After shocking the baseball world by trading for Marcus Stroman and then surprising no one by giving away Jason Vargas to save a few bucks, the Mets stood pat at the trade deadline.

Zack Wheeler’s name was seemingly brought up more times than Donald Trump’s in the past 48 hours. But despite rumors having him attached to nine different teams, none came up with a deal that satisfied Brodie Van Wagenen. Similarly, Van Wagenen wasn’t blown away by any offers for Noah Syndergaard, Edwin Diaz, Todd Frazier, Dominic Smith, Wilson Ramos or any other Met rumored to be floated in trade scenarios.

So, basically we upgraded our rotation, at least in the short-term, by swapping out a five for a two.  To make this happen however, we had to part with two pitching prospects, further weakening our depleted farm system.

There will be a lot of questions in the off-season, starting with do we attempt to extend Zack Wheeler or offer him a qualifying offer? In the meantime, we’re playing good ball and have an outside shot of making a run for a wild card. With a strong rotation and nine easy games in front of us, we should at least be able to get back to .500 soon. Then we can see if this franchise has another miracle to rally around.

An interesting tidbit I found on Twitter is that at some point the Mets were considering flipping Stroman to the Yankees.

13 comments on “Mets stand pat at the trade deadline

  • NYM6986

    No issue with standing pat the rest of the way since the return for Wheeler as a rental would not likely have been substantial. If he pitches well the rest of the way I would try to extend his contract. Plenty of time in the offseason to reshape the roster moving a Smith or a Ramos or a Gsellman. Maybe we see Lowrie at some point. What if Cespedes comes back next year? With Davis’ bat he needs to play more. Five games behind the wildcard and 20 plus blown saves. Let’s take game 2 in Chicago tonight.

  • TJ

    My gut here is that things did not play out as planned, or expected, and that the “go for it” mantra was clearly the second choice/fallback. The MEts have a puncher’s chance for a one game playoff, but the next 5 to 8 games will be critical. There is no margin for error, no margin the pen turning victories into defeat, no tolerance for 1-26 streaks from a middle of the line up hitter. It’s September right now for the 2019 Mets, like it or not. Go get ’em, Mickey.

    • boomboom

      can go no worse than 7-2 over next nine. Gets us to .500 in time for the Nats.

    • Rob

      While hate to have see thor go I’m hopeful for extension. If not move him in off season. Really thought based on what I read he would be Padre because they are stacked with prospects and a bunch of those guys are blocked so overpay wouldn’t have hurt them.

  • Eraff

    The Trade Deadline is just not as attractive if you’re battling for just a 1 game playoff…. that’s a good change on both sides of the transaction—a MidSeason swap meet was not really a good thing for fans or the game. Less trades and more teams that are at least marginally in that 1 game chase…that’s an improvement, imho.

    The Mets??? I always want to believe in a good Mets’ Turn…I think they’re in good shape to make moves for next year. I’m out of step with the Majority, but I think they’re in as good a shape as they want to be, going forward. This is a very buildable team.

    • TexasGusCC

      Eraff, the problem is your second baseman is a role player, but you are treating him like he’s your meal ticket. Your third baseman sucks. Every outfielder is playing out of their normal position. Your best offensive weapon hasn’t played healthily in close to two years. You have another second baseman on the shelf all year. And your offensive catcher and offensive first baseman are slumping. Can you explain where you see the building blocks?

      The Mets bullpen has been their downfall, but the offense is what has been a letdown for most of the season.

      • Eraff

        Gus, your entire statement is nothing but a negative sweep against virtually every player they have.

        What does a Slump have to do with whether the First Baseman is a Building Block going forward? Their present playing rotation includes Cano…… he may or may not be part of their foundation

        They have a pretty good starting rotation, and a Bullpen That has pieces to recover going forward.

        They have Money to spend..::: that’s a Management decision

        They have assets to trade or play

        They have a good mix of “first contract controllable players”—- Alonzo. Nimmo. McNeill. Nido. Davis. Smith. Lugo. Gsellman. Matz Syndergaard. Rosario.

