5 NY Mets players they can trade before Opening Day and what they should get back

We’re deep into the MLB offseason and yet there’s still so much work to be done. You can’t fairly evaluate the New York Mets roster until they’ve finalized a few more things. Free agent signings and trades are very much in play between now and the season opening on March 27 in Houston.

The Mets have been less active on the trade market this offseason as they were last. Even if the majority of the deals they struck previously were smaller and involved cash changing hands, those are still important ones to keep an eye on.

Before we get to Opening Day, there are a few players we should keep a close eye on as potential trade pieces. Big, small, and somewhere in between these five players seem the likeliest of candidates to get dealt somewhere. If so, what kind of return makes the most sense?

1) Trade Paul Blackburn in a package for a better and more expensive starting pitcher

If you feel any kind of way about Paul Blackburn than “eh” you are probably related to him. Coming off of a season where he made just 14 starts due to multiple injuries, the veteran righty has a poor track record of staying healthy. Only twice in his career has he toppled 100 innings pitched. The 111.1 in 2022 when he was an All-Star for the lowly Oakland Athletics is it.

The Mets had a chance to bail on Blackburn by non-tendering him back in November. They chose to keep him around, coming to terms on a new deal for 2025 whilst avoiding arbitration. It’s not such a bad thought to have him around for some innings. What makes him a less than favorable part of the rotation are the remaining questions with everyone else.

Blackburn will earn just over $4 million this coming season—a total worth less than what the team gave free agent Griffin Canning. Blackburn isn’t expensive in any regard. A team looking to save money could view him as a decent enough fifth starter to replace a pricier piece in their current rotation.

The trade the Mets should try to make involving Blackburn would be to pair him with a younger player or two and acquire a more expensive, talented, and if we’re really lucky, controllable arm. We’ll just take the first two. Blackburn plus two prospects to the San Diego Padres for Dylan Cease? We’ll pretend the 2022 postseason never happened.