3 teams that the Mets may bid against for needs at the trade deadline

We are only six days away from the Major League Baseball trade deadline, and the New York Mets are part of the bunch of teams that will be buyers ahead of Tuesday, August 2. 

But what about the rest of the league? There are teams out there that share the same needs as the Mets, whether it is bullpen help, improving the catcher situation in the wake of the James McCann injury, acquiring an impact bat needed for the playoffs. It is all there for the Mets to potentially get into some interesting bidding wars with fellow contending teams. 

The Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers may duke it out for relief pitching. 

Since June 1, the Mets bullpen has ranked ninth among the 30 teams in reliever ERA. The Dodgers are 11th. The Mets and Dodgers both need help strengthening their bullpens in time for the playoffs, as it has become the weakest point on both clubs over the past two months. Each bullpen has been overall okay, but if the Mets and Dodgers will indeed see each other in October, it will become a battle of attrition when it comes to their pitching. 

Now, the Mets will have the biggest strength of any contender in any singular area in their front-end starting pitching come October, but the Dodgers have had better starting pitching than anyone else in baseball this season. The Dodgers bullpen needs at least one quality arm to deepen their pen as they’ve been decimated by long-term injuries, with Daniel Hudson and Brusdar Graterol hitting the shelves over the past four weeks.  

The Dodgers have used 20 pitchers in relief since June 1, and that creates too much instability. Acquiring a reliever will lessen the instability, and since the Mets need a reliever too (they have been talking about David Robertson from the Cubs recently), the Dodgers’ brass needs to consider some of the same targets the Mets have.