Predicting what the Mets starting lineup looks like the day after the trade deadline

Your dream New York Mets starting lineup after the trade deadline has gone from Shohei Ohtani hitting in front of Pete Alonso to just about anything without Daniel Vogelbach. That’s not a seasonal headache you’re feeling. That’s the throbbing pain of knowing there are three more months of Mets baseball to go.

The Mets can still offer fans a little bit of excitement. Surely there’s at least one more bobblehead giveaway scheduled.

On the field, there isn’t much hope left. And with this prediction of what the starting lineup will look like the day after the trade deadline, we find a list of nine players who actually wouldn’t drive fans nuts to see.

The NY Mets starting lineup the day after the trade deadline looks like a fan wrote it up

A constant theme throughout the 2023 season was the desire to see something different. The excitement of young players added in with the struggles of the veterans had us all begging for the prospects well before the June swoon hit.

Finally, once the Mets declutter the roster at the trade deadline, we’ll get the kind of lineup a fan would’ve wanted to see back in May.

Brandon Nimmo, CF Francisco Alvarez, C Francisco Lindor, SS Pete Alonso, 1B Jeff McNeil, LF Starling Marte, RF Brett Baty, 3B Mark Vientos, DH Ronny Mauricio, 2B

There’s no real shock with this prediction. We find the core pieces still around. Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil remain. Starling Marte, because the Mets don’t get a good enough offer for him, stays.

The Mets now have a starting lineup with four of the kids. Francisco Alvarez goes into the number two spot, maybe just temporarily, and we finish off with Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Ronny Mauricio. Mauricio, the one we haven’t seen in the majors yet, takes his spot at second base with Jeff McNeil moving into left field.

For curious folks, the bench includes catcher Michael Perez, Luis Guillorme, Danny Mendick, Jaylin Davis, and a prospect they pick up at the trade deadline. It won’t be a highly-touted guy but more of a candidate to be a fourth or fifth outfielder next year.

After the white flag waves, the Mets need to go into preparation mode for next year. This means living or dying with whatever it is the young players do. We’re already beyond the point of having to worry about the trade value of a guy like Vientos.