The Mets are sitting in the middle of the trade deadline noise with a roster that has more than a few obvious names attached to it. But while the bigger pieces draw the loudest attention, there’s another layer here: a few depth players who have done enough to at least enter the conversation.
That matters because not every deadline move is about the headline grab. Sometimes it’s about the useful bench bat, the lefty reliever, or the arm who quietly keeps getting outs and suddenly looks like a movable piece. For the Mets, Jared Young, Cionel Perez and Daniel Duarte all fit that mold.
Young has carved out real time at first base, even before Mark Vientos went down with an injury. He’s hit .252/.326/.434 with 7 home runs, and the profile is easy to understand: a left-handed hitter who can help in a variety of spots and looks like the kind of bench piece contenders always want.
He’s under team control through 2031, which gives the Mets a reason to think about both sides of the equation. They could sell high, or they could keep him around as part of the 2027 mix.
Either way, the point is the same - he shouldn’t be asked to carry a starting job, but as a Plan-B, he’s useful.
Perez is a different kind of candidate, but the appeal is there too. He took the win Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers after throwing 3 shutout innings, and his ERA sits at 4.38.
The Mets grabbed him off the scrap heap because of his ability to generate ground balls, and that part of his game still stands out. Even when the results aren’t perfect, he’s getting grounders at a rate above 50%.
He’s been in the league since 2018, and his 1.40 ERA in a full 2022 season with the Baltimore Orioles shows there’s a track record underneath the surface. He’s arbitration eligible next season, so if the Mets decide to shuffle their bullpen, he could become part of that conversation.
Then there’s Duarte, who may be the most intriguing of the three in terms of pure value. He hasn’t allowed a run in 8.1 innings and has given up only two hits.
He doesn’t have the same MLB résumé as Perez, with fewer than 40 big league innings before joining the Mets, but the results have been clean. The catch is roster flexibility: the Mets have already used his minor league option this year, which makes his place on the roster harder to project going forward.
He’s not arbitration eligible yet, and like Perez, he leans on ground balls. That kind of arm can draw interest, whether it’s from the Mets or another club looking for help.
In Other News...
Mets Just Gave A Top Young Arm A Bigger Test
Jonathan Santuccis rise through the Mets system has taken another step, with the left-hander moving up to Triple-A Syracuse after spending the season at Double-A. Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the organizations second-best prospect, Santucci has kept building his case with a mix of results and growth, putting together a 3.57 ERA while showing the kind of strikeout stuff that has made him one of the more intriguing arms in the pipeline.
The promotion gives the Mets a bigger stage to evaluate him against more advanced hitters, and it comes at a time when his recent work has started to look sharper. Santucci has been missing bats in bunches, including a season-high 13-strikeout outing and another start with double-digit punchouts, and his last stretch at Double-A suggested he was ready for the next challenge. If he keeps trending in that direction, he could start forcing a real conversation about where he fits in a future major league rotation. [Read more 🡒]
Mets May Finally Have A Way Out Of Sean Manaeas Contract
Sean Manaeas contract has become one of the more interesting roster questions hanging over the Mets this summer, and the reason is simple enough: he is expensive, the club has been looking for ways to create flexibility, and the rotation picture keeps evolving. Moving him would not just trim payroll, it would also open another lane for younger arms to push into the mix as the team keeps sorting out its next wave of starters.
The possibility is still only a rumor, but it has enough smoke to make the idea worth watching closely. Any deal would likely be driven more by the Mets desire to clear salary than by the kind of return that changes the organizations outlook, and that is the part that makes this situation feel unfinished. For now, it is less about a completed trade than about whether the Mets finally have a realistic path to getting out from under the contract. [Read more 🡒]
Mets May Have An Exit Path From Costly Jorge Polanco Gamble
Jorge Polanco was supposed to help stabilize first base for the Mets after arriving on a two-year, $40 million deal, but the move has not come close to paying off. Signed despite limited experience at the position and brought in as the replacement for Pete Alonso, Polanco has spent much of 2026 battling his body as much as opposing pitchers, opening with an Achilles issue and then landing on the injured list in mid-April with a wrist injury that wiped out nearly three months before his return before the All-Star break.
The bigger problem for the Mets is that the production has not followed the health. In 25 games, Polanco is hitting .149 with one home run and a .431 OPS, a line that makes any kind of midseason escape route complicated even before the contract is factored in. If the Mets are going to find a way out of the gamble, they may need a market willing to bet on a rebound rather than the player he has been so far. [Read more 🡒]