The New York Mets are in a bad spot. Not just a losing stretch or a rough month. We’re talking 45-62 bad. Dead last in the NL East bad. And with the August 3 trade deadline closing in, the word around the league is that this roster is about to get stripped down.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan didn’t exactly sugarcoat things. On Threads, he wrote that the Mets need to “fumigate the place.” He followed that up with a more specific prediction: New York is likely to move a handful of players, though the hefty contracts tied to some names could complicate things.
“I think Holmes, Peralta, Minter and Raley go for sure. Robert would be a guarantee, too, if his salary wasn’t $20M. I think Weaver is gone. Probably Taylor as well. It’s not gonna be Minnesota last year. It is gonna be a bloodletting,” Passan wrote.
So the Mets are looking at a significant sell-off, but it won’t be a total fire sale like what the Twins did in 2023. Think more like a controlled demolition. The money matters. And that $20 million salary for Luis Robert Jr. is a sticking point.
One guy who might not be going anywhere
There’s at least one player drawing real interest who the Mets seem reluctant to let go. Backup catcher Luis Torrens has reportedly drawn attention from the Chicago White Sox and other teams. New York likes him enough to hesitate. That’s not nothing for a team that’s clearly in reset mode.
Meanwhile, Robert Jr. himself told MLB.com that he wants to stay. “To be honest, I’d like to stay here,” he said. “I don’t like those types of moves or trades that just happen in the middle of the season and you have to move around fast. But at the end of the day, that’s out of my control.”
Hearing a star say he wants to stick around while the front office is considering shipping him out is a weird tension. But that’s where the Mets are right now.
New York already fired manager Carlos Mendoza during this disappointing season. The team was supposed to be a contender for the NL pennant. That never materialized. Now they’re left figuring out which parts of the roster are worth keeping and which ones get dealt for whatever they can bring back.
The Mets take on the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. After that, the countdown to August 3 gets real. And based on what Passan and others are saying, the next week could look a lot like a fire drill.
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