Tom Brennan - A Series of Trouncings in Metsville

THE METS ORGANIZATION IS BEST PICTURED LIKE THIS

 

Bad baseball and bad records abound in the Mets organization. 

I wish it were otherwise. I am not alone.

We all know the Mets’ very bad situation: 

They went from a 7-4 record to 10-20 collapse in just a few short “shock and awe” weeks.

Last night? 

They got trounced. 

Down 13-2, mid 7th, when I simply gave up. Let me know how the horror show ended. (OK, I peeked. 14-2 loss. Thankfully, they picked up a safety.) Peterson has a better ERA than Manaea (6.53 vs. 6.55).

Carl Edward’s Jr., meanwhile, between spring training and the regular season, in 14.2 IP, has allowed 3 earned runs and fanned 22. We all knew at the start of spring training that he’d be the Mets’ ace, right?

Combined, Lindor, Vientos, Taylor, Alvarez, and Robert have 34 RBIs. Sal Stewart of Cincy had 29 RBIs all by his lonesome.

Kidding (and disturbing facts) aside…

Let’s face it: 

1962 IS BACK! 

Or, if you prefer:

THE TRAGIC IS BACK!

Of course, fragile, injury-prone Luis Robert, Jr. might be headed to the IL. 

Roger Daltry heard that about Robert and asked, WHO’S NEXT? 

Syracuse? 

AJ Ewing did what was seemingly impossible for him, going hitless on Wednesday night - but only because Syracuse’s game was postponed. 

The S-Mets therefore remained at 14-13, slightly over .500, and making them the shining team beacon of light in the organization so far.

8-15 Binghamton? “Let’s not play two.”

The Polo Ponies followed up being no hit on Tuesday for the second time in April with an 8-2 loss in game one of a doubleheader. The hitters didn’t hit, except for a two run first inning, and starter Will Watson is now 0-4, 6.98. 

Not good.

In game 2, again there were 2 first inning Binghamton runs! A 3-0 Joander Suarez-supplied lead was narrowed to 3-2 in the 4th. Then, in the 5th, Suarez got pulled and the lead did too. Metoyer was awful. Down 5-3, heading to the 6th. Final? 5-3 loss. Their hitting stopped - again.

Jacob Reimer (.186) had 3 hits in the twin bill.

Next up, the Cyclones:

Their 5-17 record says it all - Brooklyn’s subglacial offense (.184) remained subglacial, with a 5-0 loss. Joel Diaz is sitting ugly at 0-4, 8.68. And Brooklyn is allowing opponents to score 6 runs on average per game. 

Not good. 

Mitch Voit had two of the squad’s 5 hits, and a couple of steals. After his 3 for 23 season start, he has hit well since (14 for 53, 3 HR, 10 RBIs.

As a point of offensive team comparison, a Winston Salem player named Caleb Bonemer has 11 home runs in 22 games, while Brooklyn’s entire team has 12 in 22 games.  Three SAL teams have between 32 and 38 homers already. OUCH!

St Lucie? “Let’s also not play two.”

The Lucites score a good number of runs, but the team’s pitching staff is severely struggling. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen”. 

161 runs allowed in 193 IP. Three other FSL teams have allowed 95 or less. 

How do you spell “disparity”?

A 7-6 first game 8 inning loss. 

One game 1 bright light, Elian Peña, had two hits.

In game 2, St Lucie fell to 10-13, losing a 7 inning affair by the score of 7-4, so on the evening, they allowed 14 more runs in 14 opponent innings. 

Pena? A hit and a walk (.346). 

And 19 y/o, recently promoted Eddie Lantigua added two RBIs in the 7th.

The two losses came despite their opponent Tampa trying to be generous, by making 8 errors in the short twin bill. They needed to have made 12.

RECAP:

With one April day left:

March/April have been brutal for this Mets organization. No sugar-coating it. 

This was an organization where both the Mets and its farm system were ranked by some in baseball’s top 10. 

How wrong were those projections, huh? How about #30 and #30, instead?

Outscored brutally by a combined 46 to 17 in 6 games last night? Egads.

