NY Mets trade retrospective: Buying an arm before selling everything not chained down

On July 3, 2023, the New York Mets refused to wave the white flag. In what would become a month of selling, they were going to give it one more try to fight for relevancy.

At the end of the day, the Mets were 38-46 with only three teams in the NL behind them in the standings. The distance didn’t stop them from doing something bold. They called up the Seattle Mariners and willingly took on a bad contract along with a bullpen arm in exchange for a recently DFA’d player on their own roster. How did things go?

How did the salary dump deal with the Mariners turn out for the Mets?

The details of the trade were this: the Mets received Trevor Gott and Chris Flexen for Zach Muckenhirn. Muckenhirn had given up 4 earned runs in 6 big league innings. He failed to make it to the majors with the Mariners and floated around the independent leagues in The States and Mexico in 2024 and 2025.

Muckenhirn was simply a body in the deal. The bigger part was the Mets adding Gott to their bullpen while taking on the remainder of Flexen’s salary.

Flexen had a 7.71 ERA at the time of the trade and the Mets immediately released him. He had $3.62 million of an $8 million salary owed to him. Disinterested in paying him, the Mariners saw an opportunity to pair him with Gott, a mediocre reliever with a 4.03 ERA to get out from under having to pay him.

Releasing Flexen proved to be the right move. He finished the year with 12 starts as a member of the Colorado Rockies, pitching to a 6.27 ERA. He had a 4.95 ERA the following year with the Chicago White Sox, proving it wasn’t just the thin Colorado air.

The only player who actually played for the team he was traded to, Gott, logged the exact same 29 inning total he had with the Mariners as a member of the Mets. His ERA went up to 4.34. More importantly, it was over 7.00 in July and almost 5.00 in August. He was excellent in September. By then, the Mets had already sold off and quit on the season.

Gott was essentially a free pitcher in terms of players because it only cost the Mets Muckenhirn. It was financially costly as it required the Flexen salary. Worthwhile, it was a miscalculation in what the team had ahead of them for the month of July.

The first major Mets trade deadline sell-off didn’t come until David Robertson on July 28. The Mets were 49-54 at that point. From 8 games under .500 to 5 below, not enough ground was made up in those 25 days between the Gott trade and the sale of Robertson to the Miami Marlins.

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