Mets Monday Morning GM: Weekend shrinkage confirms a trade deadline sale

At 3-3 in the second half heading into their weekend series against the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets started off with a win in their game that started on Friday and was washed out until Saturday. This last ditch effort series was their final chance to make themselves trade deadline buyers. At the very least, winning two of three from the Red Sox would have positioned themselves somewhere closer to standing pat.

Nope. The Mets dropped the last two. Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco couldn’t have come up much smaller in their starts. The weekend shrinkage confirms it. Everything must go.

The NY Mets should be willing to listen to offers for everyone, yes, everyone

Scherzer isn’t exactly the most attractive trade piece right now and the debate over whether to trade him or not comes down to that pesky player option for next season. Unless he’s the kind of person who enjoys standing next to a pile of money and burning it, he’ll be back with the Mets next year—or at least taking some of their money.

The Scherzer and Justin Verlander trade talk has gone back and forth throughout this summer hot stove season. Teams are known to have checked in on Verlander. Scherzer, the less effective pitcher whose value received another black eye this weekend, seems like he’ll be stuck with New York which isn’t the worst thing. Many of us would rather roll the dice with him next season than pay him to go away and get nothing back.

Carrasco’s weak outing did little to help him market. Unable to even get through the third inning, his up and down career with the Mets is the most consistent thing about him. There have been flashes of the old Cookie. Then there are those outings where someone left the oven on a little too long.

The Mets should be willing to listen to offers on everyone they have beyond just the obvious. Listening to offers is far different from actually taking action on them. Considering the wee faith we have in Billy Eppler, the listening is the part of this trade deadline movie before the monster is introduced.

This past weekend was the final chance for the Mets to show us they deserved to become buyers. Realistically, it was a long shot. We can look at it positively, though. Nobody’s fooled. They showed us exactly who and what they are. It was a rare series where the bullpen, at least in game one, showcased itself as a strength. Meanwhile, the starting pitching and offense wasn’t particularly helpful in giving us any faith this team could pull itself up from the bootstraps.