And a combined 47-78 (.376) Mets teams’ win-loss record? Egads.

Of little solace in that the NY Yankees are 20-11.

Well, take comfort: the Mets’ teams’ combined May records are currently 0-0.

Green shoots? 

Every year, the optimists strive to see green shoots, when what Mets fans really need to see, but all too rarely do see, is a forest.

We simply have no Caleb Bonemer types.

Alex Rubinson - Throwing the Curve and Inducing Groundballs, Holmes is more than the Mets could have ever hoped for

When the New York Mets signed Clay Holmes ahead of the 2025 season, there were significant questions on if the dominant reliever could fully transition into becoming a full-time starter. We had seen examples with David Stearns deploying this strategy with the Milwaukee Brewers with the likes of Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, but those hurlers made the transition very early in their respective careers. On the flip side, the San Francisco Giants signed Jordan Hicks to a four-year $44 million contract with the hopes of converting him into a starter. 

Unfortunately for the Bay Area team, that decision blew up in their faces. For Holmes, it may have not always been pretty, but the decision saw positive returns. The former New York Yankee tossed over 165 innings while pitching to a 115 ERA+ in his first season in Queens. Although we are only a month into the 2026 season, and the biggest question regarding Holmes has been stamina, he has appeared even more comfortable in the early goings during his second season in a big league rotation. 

Holmes turned in one of his more dominant outings on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals. The Nats offense has started to come back down to earth but had been surprisingly a solid unit to begin the 2026 campaign. Holmes went six shutout frames and only surrendered three hits and one walk. Earlier in the month, he shutout the Giants across seven innings and only allowed three hits in that contest as well. 

There might be reason to believe that Holmes will eventually come back down to earth. A 1.75 ERA is not sustainable for just about any pitcher (except maybe if your name is Paul Skenes). Still, all of Holmes’ pitches are returning plus value. According to Baseball Savant, his overall pitching run value of five is in the 89th percentile among all big leaguers. Both his fastball and offspeed run value are at two (he gets another run of value from his breaking stuff). The offspeed value is all the way up in the 88th percentile. It’s impressive when his breaking pitches are bringing up the rear but still place in the 72nd percentile. 

What has been most impressive is that Holmes is retaining his value despite a high volume of innings in the first month. Entering Wednesday,He currently ranks just inside the top 20 in innings pitched. In an era of the five-and-dive starting pitcher, Holmes is giving Carlos Mendoza’s squad length. That within itself is a valuable commodity. 

Holmes has brought back his curveball. Prior to 2026, Holmes had not thrown his curve since 2021. The curve replaces the slider, which he threw about 11% of the time a season ago. Whether it was Holmes’ decision or the Mets’ new pitching brain trust, the decision to replace the slider with the curveball has paid off. 

Last year, opponents slugged nearly .530 against the slider. Although he is still working in the curve (only thrown 37 total times), hitters have not mustered a single hit against the pitch. He has thrown it almost exclusively to lefties. In addition to re-introducing the curveball into his repertoire, Holmes has ditched the four-seam fastball. He never heavily relied on it, but he did throw it five percent of the time in 2025. This year, he has thrown the four-seamer a grand total of once. 

Holmes’ raw stuff has not been overpowering hitters. His strikeout rate (16th percentile), whiff rate (35th percentile) and even his hard hit rate (37th percentile) are nothing to brag about. Where Holmes makes his money is getting hitters to chase outside the strike zone. He is in the 74th percentile in chase percentage. 

Normally, one might think that would be associated with a higher whiff rate, but instead, hitters are making contact, but it’s on the ground. Holmes is in the 90th percentile in ground ball rate. He induces ground balls at over 55% of the time. In an era of opponents trying to lift the ball, being able to keep hitters on the ground is a premium skill. Those underlying statistics will allow Holmes to maintain solid numbers even if he isn’t supporting a sub-2.00 ERA within the ensuing months. 

