5 NY Mets trades and free agent signings to keep the payroll at $320 million or less

3) Trade Kodai Senga or David Peterson and prospects/younger players to the Padres for Adrian Morejon, Nick Pivetta, and Ramon Laureano

Things get a little complicated here because any Mets trade with the San Diego Padres feels a bit unpredictable. They do seem to have a good clearance to swap Kodai Senga or David Peterson for Nick Pivetta. Pivetta’s luxury tax hit is $13.75 million with the payroll total at $20.5 million. There is some trickery with his contract and for the sake of transparency, we probably need to declare him at the higher total.

But if it’s Senga the Mets can send to the Padres, it becomes a whole lot less. $5.5 million is added in. If Peterson is someone the Padres want, something closer to $11 million is added to the Mets payroll. San Diego wants to get rid of salary while also bringing in multiple affordable players. This kind of trade doesn’t help the Mets clear salary, but can resolve some roster holes. We're also going to need them to take Ramon Laureano in the deal because finding a $6.5 million left fielder is going to be difficult. Do we really want one of the many right-handed hitters who can only really mash lefties like Rob Refsnyder?

This is the spot where the Mets make a move to come as close as they can to finalizing their biggest problems. Morejon in the bullpen, Pivetta in the rotation, and Laureano in the lineup.

The uncertainty with Senga might be too much to ask for the Padres to take. Hypothetically, this trade ends up being David Peterson, an infielder on the big league roster not named Brett Baty, and two prospects. One of the players given up by the Mets should sting, but not as badly as the cost to acquire Peralta. Remember, the Mets are also doing the Padres a favor here.

About $31.5 million or so added from the Padres with only $10-12 million or so headed back (Peterson plus 1 or 2 league minimum players), we clear out a good chunk of the budget. The rotation is suddenly significantly better. But with a pair of rotation additions, the Mets have an over abundance and need to subtract once again.

The payroll has now gone up to around $316.5 million. We’re about to reduce it down again.