3 NY Mets trade deadline shockers that aren’t completely outrageous

It’s a day-to-day emotion for New York Mets fans who see them take two out of three from the Atlanta Braves and wonder if maybe there is fight left. Then comes a 12-0 loss versus the Cincinnati Reds. Who are the Mets really? It’s a flawed squad battling through injuries and a whole lot of decisions that haven’t gone well.

The assumption for a while has been that this team will end up as trade deadline sellers. Even if they’re one big week away from pulling within spitting distance of the NL Wild Card, there hasn’t been enough consistency to put all of the chips in the center of the table that a turnaround is imminent.

The biggest Mets trade deadline shocker of all would be for them to buy heavily. If sellers, there are some other jaw-dropping moves David Stearns could make that, while surprising, aren’t as outrageous as some may believe.

Shocking Mets moves for this year’s trade deadline

1) Finding a taker for Bo Bichette

Bo Bichette’s contract makes him a fascinating trade candidate. If he’s opting out, the Mets need to sell him. There’s no qualifying offer to issue as he already got one last year from the Toronto Blue Jays. Being one and down in New York, which is the ongoing rumor, would make this a massive failure. The Mets will end up paying him $47 million (an extra $5 million after he opts out) to play for the team in a wasted year.

What if the Mets find a taker for him? Recent success, including a two home run game against the Braves and a 3-hit night against the Reds, continues to show the fans what he’s capable of. A nearly .300 hitter in his career with some good pop and gap power, finding someone to take Bichette on for more than a pure salary dump would be a huge shocker. Because we have seen them do it before, it wouldn’t be uncharacteristic of the Mets to pay the remainder of this year’s salary and half of next year’s (if he opts in) in order to better the return. This is kind of like what they did with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer back in 2023 when they sold at the deadline the last time.

2) Freddy Peralta fetches more than one top 100 prospect

Earlier this month, several executives weighed in on what Freddy Peralta’s trade value looks like. From start-to-start, it seems to fluctuate. A bad outing and it’s dwindling. An excellent or at least average one for him and the conversation turns again to him being everyone’s backup plan to Tarik Skubal.

The thought in early June was Peralta could bring the Mets a top 100 prospect along with another player or two. As an inexpensive rental, the Mets can take the same strategy outlined above with Bichette and pay his contract in order to guarantee themselves more than one top 100 prospect. Starting pitchers are often needed by most contenders as very few have five arms they can trust. A limited market in this spot could have someone overbidding for Peralta. For our sake, let’s hope it’s better than a pair of Luisangel Acuna clones.

3) The Mets move on from Francisco Alvarez

There is nothing to indicate the Mets would trade Francisco Alvarez other than he has value and the team has shown a preference, at times, for putting Luis Torrens behind the plate. Alvarez remains an offensive and defensive work in progress. Flashes of brilliance at the plate more so than behind it have kept him around.

Only 24, it would be early to give up a player who was ranked among the best prospects in the sport in 2022 and heading into the 2023 season. He has yet to have a truly remarkable season, often trading home runs for batting average or vice versa. The change with the hitting coaches was something every fan anticipated as it would no longer be Eric Chavez giving him sometimes questionable advice.

Stearns has been rather tame in his last two trade deadlines, but each of those included buying rather than selling. Does this year have something unexpected lurking?

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