When it rains, it pours.
The New York Mets can’t even sell correctly as one of their biggest trade chips, starting pitcher Zack Wheeler, looks to be off the table this summer.
The righty was placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive Friday, due to shoulder fatigue. That makes the earliest possible date for Wheeler to get back on the mound Jul. 23, just eight days before the trade deadline.
With at most two possible starts available before Jul. 31, it wouldn’t be enough time for the Mets to prove that Wheeler is healthy and worthy of a maximum return.
Wheeler’s durability has often been called into question after missing two entire seasons following Tommy John Surgery. Since 2014, he’s made 20 or more starts just once.
Granted, the return wasn’t set to be too much, anyway. The 29-year-old righty will be a free agent at season’s end and the price for rentals has significantly decreased over the past few seasons. Sellers aren’t just going to be handed top prospects by contenders anymore.
The Mets have been burned by this notion plenty before with recent firesales having failed to yield much.
Over the past few years, the likes of Jeurys Familia, Addison Reed, Jay Bruce (the first time), Asdrubal Cabrera, Lucas Duda, and Neil Walker have been traded for low-level, low-skill prospects.
The return for Wheeler would have been just as underwhelming, especially since his 2019 season has been a shell of the second half of his 2018 campaign.
Wheeler turned heads last season when he went 10-1 with a 2.06 ERA in his final 15 outings. The impressive finish suggested that he was finally going to meet expectations placed on him when the Mets acquired him from the San Francisco Giants for Carlos Beltran in 2011.
That hasn’t been the case, however, as Wheeler is 6-6 with a 4.69 ERA on a Mets team struggling to stay 10 games under .500.
At this point, it might be best for the Mets to retain Wheeler for at least another year.
Seeing as 2019 isn’t going anywhere near the way both parties wanted it to go, Wheeler will likely not get the big contract he was hoping for this winter.
A one-year deal could work for both parties as Wheeler could prove to the rest of the league in 2020 that he can be a top-end starter, allowing the Mets to get a bigger trade return.
