3 players the Mets could trade in the future beyond Pete Alonso to nuke the roster

2) Trade Kodai Senga

Here’s where things lie with Kodai Senga: excellent as a rookie in 2023, injured to start the year in 2024, an opt out after the 2025 season. Should we believe the Mets will trade Senga anytime soon? Absolutely not. He’s going to be a bargain for them through the end of 2025, unless of course everything goes awry next year and he ends up on the trade block.

We should actually expect the Mets to heavily shop Senga in 2025 if they aren’t in contention with one footnote on it: Senga needs to pitch 400 total innings from 2023-2025. He had 166.1 in year one. Let’s give him another 100-120 this year and next. It’s attainable even without the best health.

Senga’s contract isn’t complicated beyond the available opt-out and team option in 2028 that’s conditional based on, you guessed it, staying off the IL. Worth $15 million in 2024 and 2025, a successful year in 2024 for Senga will put him in a position to opt out ahead of the 2026 campaign.

Let’s put it in a way that isn’t just a bunch of words, dollars, and years. Senga is too good for what his contract will pay him. He is worth far more than $15 million a year and even if the commitments he gets in the future are shorter, it should topple the AAV.

Stearns would be bold to trade Senga this year or next because it isn’t such an outrageous deal even if he misses time. He might not even have a chance to push the nuclear button as Senga’s choice to opt out may eventually cause him to leave the Mets instead.