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.
2) The Mets didn’t get any new offensive production from the catcher position.
The Mets saw another opportunity slip away, as the Cubs kept All-Star catcher Willson Contreras, despite many rumblings the Cubs would move on from the last member of their World Series team from six years ago. The Mets and Rays were in on Contreras, but the Mets approached the deadline as if they weren’t willing to move any of their top prospects to get him.
Christian Vazquez was another name linked to the Mets at one point. Vazquez is one of the best hitting catchers in baseball, and was an important link to the Red Sox 2018 championship, based on how amazing their pitching was. Vazquez was dealt to the Astros for two prospects, neither one was in the Astros’ top 25 prospect list.
How did the Mets not offer something similar to what the Astros offered? The Red Sox got totally fleeced in that trade, and this makes the Mets look silly for not upgrading offensively. The Mets are banking on the offense from their high-quality players to stay as successful as they’ve been all year while relying on James McCann and Tomas Nido to only need to produce in big spots like (especially Nido) have all season.
By the way, Francisco Alvarez still needs time to look at borderline major league pitching in Triple-A before the Mets give him the shot in Queens.
3) The Mets saw their two biggest division rivals get better.
The Mets begin a stretch of games starting on Thursday where 16 of 18 games are against the Braves and the Phillies, including a five-game set beginning on Thursday at Citi Field against the Braves.
The Braves had another busy trade deadline this season, as they got All-Star closer Raisel Iglesias from the Angels just as the deadline hit. The Braves also got another rotation option by trading with the Astros for Jake Odorizzi (Will Smith went back to Houston) and traded with the Tigers for Robbie Grossman, who has batted .364 with a .999 OPS against left-handed pitching this season. They also got Ehire Adrianza from the Nationals to replace the struggling Robinson Cano. Oh, and they signed Austin Riley to a 10-year, $212 milllion contract extension to boot.
The Phillies got much better too. They traded former Mets star Noah Syndergaard and center fielder Brandon Marsh (who has been offensively challenged this season) from the Angels, and added a big Mets target in relief pitcher David Robertson from the Cubs. Robertson will finally have a chance to prove his worth to Phillies fans as a healthy reliever following a splendid season with Chicago.
The National League East will be even more of a dogfight than the Mets even thought, and with the Padres acquiring Juan Soto, it would be even more important to win the division to avoid facing the Padres in a 4 vs. 5 matchup. Not a great look for Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler where their biggest rivals did more than they did.