In spite of a 44-59 record (and tack on another loss following tonight’s 25-4 defeat at the hands of the Nationals) and a roster facing a significant number of questions, the Mets opted to hang onto a number of notable potential trade pieces at the deadline. New York will retain all of Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Jacob deGrom rather than take advantage of a pitching-starved market that could have netted them hefty prospect returns.
While the Rays were able to turn Chris Archer into Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow today, the Mets will hang onto their talented young arms as they lose another half-season of team control. Tim Healey of Newsday reports that Mickey Callaway had a hand in this decision, pressuring the front office to hang onto Wheeler and the rest of the starting rotation beyond today’s 4pm deadline. “We all just told them the truth about what we felt about Zack Wheeler and who he is and what he’s become and what we think he can be moving forward,” Callaway said. “I think that had a significant impact in the decisions we made and the players we might’ve been looking for to potentially move him.”
Assistant General Manager John Ricco had similar words on the subject, noting that it would have taken “a premium” in order to move any of their starting rotation talent. “We know the talent that we have, specifically on the pitching side,” he said. “We were not going to move those players unless it involved considerable talent coming back in our direction.”
Ricco went on say that the Mets actually considered adding players controllable through 2019 and beyond, though obviously nothing came through on that front. “We were not only given the opportunity, we were asked by ownership to be creative and be open to all possibilities, including those types of impactful trades,” Ricco said. Healey notes that the Mets believe they can contend next season. Ricco believes in the club’s pitching, but acknowledges they need to find “a way to score more runs” and “play better defense”.
It’s not clear what kind of moves the Mets might attempt to make this winter if they’re serious in their attempts to contend in 2019. They’re obviously in a tough division that’s not likely to get any easier with the Phillies and Braves on the rise, and the Nationals unlikely to fade significantly. One has to wonder how the Mets plan to improve their offense to the extent they’d need to in order to climb out of the run-scoring cellar. Then again, perhaps improvements from Michael Conforto and further development of Brandon Nimmo could go a long way, and it’s possible they could be at least a competitive offense if some other things break the right way in addition.
Ricco…. Ricco Suave!
Not very Suave. He should just not talk. Better to remain silent and appear ignorant then to speak and remove all doubt
Mets lost 25-4 today. That’s all you need to know.
Cut them a little slack, Jose Reyes didn’t have his best stuff tonight in the 9th. Usually he locks it down.
Daniel Murphy: 3/4, 3 Runs, 6 RBI, and 2 HRs.
I do cut them slack. I feel bad for Mets’ fans.
lighten up man….
Sorry I listen to NY radio. The fans call alot; They wanted to fire everyone after the game, “even guy makes coffee” Lol They got to me.
What makes it crazy is I thought Murphy was done after Microfracture knee surgery. It’s crazy how much playing against the Mets, seem to elevates his game.
Playing against the Mets elevates everyone’s game.
Speaking of comebacks, Invader Zimm also had a Home Run tonight…
Heck, Jose, seemingly single-handedly, allowed each and every hitter on the Gnats squad to get on a hit streak…
Mets are just an ever burning dumpster fire, and every week or so someone comes along and douses it with jet fuel. Even as a Braves fan though, I can’t help but feel sorry for Calloway, and the Mets’ players in general..
dont listen to NY talk radio.
most of my family are met fans and I do pay attention to whats going on with them. they have these rash of injuries and underperformance that just derails their season. them add in the front office drama coupled with a player doing questionable things like playing golf while hurt, firing a manager while going out west or just the medical debacle.
while Sandy Alderson didn’t do the Mets any favors by throwing out these jokes about his players, its not just him to blame ownership is a problem too. it all grows old and tiring after experiencing the same issues yearly. I get why met fans are bullish on even the small issues that go on with the Mets. while all of it is not fair, its understandable.
Daniel Murphy vs Ny Mets: .391 BA along with 11 home runs, and 43 RBIs in 38 starts.
Elevate to that extent?
Well said.
Wash that mouth out with lye soap.
Talk about elevating his game, Matz revealed that his shoulder has been aching the last six weeks and that “TC” gave him one of those “man up and take one for the team” speeches. So his performance has been good, however
I dunno what you guys are talking about Jose had a lot of movement on his changeup tonight .. was downright filthy
That’s called “gravity”
I registered just to like this comment.