This isn’t an anomaly either. From 2021-2023, when he was a dominant relief pitcher, Holmes' opponent pull air percentage was anywhere between 5.5-7.5 percent. Although that number has climbed since becoming a starter, he still maintains a very good pull air rate of just over 13%. That number might appear high given his reliever rates, but it still ranks relatively well when compared to the rest of the league. In the early part of this season, Holmes has cut off over 50 points in wOBA and his launch angle sweet spot is down to just under 25%. This goes a long way to keeping the ball on the ground and giving your defense the opportunity to make plays behind you. 

The pitch for Holmes to watch closely will be his sinker. He throws it nearly half of the time. Hitters are currently only batting .161 against his primary pitch, but the expected batting average is .283, which is an enormous jump. This isn’t to say that we should all of a sudden expect his sinker to get knocked around the ballpark, but it’s why his hot start might not be completely sustainable. Maybe Holmes has mastered the ability to get batters to hit the ball to where the defenders play, but the .161 average might start to trend upward, especially once the weather in New York warms up and the ball does carry farther. On the other hand, if Holmes can keep opponents on the ground, that might not be a problem.

When the Mets inked Holmes to a three-year contract, they were hoping he could give them a solid five innings every fifth day and slot into the backend of their rotation. Due to injuries and other starters underperforming, Holmes has been thrusted into a larger role. It’s a big risk when depending on a former reliever to give you quality starter innings over a six-month season. It’s not always going to be pretty and look as dominant as it did on Tuesday night, but in a time when Stearns has faced a lot of backlash for his roster construction, it appears he is being proven right in seeing a full-time starter in Clay Holmes.  

Paul Articulates - Carson Benge impresses in his first month

I found it very interesting to discover that Carson Benge has already accumulated 3 Outs Above Average (OAA) this year across three different outfield positions.  Benge, who is in his rookie season with the New York Mets, has brought fielding excellence to a team that went to considerable lengths during the off-season to improve their defense.

Typically, a team would like to ease a rookie into position by providing some stability and a cast of players around him for support.  This season, it has been anything but that.  Between the poor hitting up and down the lineup and the fragility of the Mets’ outfielders, Benge has had very little support at all.  He has shown that he is up to the task nonetheless.

So far this season, Benge has played left field in 13 games, right field in 12 games, and center field in 4 games.  Over those games, he has accumulated 56 total chances and made 54 put-outs for a fielding percentage of .964.  His speed and range have contributed to stellar numbers in the advanced metrics with the 3 OAA and 2 runs prevented.  His OAA numbers rank him fourth among MLB outfielders, and second in the NL behind Pete Crow-Armstrong.  Baseball Savant ranks him in the 94th percentile for his range, 93rd percentile for his arm strength, and 91st percentile for his sprint speed.  This equates to a superb defender across all outfield positions – and he has only just begun.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Savant

Carson Benge is having a little more trouble adjusting at the plate, getting off to a slow start with only a .188 batting average to date.  Benge has adjusted to the pitching at every level he has encountered in his baseball career, and the analytics are saying that he should be able to adjust at this level also.  He already has above average numbers for chase rate, whiff rate, and hard hit balls, and his average exit velocity of 91.1MPH is pretty impressive considering his low barrel %.  Once he has become accustomed to seeing the stuff that MLB pitchers can deliver, the barrel %, exit velocity, and hitting stats should begin to climb.

He may be the biggest bright spot for a team that continues to struggle to find its mojo on the field.  His steady play in the midst of the environment of turmoil caused by the club’s failings is a testament to his mental fortitude.  If and when this team picks up and the confidence builds, I expect to see Carson rise to new levels of performance that will have him ranked among the top rookies in the league.  

The RVH - New Way to Read the 2026 Season

 

There are two ways to watch a season like this.

You can watch the standings. Or you can watch how a team responds to disaster.

Right now, the standings tell you the New York Mets are fighting just to stay relevant. A push toward .500, maybe hanging around the Wild Card conversation, but nothing that feels stable or bankable.

The response tells you something very different.

This is no longer a “win-now” team in the traditional sense. It’s a live reconfiguration of a roster, a pipeline, and an identity — happening in real time.

And that means the most important games of 2026 haven’t happened yet.

