It looks all but confirmed that the New York Mets won’t be trading any of their pitchers, whether that’s Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard or Zack Wheeler. But the team might not be completely quiet at Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, which is today at 4 p.m. ET.
According to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, catcher Devin Mesoraco and outfielder Jose Bautista provide the “only chance” of the Mets making any sort of trade on Tuesday.
The problem is that they wouldn’t provide much of a return considering their best days are well behind them.
At 37 years old, Bautista is a shell of the power hitter who once hit 54 home runs in 2010. After being acquired from the Atlanta Braves for nothing Bautista has hit just .233 with six home runs and 24 RBI in 58 games.
Mesoraco was a part of the trade that sent Matt Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds, a solid move for the team considering the Mets were dealing with injuries to Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki.
The 30-year-old former All-Star who once showed tons of promise after a 2014 season in which he hit 25 home runs and 80 RBI in 114 games has seen his career derailed by injuries. With the idea that a change of scenery could help resurrect his career, there was a slight chance that Mesoraco could provide the Mets with a legitimate No. 1 catcher even when d’Arnaud returns from injury.
However, he is batting just .229 with seven home runs and 24 RBI in 50 games.
For a Mets team that was once toying with the idea of rebuilding, having these two as the only possible trade assets on deadline day doesn’t offer much hope for the organization to get anything worthwhile back. New York dealt Asdrubal Cabrera and Jeurys Familia earlier on in the month for limited returns of mid-level minor-league prospect, international bonus pool money and salary relief.
But Buster Olney of ESPN reported on Tuesday morning that the Mets believe that they can be contenders in 2019 without dealing the likes of deGrom or Syndergaard.
That would mean the Mets would have to rely on management spending money for significant upgrades and the team staying healthy.