That was Reyes’ greatest contributions this season. He had much better form pitching from the stretch than his footwork around 2B during a potential double play. Plus Reyes showed greater arm strength than some of his throws from SS that bounced on their way to 1B.
Improvements from Conforto? He’s TRASH.
1.3 war, .754 ops, and can play all 3 OF positions. Last year was even better, and he’s still young and controllable. The dude has value, and the Mets are grateful to have him.
If they had built a team around him, he’d be a solid piece. They can’t seem to do it..
You don’t build around a “solid” piece. Regardless, he will be a good player if he can stay healthy
He’s 10% above league average with the bat according to OPS+, roughly average overall in the eyes of WAR, can play center if needed, and has drawn a ton of walks. Even if last year was a fluke stellar season he continues to prove he is more than capable of being a solid outfield regular.
Lol you judge a guy in a relatively small sample coming off a major injury. He’s been hitting better lately and will be fine when he’s fully recovered. You know nothing lol. Smh
Isn’t Conforto usually hurt anyway?
At the absolute apex of opportunity given their assets and corresponding needs in a very warm stove environment the Mets and their triad of ineptitude remain silent and once again embarrass their fan base
I think they shouldve traded away deGrom, but with the actual GM not present it would be a tough choice for an interim GM to trade away anybody thats not going to be a free agent after this season. They just have to hope that their SP can maintain/improve their value if they decide to be sellers next season.
Unless they plan on signing machado and Harper they have no chance next year. They are going to be saying “but we have the best pitching in baseball” for the next two years until Degrom can run for the fire exit as fast as possible .
This team is an absolute joke to baseball with no end in sight .
“ . . . but with the actual GM not present . . . “
My understanding is that Alderson has left the organization permanently. So John Ricco *is* the GM. May take a while for the Mets to announce it as such but they’ve made it clear for years that the job would eventually be Ricco’s.
No team except Col. Has what the Mets could use/need. They have starting pitching but the bullpen has lost over 30 games and that’s too much. Col has minor league SS(Rogers is rated A+ but Story is an allstar)& a 3B(rated A and no one is moving Nolan off 3B)
That 3B has one year left.
Matz was impressive
At this point, if I am a Mets fan, I am rooting for them to lose as many games as possible in this already lost season, so they can be in a higher draft position. It’s kind of sad b/c you had several teams, at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, that sold off most of their veterans to compete for the race to the bottom. . . . And Then you had the Mets . .. . which actually tried to build a winning product this year by signing a bunch of free agents, but all of whom failed to work out.
MLB draft picks are the biggest crap shoot.
Hey Pope-The Mets organization is the biggest crap shoot in baseball. From ‘15 (almost won it all but let’s pound our first on our chests and say we were in the World Series), to ‘00 ( Subway Series blowout) you have to go back 33 years.
How many teams can say that? Oh I know that there are still a few still looking, like the Indians, Rays, Rockies, Mariners and Dodgers to name some. However in the past few years with baseball’s economic parity clubs like the Cubs, Astros and Royals have come off the board.
Worse than that is the pathetic state of this franchise. Even Mr. Met’s publicist, Joel Sherman has r
Recently written an article that is comprehensive in calling the ravages of the Wilpon’s ownership.
So they don’t trade any valuable assets where you get a return times three (for the three post seasons you are offering these players for) and now will have to accept 2/3 of the value in the off season.
That is ONLY IF none of these pitchers go on the DL again. Who wants to bet $500?
So what gives?
Do Mets fans continue to give the Wilpon’s their hard earned money and support, or is it time to pull the plug?
Sherman incidentally gave detailed ideas for reason.
It’s time to walk away and join the boycott.
No mets game ticket purchases gong forward.
Click away from SNY so their viewership drops.
Post on Facebook.
Either metseventually or metfan4ever, I did some tease arch here and found a few identities in mlbtraderumors that are available:
-EventuallyMovedOn
-4everonlywhenthereishope
I get why the Mets think this. With deGrom/Syndagaard they have an ace and a potential ace. If what they believe about Wheeler is real, if what they believe about their own rotation is real then they might even have three aces. Having that kind of resource is incredibly rare. I know you can’t win with ONLY three aces but if you really believe that’s what you have you just might try and win now for the next few years.