The Split Season Reality

What you’re watching today is not the same team you’ll be watching in June-July.

The current roster — as reflected on FanGraphs — is a bridge state, not an endpoint.

Veterans are stabilizing innings and at-bats.The bullpen is being stretched and stress-tested.The lineup is searching for consistency it may never fully find.

That’s the surface layer.

Underneath, a second roster is forming.

The Second Roster (Already in Motion)

This is where the season flips.

By mid-year, the Mets are likely integrating a wave of players who aren’t just depth — they are directional bets.

Position Player Pipeline

• A.J. Ewing – athletic profile, defensive flexibility, potential late-season spark

• Nick Morabito – true center field traits, speed, range, system fit

• Ryan Clifford – power development, middle-of-the-order projection

These are not plug-and-play stars. They are signal generators.

Each at-bat answers a question:

• Can this profile translate?

• Does this skill set scale at the MLB level?

• Is this part of the 2027 core?

Pitching Pipeline (Where It Gets Interesting)

• Christian Scott – near-ready, already testing MLB viability

• Jonah Tong – development curve, command vs. stuff balance

• Jonathan Pintaro (assuming your reference here; verify spelling) – depth-to-impact swing arm

Pitching is where seasons either collapse or stabilize.

For the Mets, it’s something else entirely: a live experiment in rotation construction.

What This Season Actually Is

Let’s call it clean:

This is a salvage-and-build year, not a contender year.

That doesn’t mean tanking. It means dual-track execution:

Track 1: Stay Competitive

• Push toward .500

• Don’t lose the clubhouse

• Avoid full structural collapse

Track 2: Extract Signal

• Identify 3–5 core players for 2027+

• Stress-test young pitching

• Evaluate defensive range + athleticism upgrades

• Redefine lineup construction

If they flirt with a Wild Card, that’s upside.

If they don’t, it doesn’t invalidate the season.

The Real Risk

The biggest risk is not finishing under .500.

It’s finishing the season with no clarity.

If the Mets exit 2026 still asking:

• Who are our 5–7 foundational players?

• What does our rotation look like next year?

• What is our actual offensive identity?

Then the season failed; regardless of record.

What Success Actually Looks Like

Success isn’t 88 wins.

It’s something more specific:

• 2–3 young hitters establish repeatable MLB at-bats

• 1–2 young pitchers prove they belong in a rotation

• Defensive athleticism materially improves

• The team plays different games than it did in April

That’s how you turn a drifting season into a directional one.

The Embedded Question

Every game from here forward should be viewed through one lens:

Is this helping us understand what this team is becoming?

Because by July, the Mets won’t just be trying to win games.

They’ll be answering a much bigger question:

What version of this team is worth building around?

Final Thought

The 2026 Mets are not a finished product.

They’re a system in transition — somewhere between breakdown and breakthrough.

And if you watch closely, you can actually see the moment it starts to turn.

Tom Brennan - Green Shoots

 

A.J. EWING IS A GREEN SHOOT INDEED

On a night where the Rumble Ponies amazingly were no hit for the second time in their first 3 weeks, and where the downgraded Cyclones met their 4 hits per game quota, there were a few very green shoots:

Carson Benge is hot. 

He has gone 7 for his last 15 to rapidly jump to just under the Mendoza line at .195.

And AJ Ewing in his AAA debut? A single, double, triple, and a walk.

He now is raking at .373/.500/.627.  

.500? Star stuff.

Maybe, just maybe, AJ was created by AI.

The Mets’ 8-0 win?  We will see. But they are 1-0 in their last game.

Reese Kaplan -- Major Changes Needed But Stearns Just Signs Throwaways

Well, it didn’t take long for the Mets to make headline grabbing significant moves to correct the out of control downhill skid.  In order to solidify the offense they replaced elder statesman Tommy Pham with 4 year younger Austin Slater. 

