2 recent NY Mets trade deadline strategies to repeat, 2 to avoid at all costs

Repeat this: Take on a player’s full salary at the cost of zero prospects

The power of Steve Cohen’s wallet almost seems like a B-plot to this year’s ball club. Even while acknowledging he’s the reason why the Mets were able to land Juan Soto while also paying Pete Alonso a ton of money and maintaining a gargantuan payroll, it’s the smaller savvy moves that seem to get more of the praise. We can appreciate the smarts of David Stearns. The perfect example from last year’s trade deadline was how they added a struggling veteran, Phil Maton, for the lone cost of taking on his salary.

This actually happened a year prior several weeks before the Mets decided to blow it all up. Trevor Gott came to the Mets alongside Chris Flexen in exchange for Zach Muckenhirn. The real purpose of the trade was for the Seattle Mariners to offload the remainder of Flexen’s contract. The Mets ate it and immediately released him.

Due to the “Cohen tax,” the team will need to get approval from the owner to continue adding ridiculous amounts of money to the roster. Penalties will add up quickly so it’s up to Stearns to choose wisely.

Maton, despite a poor playoff performance, was excellent for the Mets in the regular season. They identified him as a player they could work with to get right. It worked for a long time. Acquiring any sort of player without having to sacrifice a prospect is a win.