NY Mets: Trade market for starting pitchers feels non-existent

I know buzz around which players will or won’t be traded has yet to really take form. There are teams out there that may suddenly decide to buy or sell depending on how the owner is doing in the stock market. In some cases, it might just depend on what side of the bed they woke up on. Either way, it might be a tough winter for the New York Mets to rebuild their starting rotation.

Free agency does leave the Mets open to a couple of options. This is the bread and butter of what we should expect the club to do. However, many of those players come with their own risks as well.

The Mets starting rotation will probably look very familiar in 2022

Is it so unrealistic to believe the Mets could open the 2022 season with a rotation of five names we already know? Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, and either Tylor Megill or David Peterson is one possible group. Only Syndergaard is not under contract next season.

The free agents out there for the Mets aren’t exactly all enticing. Bringing back Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman would be swell but I have a strong feeling the former ends up with a contract too rich for the Mets’ blood. We can only expect them to have so many $20+ million players on the payroll.

Getting a jump start on any potential players we could see linked to the Mets in trade rumors, there aren’t any truly spectacular options that stand out. Does Wade Miley impress anyone? Are the Mets actually in a position to take a chance on anyone coming off a bad year? They should look to improve the rotation, not move laterally.

The Mets haven’t been so lucky with bringing in outside help to bolster their rotation. Stroman aside, many of the newcomers have been quite underwhelming in recent years. You can say the same thing about many of the prospects that have since graduated to big league status. For as fun as it was to watch Megill come from out of nowhere this year and Peterson do what he did in 2020 for the Mets, there is a doubt with each of them.

Free agency has always been the path to a top-notch starting rotation under the Steve Cohen regime. His carbohydrate-loaded wallet should always make the team contenders to sign the best players out there. Trades are different because it takes two to tango. In free agency, Benjamin Franklin does a lot of the talking.

I do think the Mets could get creative this offseason and find a trade target nobody is thinking about. They have some quality players to offer and should have a front office determined to make up for the disappointment of 2021.

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The biggest signing the Mets make should be the addition of a bat. The effect of this, however, won’t be felt without a reliable starting staff to truly make those runs matter. No stone should be left unturned.