        You can prejudge their likelihood to commit money to building on what they have. You can question their judgement and management talent to evaluate and make the right moves. You can question their commitment to take advantage of what they have as far as their core players and their Big Market Resources—- why not./.:: they’ve been a bad management team, per The on field results

        You simply cannot look at this team and dismiss the Starting Pitching and the young productive group they’ve assembled at positions….. and you can dislike the players for “ what they’re not”… but the sweeping dismissal would make you a terrible GM

        If you’ve concluded about their Management that “they just wont”… fine. But I think You’re way off base on the baseball assets measure

      • Peter Hyatt

        Gus,
        Some of what you address may have relatively easy fixes.

        McNeil to 2B

        JD Davis to 3B. See if he can improve w regular reps.

        Conforto to natural right.

        I’d like to see Wheeler & Stroman extensions. We could have a solid starting rotation.

        CF?
        Bullpen?

        With Rosario, I believe the Mets have mishandled him.

        He was a kid w boundless enthusiasm. Body language? He loves flash. We gave him Reyes & Cano to worship.

        Alonso — should not be in a position of leadership. The home run derby was enough to overcome but he is seeing junk and feeling the need to address fans?

        He’s a rookie.

        In leadership, Todd Frazier is not Curtis Granderson nor Jay Bruce.

        We do have much to build around but Jeff Wilpon mirrored his personality traits with Broadie. Mickey Callaway is likely a nice guy but easily controlled by Broadie Wilpon.

        We need mature leadership.

        Stats ignore human psychology. Leadership & inspiration, especially to kids with lots of money in their pockets, matters.

        We do have a core—ownership needs to pay and bring in a genuine CF as well as other parts.

        We need character.

  • TexasGusCC

    From Bleacher Report:
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2847968-yankees-trade-rumors-marcus-stroman-deal-with-mets-for-florial-garcia-rejected.amp.html

    The New York Yankees could have added some much-needed starting pitching before Wednesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline, but they reportedly weren’t willing to give up two top prospects in the process.

    According to Bob Klapisch of the New York Times, the New York Mets were willing to trade starting pitcher Marcus Stroman to the Yankees in exchange for prospects Estevan Florial (outfielder) and Deivi Garcia (pitcher), among others, but the Bronx Bombers turned down the offer.

    ————————————-
    I don’t think this was a ridiculous ask by the Mets. That’s an established all-star ace with 1.5 years of control. But, Cashman loves his prospects; let him drown with them. Florial is a good prospect, but very raw. Garcia is a mid-rotation type starter, and while there’s a chance that prospects might turn out to be stars, the percentages are against that, and they needed to do something. If I was a Yankees fan, I’d be upset.

    • Eraff

      My initial guess was that they would flip Stroman to the Yanks

  • MattyMets

    Gus, I included the Klapisch tweet in my post above. I think the Mets turned the screws on the Yankees, not just by swooping in on Stroman (Yankees reportedly offered a superior package but Toronto was opposed to trading within AL East), but setting high prices for Wheeler and Syndergaard. Other available starters – Ray, Minor, MadBum are all lefties and the Yanks have three of those. Among righties, the asking price for Bauer was too high for the Yanks and Grienke has Yanks among his no-trade teams. Still, I think Cashman blew it. Yanks have a WS lineup and bullpen paired with a broken rotation.

    • TexasGusCC

      Jeff Luhnow “We have a chance to win a World Series. The last thing I wanted to do is leave a stone unturned and knocked out in October, and wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t acquired another piece.”@Astros

      —————————————
      Matt, I think that package for Stroman was very reasonable. Florian is no better than Lewis Brunson, who is also very raw but athletic and we see how he isn’t adapting, and Garcia has good stuff but called anything from a mid-rotation guy to a solid #2 ceiling. You have Stroman for 1.5 years and a chance to win two times with him, and you say no to that price? Notice that Cleveland got a fortune for Bauer. Cashman thinks all his prospects will become Hall of Famers.

      • TexasGusCC

        Sorry Matt about the duplicity, I guess when I saw it, I got a little too excited and forgot you had it. Klapisch was the only person to reference the Mets efforts to show fairness to the Yankees. Every other writer was just bemoaning the poor Yankees’ need to overpay…. waaaaahhhhhh!

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