After a season that ended nine games worse than the year before, the Mets are heading into the winter with a roster that suddenly looks crowded in all the wrong places. The next few months won’t just be about adding talent - they’ll be about figuring out who still has a lane in Queens.
That’s where the trade conversation starts, because several players who are already on the roster don’t have obvious paths to regular roles in 2027. With Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, and other young players pushing their way into the picture - and Jefferson Rojas and Jonathan Santucci on the way next - the squeeze is only getting tighter.
Among the players most likely to be moved, Ronny Mauricio stands out first. The 25-year-old is out of minor league options, so if the Mets keep him, he has to occupy a major league spot.
The problem is that those spots are nearly spoken for, with Francisco Lindor, Jared Young, Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty, and possibly Bo Bichette if he opts in. First base also remains a position the Mets need to upgrade, and that only adds to the crunch.
Even if New York found room for Mauricio on the bench, it still wouldn’t solve much. His bat has not taken the step forward the Mets needed, and he’s had a brutal time against breaking balls, hitting just .050 against them this season.
He still has value because he’s only 25 and can handle shortstop, a premium position. That’s exactly why a trade could make sense: another club might offer him the everyday run he can’t get in New York.
Mark Vientos lands in a similar spot, and maybe an even messier one. After his big 2024 - 27 home runs and an .838 OPS - the last two seasons have gone sideways.
In 274 at-bats this year, he hit .212 with 13 homers and a .258 on-base percentage. On top of the drop at the plate, he hasn’t settled into a defensive home, struggling badly at both third base and first.
There is a path for Vientos, but it’s a narrow one. He could survive as part of a designated hitter platoon or as a bench power bat, but that looks less likely with Polanco expected back after surgery on his left ankle. Polanco will likely spend most of his time at DH, which leaves Vientos staring at either a trade or a non-tender.
Kodai Senga is in a different category, because his future may come down to what he wants. He has one year left on the five-year, $75 million deal he signed after arriving from Japan in 2023, and he’s made clear he wants to stay in the rotation. The Mets can’t just hand him that role after what’s happened over the last year and a half.
Senga’s season began poorly, with a 10.08 ERA in his first seven starts and little swing-and-miss stuff to lean on. But when the Mets moved him into a one-inning relief role in August, the results improved fast: a 1.74 ERA across 10.1 innings.
He leaned on his high-velocity four-seam fastball and ghost forkball, and the move worked much better. If he accepts a bullpen role, he could help the Mets there.
If he won’t, his name becomes much more likely to surface in trade talks.
After that top tier, the odds of a move drop considerably, though Brett Baty still has a case. He wasn’t steady enough to lock down an everyday job, but he did show why the Mets still value him. In 2026, he appeared at every position around the infield, giving the club a useful layer of flexibility.
His bat also woke up late, as he hit .303 with five home runs and a .926 OPS over his final 40 games. Still, the Mets have seen this before; Baty put together a nearly identical stretch in 2025, which leaves the team right back at the same question about his role.
He’s under control for three more seasons, and his trade value may be at its highest point. If the Mets don’t buy the late surge, this winter could be the time to cash him in as part of a larger deal.
But unless they get an offer they can’t turn down, keeping him looks more sensible than dealing him.
Marcus Semien also sits in the middle of the conversation, though the contract makes him a tougher piece to move. David Stearns wouldn’t fully commit to him as the Opening Day second baseman in 2027, and the numbers explain why. Semien posted a .620 OPS, the second-worst mark among all qualified major leaguers.
That kind of production isn’t enough for an everyday job, so the possibility of a trade is real. The hurdle is massive, though: the Mets still owe him $46 million over the next two seasons.
That makes finding a trade partner extremely difficult unless the Mets are willing to eat salary or take back another bad contract. For now, the likeliest outcome is that Semien opens next season in New York.
If the struggles keep going, though, a DFA could eventually enter the picture.
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