Really?  This move is the best that David Stearns has to offer?  I’m sure hoping that there’s a magic “The Natural” spin that’s going to evolve from this stunning and monstrous transaction.  After all, if you only look at career numbers then you see that Slater is a career .247 hitter spread over now his 7th team during his highly unimpressive career.  His best year ever was way back in 2021 for the Giants when he hit .241 with 12 HRs and 32 RBIs.  In David Stearns’ mind he’s the missing jewel from the roster treasure chest.  Could he morph into a, say, .250 or .260 hitter?  Sure, stranger things have happened but there’s no guarantee and right now he’s another Tyrone Taylor minus the defensive skills.

But Stearns was not done reinforcing the team.  Scrap heap picking yet again he also inked the worst defensive first baseman in baseball in Eric Wagaman who was DFA’d by the Marlins because in addition to needing blindfolds for when he plays the field they also apparently couldn’t stomach his .250 hitting without power.  The Angels gave up on him after one year and now the Twins have done the same.  The Mets did assign him to the minors which MAYBE means they are opening up the possibility of promoting suddenly hot hitting Ryan Clifford to play first base in Jorge Polanco’s extended absence, but once again finding what other teams no longer want or need as a way of rebuilding a losing roster is ponderous at best.

At the risk of being redundant, have a look at the rest of the roster.  Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Bo Bichette, Tyrone Taylor, MJ Melendez, Carson Benge, Francisco Alvarez, Luis Robert and even a slumping upon his return Juan Soto are not exactly what would intimidate the opposition.  We can go through the same exercise with flawed starting pitchers and relievers but the end result is the same.  Something needs to be done and a .247 hitting outfielder and an error prone first baseman without power is not exactly solving the problem.

It is possible to make what baseball savants call a “trade” to try to improve the roster, but given the players the Mets might want to push out the door there are no opposing General Managers pushing and shoving to add any of them to their teams.  It may take the more appealing sacrifice of seeing what highly regarded minor leaguers can net in return though by doing so you’re potentially crippling the future of the team.  However, as it stands right now there is exactly one hitter on the roster with a batting average that doesn’t require you to look away in shame.

For now we’re all being apparently asked to swallow hard and keep watching what isn’t working with no health improvements nor slump busting taking place.  The pitching is giving away games as well yet in this regard nothing is happening either.  How much rope does David Stearns get for his team construction while the Mets plummet into what could be permanent oblivion?

Cautious Optimist -- I'm Mad As Hell and I'm Not Going to Take it

 

Indulge me a Cathartic post, please

My great uncle -- not my best uncle, just my great uncle -- was the comedian, Henny Youngman, known best (unfortunately) for his famous one liner, "Take my wife...., please".

He actually had much better material than that, but at least he's remembered for some of his work, even if it is not his best.  I wonder what this iteration of the Mets will be remembered for.

And so I implore you,  "Take my Mets...., please."  

This is not going to be one of my philosophical or analytical or theoretical pieces that bores some of you to death.  This is a stream of semi-consciousness catharsis.  

I need it, and I'm going to indulge myself.  'Do you (dear reader) feel like I do?' (Speaking of which, whatever happened to Peter Frampton's hair?"

It's worse than you think and worse than I had ever imagined

It's really hard to imagine a team more out of favor with its fan base than the Mets.  Even Jets fans are more engaged with their woeful team than are Mets fans.  Somehow the genuinely dysfunctional Jets managed to make two excellent trades at the deadline and had a truly excellent draft this past week.  The typical Jets fan was able to ignore the fact that there is no evidence that their HC can coach at this level and put aside decades of incompetent ownership, and find themselves, if not quite optimistic, at least hopeful.

Hope may spring eternal, but for the average Mets' fan, this Spring has killed all hope. Video may have killed the radio star, but really, who cares? The Mets play has sent me back to therapy, and at these prices, it might be cheaper to pay off an opponent to throw a game every once in a while! 

I think it's fair to say that the Mets fans have lost all faith in the team's prospects, not just for this year, which is bad enough, but going forward.  The extent of the disengagement is both striking and easy to understand. 

What I don't understand is the apparent failure of the organization -- from the owner to the manager -- to grasp its source as well as its significance. 

They are misreading the signals the fans are sending, underestimating, not the extent or quantity of disaffection, but its quality and character.  This is not a fan base responding to a losing streak or to a stretch of disappointing play.  