It’s a hell of a risk though because those three pitchers could get you an amazing return and they are playing in a division where their farm is the worst and still losing ground with the Marlins rebuilding. If they see themselves as a win now team then even they have to see that window as coming to a close and once it is, they will be bad for a long time.
I would’ve at least tried to parlay one of them into some ML ready or on the cusp offensive talent… easy for me to say though
I would too. I don’t know that the Mets are making the right choice. I just get where they are coming from.
And what if both pitchers start to lose their stuff or worse, go down with an injury? Id rather have a bird in the hand than two in the bush.
two in a bush is always nice lol
Having good pitchers on staff as opposed to trading them for prospects who might be good MLB players one day is having the bird in the hand instead of in the bush.
Brad doesn’t understand the phrase.
You call prospects a bird in the hand? As if prospects don’t ever fail but pitching does?
If the Nationals had that starting rotation, they would be a lock to get to the WS this year.
Teams have to build from their strength….not trade it away.
A few decent trades, a few savvy FA signings, and the Mets can bounce back.
As for “the Nationals unlikely to fade significantly” – don’t look now, but they are. They can’t develop pitching, and their clubhouse is as big a mess as the Twins is. MLBTR writers and many readers may like to look at stats and salaries and think that fantasy baseball is real, but when you load a roster with vets that have attitudes who think they are underpaid and want more playing time to secure a bigger contract…….
The Mets just can’t keep their players healthy and have had those injury woes for a few seasons now. I’m not sure that the team will be able to truly compete with the Braves, Phillies or Nationals anytime soon.
I agree with that. The Mets’ roster construction for the past several years has been completely illogical, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. They’ve relied too heavily on Reyes, Bautista, and Cabrera (now gone), and I understand the injuries, but instead of bringing up young talent to get some reps they burn those innings and ABs on aging veterans.
NYM math: Ace + guy that sometimes looks like Ace potential + guy who shows enough that fans dream that he will be able to occassionaly look like Ace potential = 3 ACES! WHAT AN INCREDIBLY RARE RESOURCE!
Save yourself the heartache and embrace the rebuild.
Hmm..I’m a Braves fan so don’t think I need to embrace the Mets rebuild. But I do think you need to check your reasoning a little. DeGrom is an ace. Syndagaard MIGHT be an ace. It’s hard to say because Syndagaard has put together just one full season. The rest of them who knows what they have. The Mets obviously have their own opinion.
I think you need a nice nix of both. experience mixed with youth. you develop prospects and bring them up to hopefully succeed then if they show enough sign or trade for others that can help. Mets are stuck signing guys like Jay Bruce and cespedes while not stabilizing the youth they have around them. I’m not only talking about the pitching part of it either. there has to be some sort of stability on defense and offense too to make the impact signings worth it. that’s just me though.
They still have August to move guys
those SPs are not going to clear waivers.
“We like losing both in the long term and short term, so not trading was the best track for our team to continue losing.”
Middling. The Mets and now Cardinals are masters of it
They have no offense or bullpen to put around these pitchers. The smart move would have been to trade deGrom for everyday players to improve their team. I would have offered him to the Yankees for Andujar, Frazier, Wade, and Sheffield. Even if you have to drop Sheffield or replace him with a lesser prospect, this move would have delivered three new dynamic starters to the roster. I believe the Yankees would have made the trade if contacted early before they shipped Drury out. Other than Andujar, none of these prospects are likely to be starters in the near future for them.
Look at the package the Sox gave up for Sale. Look at the package you just proposed. Yeah, not happening.
While you may be willing to give that up, it is FAR short from what would tempt the Mets to actually move deGrom. Torres is a great young player, which is why he is needed to move the needle for the Mets. I understand why the Yankees want to hold onto him, as he should be solid for years to come. I also understand why the Mets are holding onto deGrom (pretending like they will contend in 2019). The result is the Mets squander another great season by deGrom and the Yankees get bounced in the wild card play-in game or the series after it because their pitching outside of Severino is trash. Yeah…I know Happ’s record against BOS, but the yankees are significantly hampered by their starting pitching. Severino is solid, but has shown some wearing down. Happ and Lynn…uhm…flip a coin for a quality start. I love CC, but he can’t be your Plan A for a playoff roster. Gray…well…someone needs to through batting practice.
