NY Mets: 3 starting pitcher trade candidates in the American League

With just about one hundred games left to go in the 2021 season, the New York Mets have displayed a remarkable resiliency to overcome debilitating injuries to all facets of their team as they continue to increase their first place lead in the National League east. Much of this can be attributed to the wonderful job Sandy Alderson and their front office has done in constructing a roster filled with quality Major League talent that has stepped up big time when they needed to in absence of many starters going down.

However an area many thought Alderson and company wouldn’t have to concentrate much on, due to the great amount of depth they acquired in the off season, was starting pitching. The Mets went into 2021 bringing back fan favorite Marcus Stroman on a one year deal and added veteran Carlos Carrasco to an already decent rotation that featured Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and David Peterson. On top of that, they went out and signed Taijuan Walker and brought in former Marlins starter Jordan Yamamoto to add depth to the talented rotation.

But here we are just ten weeks into the regular season and the Mets are only down to three of those starting pitchers with Jordan Yamamoto and Jacob deGrom still on the fence to return anytime soon nursing potential shoulder injuries. All this boils down to now is that the Mets are going to need starting rotation help and need it fast.

Mets need to bolster their starting rotation if they are to keep their first-place lead in the Nation League east.

In this article I will go over three starting pitchers the Mets front office should target from the American League in an attempt to add depth and bolster the rotation until some of their main stars return back from the IL.

NY Mets Trade Target: Alex Cobb

Despite having struggled in his last two starts, Los Angeles Angels starter Alex Cobb has shown the ability to put together a string of quality consecutive starts this season and is a potential candidate for the Mets to acquire without having to give up any big name young minor league prospects. The Angels are currently nine games out of first place in the American League West and don’t look like they will be challenging for the division title or a wild card spot anytime soon. The veteran right hander spent the majority of his major league career pitching as a starter with the Tampa Bay Rays under their former manager Joe Maddon. In his five years with Tampa, Cobb posted a 3.50 ERA in 115 starts with a respectable 1.22 WHIP.

Since leaving Tampa, Cobb has been battling some injuries and has only been able to pitch over 100 innings in a season once. Also his ERA has increased to 5.10 since that time. This year he is on pace to go 140 innings should he manage to stay healthy.