.
But that won’t prevent teams from calling anyway. As some has suggested in the past, one of those organizations could even eventually include the Mets, who are never shy about swinging for the fences. According to Buster Olney, there’s a lot of fuel about the Mets leading up to the Aug. 1 MLB trade deadline, including whether they’d try and become buyers, or sellers.
“The continued failure of the most expensive roster in baseball history has fueled a lot of macro speculation around the team’s direction—about whether the Mets will be adding or subtracting before the Aug. 1 trade deadline, about whether this will enhance [Steve] Cohen’s pursuit of Shohei Ohtani in the offseason.”
MLB insider Buster Olney on New York Mets’ pursuit of Shohei Ohtani
As Olney suggests, instead of the Mets trying to win the Ohtani sweepstakes with a strong trade offer now, they may prefer to just wait and hope to enter a bidding war later in the offseason.
We’ve never seen the Cohen ownership group shy away from spending big bucks, and if a player of Ohtani’s caliber becomes available, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Mets get involved too. But from the sounds of it, fans may have to wait until the offseason.