#tradethortosandiegoforabucketofbaseballs
Phillies and Braves will rule the east thru 2020 and even the Marlins and Nats could start to compete with their young cores around 2021. Just don’t see the Mets being good for a long time in that division. Could say the same about the O’s, Jays, Rangers. 4 teams probably stuck in the cellar for mega rebuilds sooner than later.
Jays could probably contend in a few years though, if Vlad Jr becomes the superstar deemed to be and if their young pitching pans out. Guess it’s just the O’s, Mets, and Rangers stuck in the dry cellar for 4 years minimum.
Even if Vlad and Bo pan out, I don’t see how they’ll compete with the Sox and especially the Yankees. As far as their young pitching, they have a number of solid arms in the minors, but no one that truly stands out.
Even if Vlad Jr pan outs, it seems like it will probably be a Trout situation of a watching a really good player from April-September, but you rarely see him in October.
They really hampered themselves by holding onto Donaldson. He has been nicked up for going on almost 2 years, so they will be fortunate to get a comp pick for him. Sadly…or ironically, he is the exact kind of player the Mets will look to sign in the off-season. Veteran bounce back candidate who is considered scratch and dent by most teams, which the Mets will hope means CHEAP.
If my uncle was a woman, he would be my aunt. This is how the Mets operate, on IFs
With Jose Reyes in relief the Mets don’t need to trade their staters and watch someone else win the playoffs.
Which team is the biggest punching bag?:
Marlin
Mets
Orioles
We’ll never know about the Marlins, nobody is there to see it.
The Mets are a middle of the pack team, so no.
The Orioles are getting first licks on themselves before stepping up to the beasts in the East, so gotta be them.
Mets are a middle of the pack team?
Lmfao.
Worst record in NL last 2 years, how is that middle of the pack?
Yes.
Moral hazard. No one wants to pull the trigger on a re-build because they more than likely won’t come out the other side still employed by the team.
The Mets were faced with, almost improbably, the ability to control this entire mid season trade deadline and yet, the sat and did almost nothing. At a time when teams were screaming for starting pitching the Mets were the only team with a surplus of top end starting pitchers. All with varying degrees of injury concern. All possessing varying degrees of positive value at this exact moment.. On a team that isn’t going anywhere for a year or two.
There are no logical excuses. They blew it.. Their strategy of “maybe next years team has greater potential” or something like that, is absurd. It more clear than even that the team is run extremely poorly. I mean look what the Yankees did in 2016 with Chapman and Miller. Those two trades alone were franchise altering. They could have probably gotten Florial and Sheffield for Degrom. They could have probably bagged anywhere from 4-5 top 100 prospects (and other complimentary players) by moving their pitching. What a mess. Really, what a mess…
The New York Mess
Mets are stuck under the great starting pitching but nothing else category. whoever the GM is by the off-season has to cross his fingers and hope one of their free agent signings pans out and the team doesn’t get overwhemled with injuries.
I should say overwhelmed with injuries again …
The Mets continue their dominance in mediocrity
You need to look up the definition of mediocrity.
Doesn’t fit the mets
The Mets should look at the organization and just marvel that there not in the cellar of a awful division every year.
They took a team that went to the World Series and wrecked it. Even the marlins win from time to time
The Mets need to overhaul this team, the first thing they need to do is get a strong GM in place, not 3 guys. They need to break this team down over the winter. They are not catching the Phillies, Nats, or Braves with what they have now. Now is the time to get good propects for de Grom, and Syndergaard.. Theiir value will never be higher.
