Reese Kaplan -- Grading the Trades Made by David Stearns

It’s time for us to sit back and reevaluate how David Stearns has handled this roster refurbishment as the Mets attempt to reinforce their team by adding strengths while simultaneously not necessarily addressing all of the problem at hand.

First of all, let’s look at the prices paid.  For the Mets to obtain Gregory Soto, Tylor Rogers, Ryan Helsey and Cedric Mullins it took capital.  This time it’s not about the kind from Steve Cohen’s wallet but instead using an improved farm system’s prospect pool to invest in the August and September months of the long baseball season to help propel the Mets into a front running position for October.  It took one major league veteran and ten prospects to make things happen.  Let’s consider a few of them.

In one respect, if you look at the players traded away, there was first Jose Butto.  Now Butto has been an interesting relief pitcher for the Mets since his arrival in New York back in 2022.  That year he made a very limited single game appearance and it was not very good.  In 2023 he appeared in 9 games, but 7 of them were as a starter. The pitching quality improved to a 3.64 ERA and it appeared as if the man might have a future with the club.  Then came last season and in 2024 Butto transitioned primarily to the pen, appearing in 30 games but starting just 7 of them.  For that year he had a sparkling 2.55 ERA and a WHIP just a hair over 1 runner per inning pitched.  That was a breakthrough for the then 26 year old Venezuelan hurler.  In 2025 there was definitely regressing as the ERA again shot up to 3.64 with the WHIP number jumping 30% and the strikeout numbes down almost 20%.  While it’s tough to give up a home grown 27 year old, it would appear that the 2024 season may have been an outlier and it’s understandable that another club might feel they can get him back on track.

The other big name near the majors in this group of future Mets was center fielder Drew Gilbert who became a Met in the Justin Verlander trade in 2023.  He started off his Mets tenure very well by hitting .325 for the remainder of that season.  It seemed as if the acquisition was a positive one.  Then things didn’t proceed nearly as well.  Between injuries and slumps Gilbert has not been quite the same player since then.  In 2024 he hit only .205 for the season over a combined 62 games.  He did hit 10 HRs but stole only 3 bases.  Then in 2025 spent primarily in Syracuse he upped the HR total to 14 in 88 games played but the stolen bases only rose to 4 while hitting .252.  All of the sudden Jett Williams and Carson Benge looked a lot more like prospective future Mets, thus making Gilbert trade expendable.  For his minor league career he owns a .259 batting average over 277 games played with some modest power and little speed. 

At one point Blade Tidwell was regarded as one of the Mets future starting pitchers.  He did indeed make a few starts for the big club this season and it was not the stuff of a future All Star.  In his four games (2 as a starter and 2 from the pen) he owns a 9.00 ERA and a WHIP of over 2.2 runners per inning pitched.  Lest you think it’s merely a tiny sample size, go back and examine his minor league numbers.  In 73 games since arriving to the Mets in 2022 he has a 4.60 ERA with a high WIHP of 1.335 driven primarily by his giving up 4.6 walks per 9 IP.  His best numbers were in rookie ball, Port St. Lucie and Brooklyn, but in both Binghamton and Syracuse he hit the wall — hard.  At age 24 he still has time to turn things around, but it was pretty clear that for the Mets he didn’t seem like he had a spot in the 2026 starting rotation available to him. 

Now I’m not going to go line by line through the remaining eight players no longer a part of the team during David Stearns’ last minute prospect capital spending to ensure the arrival of four rental players who may not even be Mets once the season ends.  Did the club overpay in the Pete Crow-Armstrong mold here?  It would appear not.  Is it possible that some of the lower level minor leaguers blossoming into major leaguers?  Absolutely.

However, remember that the goal here was to fortify the tired and often unreliable bullpen.  Between the return of Brooks Raley and the arrival of these three veteran pitchers you could surely say mission accomplished.  The lineup needed more offense desperately and here it’s a little less clear.  Cedric Mullins is not quite a one and done flash in the pan but his last three seasons have been well below average offensively.  Still, his stellar defense and great stolen base numbers suggest that even if the power never fully emerges again he’s not a terrible choice.  Having gained another left handed bat, it’s not clear whether Mullins will be part of a platoon with Jeff McNeil returning to second base or if he will play as a daily center fielder. 

What hasn’t been done is bringing clarity to the still overcrowded infield.  Luisangel Acuna, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos are all still unclear where they belong and how often (if at all) they will play.  If McNeil returns from the outfield to the infield it makes that an even more difficult mess to resolve.

Furthermore there is no improvement given to the DH role on this club.  Starling Marte is still around as is Mark Vientos.  In theory these two could combine at DH but not in a platoon as they both are right handed hitters.  Jesse Winker just moved to the 60-day IL so for a left handed partner to either of them (who would play more games than either of them would) it would appear switch hitter Ronny Mauricio could enter the mix as the outfield is still a bit thin to consider moving the lefty swinging left fielder or right fielder into a DH role.  McNeil could be a DH platoon partner with someone but others have more defensive flaws that could be sheltered by assuming that role.  Baty is likely in the mix to play regularly one one side of Francisco Lindor or the other as he usually delivers good if not stellar defense, so that would take his lefty bat out of the prospective DH mix, too.

Some people considering what the Mets have done are giving grades of A to the pitching changes and B+ or thereabouts for Mullins.  I think Mullins is more likely a B to B- acquisition being a hitter in the .229 range, so I’d give Stearns a B to B+ considering he gave up relatively little of future needs to make these moves finally happen.  The problem is everyone was expecting an A.