This is a fan base screaming that there is rot at heart of the team.  Being a fan of the Mets is tantamount these days is like watching a loved one devolve into a depression from which they seem unable to extricate themselves, one that defines them and with which they seem incomprehensibly to have become comfortable with.  

Some might think that watching the Mets is like watching a train wreck, but I demur.  A train wreck, while likely to cause untold personal harm and property damage, is, at the end of the day, a ballistic event.  It doesn't build or boil over, it is above all else, a sudden impact.

What the Mets fan has experienced has been a slow, exhausting, recalcitrant, dissolution.  It is personal and offers no relief or hope of respite, let alone a rebound.

This is like the sucking of all life out of an organism or the death of a long relationship.  At no time does it seem inevitable, but all of the time it seems intractable, incomprehensible. 

Speaking as a fan, I find myself asking questions I never expected I would.  Am I crazy in thinking that the FO and the manager aren't seeing what I am seeing?  Are they delusional in some way.  Is it possible that they just don't care in the way I, and most other Mets fans for life, obviously do. 

Sometimes you have to understand that the fans are invested in ways that may be unhealthy, but which, given how little there is to cheer about or find solace in the circumstances of modern life, may well be all that keeps us going day to day.  Ok, that may be a bit hyperbolic: not all of what keeps us going, but nevertheless essential to one's well-being. 

Sometimes, simple decency requires putting a stop to the pain.  If the FO isn't going to do that, the fans surely will of their own accord.

But most of all, we don't want to hear a manager's post game press conference punctuated by banalities, like, 'we are playing hard, taking good at bats, putting in the work, but obviously what we are doing is not enough'.  Some banalities are informative; some are obvious.  This one is the daily double of banal and uninformative. 

Or my favorite, 'No one is going to feel sorry for us.'  No shite.  The goal is to make them fear playing us.  Do I need to hear the POBO say with a straight face that he believes that the manager is doing a good job?  

Really?  The team is listless, frustrated and plays the game without joy or energy.  They make mistakes and commit mental errors befitting little leaguers.  They are making every opponent seem invincible.

Do I really need a POBO, who I largely admire and have a great deal of faith in, looking to sign players off the scrap heap hoping to find a diamond in the rough.   No, no, a thousand times no.

I'll tell you what I need, and I'm betting others need as well 

I need to see the owner, the POBO and the manager responding to this moment appropriately, which for me is captured best by Peter Finch's portrayal of the fictional character, Howard Beale, in the film classic, Network, going to the window, opening it and shouting at the top of his lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it.'  

If FO continues to 'take it,' rest assured the Mets fans will not.

There may well be little, if anything, the FO can do now that will turn the team around, but we won't even be able to stop the bleeding if we are unable to see how sick the patient is. 

This is a team that is 57-84 since June 12, 2025.  This isn't a team that has to play better.  After all, it is almost impossible for it to play any worse.

This is not a team that needs a good series or two.  This is a team that every fan can see desperately needs a reboot, a severing of ties with its long slow dissolution.   

On second thought, this isn't a team that can settle for a reboot.  This is a team that needs a rebirth.  

We are so close to becoming a team that isn't even capable of talking a good game, let alone playing one.  That is the team the fan base sees day in and day out.  

Is it possible that the FO watches this team and sees something different.  If it is, I'd want a hit of whatever they are smoking or a glass of whatever they are drinking!

So at the top of my lungs, hear me, 'I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it.' 

Nor am I going to spend the summer in a bad mood.  Until there are bright spots to report on on the major league team, I'm going to devote my time to the only source of hope right now: prospects toiling in the minors and honing their craft.

Though prospects rarely pan out as expected, they have not yet shown us their ceilings and we are thus free to imagine the best in them and better days for all to come.   

And just to show that I can find humor in even the most horrific events, I will end with a joke that I have rewritten slightly so as not to risk offending anyone.

Comedian to the Audience:  Do you know the difference between  pessimistic and optimistic Mets fan?

Audience: No. Tell me.

