Mets need to do worse before they can succeed

The Mets might look really bad right now. But if they want to succeed, they need to dive deeper into the rabbit hole.

The New York Mets are going to lose a lot of games this season. There’s really no way to sugar coat it. If they want to succeed next season and into the future, they will need to do the unthinkable to rebuild their farm system, which is a two step process.

Being all right is, well all right. But being all right when you’ve already lost is the worst thing you can do. Right now the Mets have one of the six worst records in baseball and if they aren’t going to turn things around, they can use it to their advantage.

Remember when we finished the 2017 season with the sixth worst record? Remember how we ended up getting Jarred Kelenic? It’s been a very short amount of time since he was drafted but the outlook is already looking really good.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing for the Mets to finish poorly and get another high pick in next year’s draft. If the standings were to hold, we would get a similar pick, but with the way things have been going, it’s very possible that the Mets could walk out with a better pick this time around.

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It would mean the Mets played even worse the rest of the year, but imagine getting the number one pick? Or maybe a top three pick.

In the last ten years, the first three picks of the draft created Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, and Alex Bregman. For every Harper there will be a Danny Hultzen and it will be disappointing seeing the Mets stay in their current state but the possibilities are really endless at this point.

The team could do whatever they want with the guy they draft. Develop him into a star or trade him and get a different star.

Beyond the draft, there’s another way for the Mets to rework their farm and trade emporium for the future. This is by trading away even more players.

Look at Zack Wheeler as the perfect example of how this will work. Most fans don’t want him to be traded but let’s see what happens if he does move.

The trick isn’t to see what the Mets can get in return to rebuild. You need to see what they can get back to use as future trade pieces. Let’s say the Mets want to contend next season but they trade away Wheeler this month.

For an example, we’re going to say that he brings back a teams top ten prospect. That would be a pretty good haul but they don’t need to use this new prospect as a way to rebuild. This new prospect can continue to develop and in a years time maybe he can be flipped to bring back an even better player than Wheeler for the final two months of the 2019 season.

Of course you wouldn’t have to deal with just one prospect, because if the team keeps going like this, they can have many more prospects to deal next season. Whether it’s from getting more than one player back for Wheeler, trading more than just Wheeler, or getting a higher draft pick.

If the Mets keep going down this scary road, when next years deadline comes around, we can be in position to make some serious moves. As a result, the final few months of 2019 could be a time you’d never want to forget.

tl;dr

To recap, there are two things that we nees to do. First we need to play worse and maybe even get a top three pick next season. It sounds terrible, but if we can get another Kelenic or the 2019 version of Bryant or Andrew Benintendi, things will look good. There’s no point in overpushing yourself to stay afloat in a lost season.

The Mets also need to trade even more. If they trade Wheeler, Devin Mesoraco, Jose Bautista, Wilmer Flores, and more, they can enter 2019 with a completely revamped farm. Then they can use this improved farm to actually rebuild long term or to pull off some insane trades next July and really compete.

If the Mets keep going down this road, there’s really no limit to how good they can become either next season or in the long run.