The Mets’ 2026 season has gone off the rails, but there is still one move that could keep the year from being a total write-off: turning their trade chips into controllable starting pitching.
That’s the route MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo pointed to, and it fits the shape of where this team is right now. The Mets entered the year with World Series expectations.
Instead, they’ve become one of the more likely teams to sell at the trade deadline. It’s a brutal turn, even if the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies, among others, are having worse seasons on paper.
DiComo laid out the case plainly: "If the Mets can turn their tradeable assets into a pitcher to help the 2027 starting five, that would be a boon for a team that's suffered through one of the worst rotation seasons in recent franchise history," DiComo writes.
That’s the kind of deal that makes sense for a club stuck in the middle of a lost season but still looking ahead. The August 3 trade deadline is the key date, and the Mets’ need is clear: controllable starting pitching.
There are names out there. The Los Angeles Angels could make Jose Soriano or Reid Detmers available, and both are under club control through the 2028 season. Joe Ryan of the Minnesota Twins is under control through 2027, while Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha are both under control through 2028.
Any one of those arms would give the Mets a major lift, both now and down the line. Even if buying at the deadline doesn’t fit the usual script for a team with a poor record, this is the kind of exception that makes sense when the goal is to be back in the mix in 2027 and beyond.
The pieces the Mets could use to get there are already on the roster. Freddy Peralta, Brooks Raley, A.J. Minter, and maybe some others like Francisco Alvarez and Luke Weaver could be part of a package to bring back starting pitching with team control.
There’s also another path: landing MLB-ready starting pitching prospects in return for those trade chips, giving the Mets controllable options who could reach the majors during the 2027 season and beyond.
The 2026 season may already be a disaster, but if the Mets can turn expiring assets into a starter who sticks around, they’d at least walk away with something real from a lost year.
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New Yorks draft board gets thinner from there, too. The Mets will not have a second-round selection after the free-agent move that brought in Bo Bichette, which means their next crack at the class comes much later in the process. For a team trying to balance immediate roster upgrades with long-term pipeline health, the cost of that setup is already showing up in the shape of the 2026 draft. [Read more 🡒]