At the beginning of June, most discussions surrounding the New York Mets roster pertained to selling at the deadline. But after a stellar month, New York sits right outside a playoff spot and firmly seems like deadline buyers. That said, reports indicate that Mets front office leader David Stearns could look to strengthen the postseason push by trading away veteran starters from its deep rotation depth.
One sense I have gotten from Mets people: they are open to potentially trading starting pitchers ahead of the deadline – and still competing for the postseason – with Kodai Senga, Christian Scott and Jose Butto, among others, seen as possible rotation adds.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) June 22, 2024
Per Mike Puma of the New York Post, the Mets have considered dipping into their solid rotation depth to trade veteran starters and buy other pieces at the deadline. Teams have tried to play the middle in the past and have had varying degrees of success. However, the Mets might actually improve the team by relying more on pitchers who are thriving at Triple-A rather than continuing to trot out limited-upside veterans.
New York Mets Considering Trades To Sell Veteran Starters And Buy Other Pieces
Throughout this season, New York has received varying degrees of performance from veterans like Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea. Plus, the team has given a decent amount of starts to pitchers (Adrian Houser and Tylor Megill) that likely fit better in the bullpen.
However, top prospect Christian Scott seems ready to stay in the majors. His upside is higher than all four aforementioned pitchers while his floor, even as a rookie, likely isn’t much lower, if it even is. Plus, New York expects Kodai Senga to finally return sooner rather than later. Based on his pedigree in Japan and second-half performance last season, Senga has one of the highest upsides in baseball, let alone on the Mets depth chart.
With this in mind, Scott and Senga provide a higher upside behind Luis Severino than Quintana and Manaea. With Houser already in the bullpen and Megill to likely follow, New York could easily view David Peterson and José Buttó as better options at the end of the rotation than Quintana and Manaea.
If so, the Mets would be choosing to go with higher upside down the stretch and possibly into the playoffs over veteran experience and presence. It’s certainly a bold move, especially considering Quintana and Manaea have been occasionally less than fine, but not awful. That said, seeing if they can provide anything on the trade market is a smart, creative move that Stearns must pursue.
Selling Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea
New York’s rotation as a whole has walked too many batters and has failed to pitch deep into games. These short, high-stress outings occur too frequently and have put immense pressure on the bullpen. But at this point, Quintana and Manaea might be the only culprits still in the rotation.
At this point in their careers, they are who they are. It’s unlikely they provide anything more than solid mid-to-back of the rotation production. They feature good stuff, decent intelligence, and should be able to limit awful outings. However, they won’t tap into their full potential nearly enough.
That said, plenty of contenders would love to have these veterans in July through September (and maybe October). Pitching represents the most valuable commodity in today’s game and even league-average production can go a long way.
NEWS: Sean Manaea could be a potential trade target for teams if the Mets are sellers at the deadline, per @BNightengale pic.twitter.com/n6DxQ7tlMK
— Mets Batflip (@metsbatflip1) June 7, 2024
With pitching injuries and underperformance littered throughout the league, there will be interested suitors for Quintana and Manaea. Stearns would be foolish not to at least talk to other teams and gauge the market.
In potential deals (and assuming the Mets stay in contention), Stearns could impact the club in multiple ways. First, New York’s main need is bullpen help. The Mets may swap Quintana or Manaea with a reliever who has a similar veteran status. With higher-upside starters replacing them in the rotation, a solid middle reliever could hold more value to the team than Quintana or Manaea.
On the other hand, Stearns could pursue some sort of prospect that can help the Mets land a bigger trade acquisition. Acquiring a difference-maker will require trading away solid prospects. A Quintana or Manaea trade might bring New York prospects who could lessen the blow of trading for a high-upside, legitimate difference-maker.
Keeping Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea
That said, there could be value in holding onto these veterans. First of all, trading one or both could upset the clubhouse culture, and Stearns might not want to mess with that again. John Harper of SNY revealed that sources told him that Stearns learned a lesson after the horrendous impact trading away Josh Hader had on the Brewers at the 2022 deadline.
For https://t.co/HXLkX5MaC9: Strong consensus among scouts/execs I spoke to that Mets have legitimately turned a corner, will be bullpen buyers at deadline. A few noted advantageous schedule in July: 18 games vs. Nationals, Pirates, Rockies, Marlins. https://t.co/SL6H1dFYYb
— John Harper (@NYNJHarper) June 25, 2024
Quintana and Manaea are not as productive as Hader, but each is popular in the clubhouse and holds some sort of leadership role.
Furthermore, evaluators seem skeptical regarding just what value New York can get back for either veteran southpaw. When the Mets were deemed as sellers a few weeks ago, many reports speculated that Severino was the only player on the team, let alone starting rotation, that held any real value.
Even with limited upside and better starting options in the organization, both Quintana and Manaea have value. First, the Mets rotation without these two would feature young and/or injury-prone arms that would benefit from workload management. Quintana represents a solid option if the Mets use a six-man rotation for a couple of months.
Additionally, Manaea pitched well out of the bullpen last year with the San Francisco Giants. The Mets don’t have an in-house lefty reliever who can truly replace the high-quality production of the injured Brooks Raley. Based on how his velocity and stuff improved in the bullpen last season, Manaea could bridge that gap. Plus, this shift could save the Mets from having to trade prospect capital for a lefty reliever.
David Stearns Has Options
Whether the Mets trade away veteran starters or not, Stearns enters the trade deadline in an advantageous position. It’s always great to have options, and the Mets can use their starting pitching depth in various ways.
They could trade veterans like Quintana and Manaea for a piece with similar value at a different position. Or their trades could forecast a bigger move. Or, the Mets could move these arms to the bullpen and deepen the overall pitching depth.
We won’t know what the Mets do for another few weeks. But Steve Cohen hired Stearns partly for his creativity, and it will surely be on full display during his first trade deadline leading the Mets.
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