NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 trade deadline questions David Stearns needs to answer

The 2025 New York Mets season could be defined by the roster decisions they make over the next few weeks. The MLB trade deadline is the chance for World Series hopefuls to get themselves over the wall and build the best team possible. David Stearns tackled the trade deadline aggressively last season, favoring quantity over sheer quality.

Bound to make mistakes, find an unpredictable gem, or maybe go bold and do something irresponsible, Stearns must first answer these three questions.

1) Which position is the easiest to add a bat at?

If you think the Mets offense is fine, you aren’t watching enough at-bats. A good half of the lineup isn’t producing regularly enough. It doesn’t matter how good the top of the lineup is. When the bottom falls out in the latter half of the order, you’re going to find ways to lose games.

The real debate comes in about which position the Mets should upgrade. Center field could use more pop. However, the plan was never to have it be a force of offensive production. That’s why the Mets kept Tyrone Taylor around and added Jose Siri in the offseason.

What about catcher? It would be an odd move to make especially considering this is the one position teams routinely punt when it comes to offense. The Mets are okay with Luis Torrens doing what he does. We’ll take a cold bat if it means excellent defense and some clutch hitting. Plus, we have to keep some faith Francisco Alvarez will be back.

Two other positions where the Mets could upgrade are a bit more of a surprise. Second base, because Jeff McNeil can fill an offensive void in center field, is a spot where we assumed someone would have grabbed the reins. Not quite. Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio remain in a battle to see who goes to Syracuse next to join Luisangel Acuna. Third base is the far greater issue with Mark Vientos playing poor defense (again) and not doing much of anything at the plate. But with no ability to demote him (he is out of minor league options), the team would need to move him into a part-time role, possibly as a DH. It would require them to trade Starling Marte which doesn’t make as much sense considering how well he has played and what he appears to mean to the clubhouse.

Jesse Winker coming back from the IL only helps a little bit. Although we remember his best moments, it’s easy to forget how horrific he was in September of last season. Several absent seasons before joining the Mets should also have Stearns unsettled.