3 NY Mets trade candidates who would fetch a disappointing return

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Last year’s trade deadline rewarded the New York Mets with a fresh-looking farm system. Will this year’s likely sell-off yield the same results? Sadly, many of the trade candidates the Mets have might fetch a disappointing return.

The Mets only came away positively from last year’s trade deadline because they were willing to eat a ridiculous amount of money on multiple contracts. Many of the lesser deals they made either haven’t worked out so well or were for very low-level prospects who’ll need to prove themselves for a few more seasons before we can declare the Mets winners.

It’s definitely not going to end up like the 2017 trade deadline when the Mets reaped no rewards. However, these three obvious trade candidates on the roster probably won’t bring back the quality of players we wish they could.

3) Jose Quintana

A left-handed starting pitcher will always be in demand at the trade deadline. As valuable as that descriptor may be, Jose Quintana is hardly making a case to be a solution for a starting pitcher-needy ball club.

Quintana has been victimized by the home run all plenty this year. After three outings that were either rated as quality starts or near it, his dud against the Arizona Diamondbacks brought back a reminder of what a limited pitcher he is.

At 1-5 with a 5.17 ERA, Quintana’s value on the trade market is plummeting near to what Carlos Carrasco’s was last summer. Carrasco was a guy the Mets couldn’t move. Could the same thing happen with Quintana?

Too many consistent short outings in recent years already had him looking like a less dazzling trade deadline product. This season, with strikeouts down to 6.2 per 9 and a rising walk rate paired alongside all of the home runs will have teams contemplating whether they’re better off pushing a prospect up to the majors rather than giving up much at all for Quintana.

2) J.D. Martinez

J.D. Martinez could hit .300 and have a nice chunk of home runs at the trade deadline and even then the Mets won’t be able to get a whole lot in return for him. Health concerns for the aging DH had the Mets steering clear of him in the past. Plenty of ball clubs passed up on signing him again in the offseason. Martinez has in consecutive winters accepted a lesser one-year contract just to play baseball for a team he believed would be competitive.

Martinez has hit well for the Mets and should have some of the more appealing numbers by the trade deadline among candidates potentially moved. He’s well behind where we’d like him to be with certain numbers because of the late start. However, even numbers like OPS which don’t require a large sample size to look good are coming up a bit short.

The .812 OPS is matching closer to his later Boston Red Sox days. It dropped to a low-point of .790 in 2022—not bad for an average player but for someone like Martinez who is at .872 for his career, it’s a noticeable difference.

The Red Sox never did manage to find someone to accept him in a trade back in 2022. Martinez is striking out at a higher rate this season and not getting on base nearly as much. It’s going to be a disappointing return for him even if things get a lot better.

1) Pete Alonso

What can the Mets get for Pete Alonso? Remove yourself from looking at the top 100 prospects in baseball. If Alonso was having a monster year, then maybe he would fetch the Mets something great. But right now with an expiring contract and a rough start to his 2024 campaign, the beloved Mets first baseman probably won’t bring back the kind of haul we wished he could.

Completely out of the control of the Mets will be a field of other first basemen getting shopped around. The St. Louis Cardinals have played better so maybe Paul Goldschmidt stays. However, the Toronto Blue Jays could look to capitalize on the extra year of control Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has and send him somewhere else this summer. They almost have to if their intentions aren’t to keep him long term.

A wider range of power hitting first basemen, even if Alonso has the best numbers by the trade deadline, only lowers what the Mets could reasonably expect to get back for Alonso. With teams getting shy regularly at the trade deadline when it comes to parting with prospects and instead choosing the “creative” route with a platoon of lesser quality players, the Mets may be doomed to accept a lesser offer for the Polar Bear.

Here’s the good news. They don’t need to trade him at all even if they sell other parts. Keeping Alonso around slightly increases their chance to re-sign him as it removes an opportunity for him to see the greener grass on the other side of the fence. As minor as that may be, the draft pick compensation for when he inevitably turns down the qualifying offer could turn out to be far more valuable than any prospect(s) a team is willing to hand the Mets. What’s more, with the QO attached to him, the Mets better their chances of striking a deal as many teams will choose to avoid losing a draft pick of their own.

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