The problem with a “strong GM” is their ownership won’t allow it. Alderson was hand-picked by the MLB front-office and he took the job knowing he’d have restrictions. Unfortunately between the restrictions and Alderson’s poor history of signing FA and making trades….it added up to poor roster management. Jeff Wilpon has positioned himself to okay every deal made, so that further limited Alderson. Now that Sandy is out of the picture, it’s even worse because Sandy at least had some pull. The Wilpons are SO worried about optics, that it drives their team decisions. Too bad their cheapness and financial constraints overpower the options, which means they can’t sign top FA options, they often won’t outbid for mid-tier talent, and they dumpster dive with often injured players and/or over the hill veterans. That is a BAAAAAD way to run an organization. I was hoping Omar could at least help with scouting and maybe make some big moves there if they could max out their international $…but alas….the Mets couldn’t even do that right.
the mets are a bottom 3 organization in ownership, front office (general manager), business plan and/or direction, field manager, coaches, instructors, scouting, mlb ready prospects, milb prospects, minor league teams and their ml team is one of the oldest and worst defensive team in baseball.
whoever said ricco is the gm is wrong – there will be a new gm after the season
and tell me why bautista, reyes, meseraco, flores (who was hitting 4th) + are still
on the team
this is a little league team in all respects!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that July is over, the Mets need to sit the veterans and play their top performers in the minors (minus Dominic Smith) and see who sticks. For three years running, they have had a full roster on the disabled list. Michael Conforto is a minor piece, not a centerpiece.
In truth, ownership is the real problem but, what can be done about that?
Burn that mother down.
In the picture, the poor guy looks terrified!
If Syndergaard is healthy the last two months he needs to be moved this offseason. He’s another injury or two away from being labeled injury prone, if you want to give him even that long. He’s an ace when healthy, so you can extract a big return for him. The longer you wait, the less his value will be
THIS is embarrassing.
I absolutely get where the Mets are coming from in keeping their pitching talent. Trouble is, with no farm system and an unwillingness by ownership to spend money, the team will continue to be mediocre at very best for the foreseeable several years. So, it seems the bold and brave move may have been to make a blockbuster move to improve the offense. It’s easy being an armchair GM……
2B Jeff McNeil looked good for the Mets in spite of the 20+ point loss.
McNeil can absolutely rake. He should have been brought up sooner, not that it would have mattered to the W/L column. He’s obviously older (26?), but the Mets need some league minimum guys on the roster to help squeeze out a little more money for FAs and arbitration raises.
I think it was Joel Sherman in the Post that basically said that the only way the Mets not trading away at least one of the pitchers is if they signed 2 out of 5 free agents; I believe the free agents were Machado, Corbin, Kimbrel, Pollock, and Yasmani Grandal. Basically, his point being unless you did this then 2019 is going to be a lost year anyway, might as well build to 2020.
But here’s the thing- imagine the Mets signed all 5 of those guys. (Obviously, not happening). That would bring their payroll up into the $270 million dollar range. Yet, would that team really be that good? Obviously the starting pitching would potentially be extraordinary, but absent even more moves the bullpen would be questionable. The offense- probably good, but not great (maybe great if Cespedes returns and plays 1b at some point). And I fully expect Conforto and Rosario to improve next year, but while that’s a deep lineup it is by no means awesome (and, depending on how you feel about Machado at SS it’s not that great defensively.
So, my point is, even if the Mets went nuts this offseason, they may be a contender, but they’d be far from a super team. And signing 2 of those guys just isn’t getting it done.
Assuming fair value, they should have moved Degrom and Wheeler and focused on 2020.
the mets do not even have a general manager
in place let alone a direction
they can not do any of those things right now!
The decision on what direction to go in has to come from ownership.
Even without a GM, Mets should have been able to at least negotiate on their starters. Based on reports, they don’t want to trade them.
mets are just one owner away from the playoffs.
they’ve adopted the cubs motto…wait til net year.
“Blah blah blah. We’re incompetent. Blah blah blah. We care about our image. Blah blah blah. We can’t do a rebuild because we don’t have talented FO leadership in play to oversee it. Blah blah blah. We’re delusional enough to think we can compete in the NL East. Blah blah blah. We were too busy being focused on what the Yankees were doing to focus on trades. Blah blah blah.”
That’s the real quotes. Imagine that, a half rate manager doesn’t want his starters to get traded because he knows he’ll be the scapegoat for a bad FO and the laughingstock ownership of MLB.
This team should have sold, sold, sold! Mets fans better hope everybody is healthy to end the year and that the FO cashes in this off-season. Though the way this trade season went down, their opportunity to get max value ended yesterday afternoon.