3 reasons the Mets failed at the trade deadline

Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline was one for the history books, as more than 107 players were traded prior to the trade deadline. The New York Mets added four players in Daniel Vogelbach, Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf, and Mychal Givens who will all be on the roster by Wednesday. 

But the Mets could have improved their team even further, as a lot of potential upgrade opportunities slipped away.

1) The Mets failed to acquire a left-handed relief pitcher to upgrade from Joely Rodriguez.

The biggest shock of the Mets coming out of the trade deadline is that they did not add a left-handed relief pitcher before the deadline. The Mets have had this issue all season, looking for replacements for Aaron Loup and Brad Hand, who were wonderful as Mets last season. The Mets had to trade a reliever with lively stuff in Miguel Castro to get a lefty in Joely Rodriguez. 

But Rodriguez has been quite inconsistent this season, with the walks being a nightmare (16.5 percent of opposing hitters have walked). And the Mets haven’t had that reliable lefty piece that could effectively neutralize lefties in the division in high leverage spots such as Matt Olson, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Juan Soto (now a Padre). 

Figure the Mets have to deal with the Dodgers in the playoffs (Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Cody Bellinger are the Dodgers’ lefty power bats), and the Mets missed an opportunity to add a lefty reliever. 

Andrew Chafin and Gregory Soto from the Tigers, and Brock Burke and Matt Moore of the Rangers were examples of lefties that the Mets could have traded for, and the reliever market didn’t move as quickly as many experts believed it would.