Answer:  The pessimistic fan is always reminding you that the pitchers can't pitch, the hitters can't hit, the manager can't manage, and the GM can't make a decent trade or free agent signing.  He's the first to lament that the situation couldn't be any worse than it is. 

To which the optimistic Mets fan responds, 'Don't be ridiculous.  Of course it can.'

Until next time.

Steve Sica- Are the Mets Heading for a July Fire Sale?

It's the end of April, and the Mets are tied with their NL East rival, Philadelphia, for the worst record in baseball at 9-19.

Seeing these two NL East teams, both of whom have a top-five payroll in baseball, at the bottom of the standings is a surprise. What's more concerning is that, as the Mets fall further and further behind the rest of the pack in the National League, the thought of becoming aggressive sellers at the deadline becomes a reality.

The last time the Mets were in this position was 2023. That worked out well for them at the deadline when they traded away veterans like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Eduardo Escobar, and Mark Canha for a haul of prospects that included Drew Gilbert, Luisangel Acuña, and Ryan Clifford. Clifford remains the only player still on the Mets roster, but overall, a nice haul of prospects for a team that finished well outside the postseason picture.

In the Steve Cohen era, the Mets have been buyers in July. 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025 saw the Mets trade prospects in exchange for proven veterans. The most notable trade was Pete Crow Armstrong for Javy Baez, in a year the Mets finished with 85 losses anyway. If the first month of the season is any indication for the rest of the year, it seems very likely the Mets will be sellers at the deadline. How aggressive they'll be remains to be seen.

Let's take a closer look at the roster and see what the Mets could expect to receive for some of their most valuable trade assets. 

SP Freddy Peralta:

Two months ago, we were talking about signing Peralta to an extension to keep him a Met for years to come. Now, he's the most valuable trade piece on the Mets roster. With his current contract set to expire at the end of 2026, Peralta will be one of the most highly coveted rental pitchers by July. If the Mets do move on from him, can they expect a return as good as the one they gave Milwaukee in January for him? That exchange was for Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, two top-100 prospects. The short answer is likely a no. The odds of the Mets getting that kind of haul for a two-month rental are low.

Still, though, pitching is the most sought-after asset from buyers at the deadline, and the Mets could still get a decent return for Peralta. Maybe one top-100 prospect and a couple of mid-level guys or Low-A prospects younger than 20. 

RP Luke Weaver:

He's still under contract through 2027, owed $12 million next season. But Luke Weaver has been the Mets' best reliever in an otherwise abysmal month. As baseball evolves, relievers, not just closers, are something that buyers are willing to give up more to acquire. Weaver has playoff experience with the Yankees, can slot into a team's bullpen lineup as a setup man or even a closer if needed, and if the Mets are willing to take on a good chunk of his contract, they might receive a nice package of prospects in return. 

SP Clay Holmes:

Perhaps the Mets' best starting pitcher, even over Nolan McLean. Holmes carries a 2.10 ERA in April. He's been the Mets' most consistent pitcher this season, and turned in a solid performance last year, too. If the Mets fall too far back from playoff contention, don't be surprised to see Peralta and Holmes on the move. 

A silver lining to all this is that with those two top pitchers gone, it really opens the door to see what Jonah Tong and Jack Wenninger can do at the MLB level. For Tong, it'll be a far less pressure-packed situation than what he was dropped into last September.

Those are the first three players that I can see the Mets getting real value for without a lot of complexities in eating contract money. 

If the Mets really want to blow it up, even more than they did to their core this past winter, you could make the argument that every player not named Juan Soto or Nolan McLean might be on the trade block. Marcus Semien and Jorge Polanco, two names the Mets picked up in the offseason, would be tough to trade without eating a lot of money or getting a thin package of prospects in return.

Names like Brett Baty and Mark Vientos could come up if teams are willing to take a flyer on them. Neither of them has done themselves or the Mets any favors in April in upping their trade value.

July is a long way off, six teams make the playoffs now, if the Mets turn things around and get back into the hunt, this all becomes moot. If not, then the Mets will be one of the most intriguing deadline teams, but for all the wrong reasons.