New York Mets: Three ways the Amazins can hijack the MLB Trade Deadline

Season changes course

Of course with the Mets, anything is possible. We have seen this team trip over their own two feet with a mile head start before. We have also seen this team randomly make the World Series back. With the Mets, it’s safe to assume nothing and still be let down, but there is the slim chance they turn things around.

I brushed over this in the first slide of this article. I do not think the Mets are good enough to turn it around. Their deficit in the standings right now is not insurmountable, what is, is their roster.

They still have no bullpen and always find ways to lose games. The defense is not going to get any better, and teams like the Phillies, Braves, and Nationals are not going to all of a sudden start losing a lot, but again, anything can happen.

So, what would end up being the most surprising thing about this deadline, is if the Mets decide to be buyers instead. Brodie Van Waganen alluded to them being buyers, but what if the Mets go on like a seven game winning streak? What if Robinson Cano stays hot and Edwin Diaz starts mowing down saves?

The Mets could find themselves within a stone’s throw of a Wild Card spot by the end of this month, and if that’s the case, why not buy? Their assets to trade aren’t that special, to begin with so losing nothing isn’t that bad of an option. The Mets could end up making moves to re-shuffle instead of re-build, like usual, but this time it could be to get better, not worse.

The Mets will never re-build, the Wilpon’s don’t like it, so why not keep buying until something gives? It worked in 2015 for Yoenis Cespedes. It worked when the Mets traded away R.A. Dickey that one offseason to get Syndergaard, amongst someone else. Yeah, it didn’t work when they traded for Cano/Diaz the most recent sample, but what if they start becoming part of a turnaround?

The Mets would shock a lot of people if they got better, including me. But, considering they are only likely to get some money and maybe mediocre prospects in return for what they do have, mine as well get creative and see what they can do for the rest of this year and perhaps the next.

The Mets would surely hijack the deadline if they became part of the sweepstakes instead of selling, it would change the entire landscape of the MLB forever. This is very unlikely, but again, not impossible to think about.

Either way, whether it be this option or any or all of the trades mentioned in this article, if you are a Mets fan, I wouldn’t expect anything significant this deadline. Expect the Mets to go quietly into the morning on August 1 having done nothing but shed expiring contracts for cash and whatever prospects meant nothing to their prior teams.

But. Let’s not forget, when Brodie Van Wagenen said “come get us,” he meant it as a prediction for being in the playoffs, the irony is it could end up being his fellow MLB general managers listening and coming and getting all or any of the Mets potential assets. There isn’t a limit to what I would put past this franchise.