The MLB trade deadline has crawled along so far, with two Minnesota Twins deals leading the way. One sent A.J.
Minter from the New York Mets to Minnesota. The other brought Dean Kremer to the Twins in a buy-low move from the Baltimore Orioles.
For the Mets, there’s still plenty left to sort out before the August 3 deadline. Rumors are still swirling, other moves could still set the market, and a few different paths remain open.
Here are five final Mets trade deadline predictions.
Freddy Peralta ends up with the Cubs in a deal built around volume, not star power. Chicago doesn’t look like the team that will land Tarik Skubal, or even seriously threaten to.
That pushes the Cubs toward Peralta, with the idea that he can give them something similar to what they’ve gotten from David Peterson. The Mets wouldn’t land a top 100 prospect in that kind of swap, but they would get quantity over quality, including at least one player with a real chance to help by 2027, if not sooner.
Sup, Jonathon Long?
Clay Holmes is the one who lands in Milwaukee. The Brewers are expected to pass on Skubal, choosing a different starting pitcher instead of emptying the farm system for the best arm available.
In return, the Mets would pick up one of Milwaukee’s corner infielders with power upside, along with another pitcher who draws strong reviews. From the Mets’ side, that would be an easy deal to live with.
Luke Weaver, meanwhile, stays put. The Mets decide he’ll be more useful next year than anything they can squeeze out of the deadline market.
If the club wanted the biggest possible return, Steve Cohen would have been paying down salary on the Minter deal, and he didn’t do that. Instead, Huascar Brazoban gets moved to the Rangers.
Texas is working with a tight budget while trying to rebuild a bullpen that needs help, and Brazoban’s low salary and remaining control make him an appealing target. The Mets would get back a return that looks underwhelming on paper, which would leave fans debating whether they should have kept the late-blooming right-hander.
Tyrone Taylor also gets dealt, and the destination is some kind of rival. It could be the Yankees, the Phillies, or the Marlins, but the idea is the same: Taylor winds up somewhere close enough to stay on everyone’s radar.
Then, naturally, he turns into a late-season nuisance and delivers a big postseason hit. In this scenario, he becomes this year’s Mark Canha circa 2023.
The final prediction is the messiest one. The Mets end up having to pay part of Luis Robert Jr.’s contract.
He’s owed around $8 million this year, and with his bat sitting under .200, there isn’t much reason to think teams are lining up to take on the full deal. The Guardians are one club that would make sense, but they probably wouldn’t want to absorb the salary.
So the Mets and Cleveland split the difference, the Mets take on some of the money, and New York gets back a player that looks very blah on paper. That would be the worst return of the bunch, and a reminder of a wasted tenure in New York.
In Other News...
Mets Just Sent A Bigger Trade Deadline Message Than Fans Expected
The Mets continued to reshape their roster ahead of the trade deadline by moving reliever Huascar Brazobn, a pitcher who still had three seasons left on his contract, in a deal with the White Sox. In return, New York picked up two minor league arms, Gabe Davis and Zach Franklin, both prospects with limited major league experience.
It is the kind of swap that says plenty about where the club is headed right now. Brazobn had been part of the bullpen picture, but the Mets chose to turn a controllable arm into younger pitching depth as they keep working through deadline decisions, and the next moves will say even more about how aggressively they plan to retool. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Deadline Catching Move Could Signal Something Bigger
A catching swap at the deadline gave the Mets a little more pitching depth when they dealt Ben Rortvedt to the Dodgers for right-hander Chayce McDermott. Rortvedt had only briefly been back in the Dodgers organization, but the move fit a familiar pattern for Los Angeles, which has been forced to patch together its catching group because of injuries to Will Smith and Dalton Rushing.
For New York, the deal is notable not just for the arm coming back, but for what it says about how the front office viewed the rest of the market. Rortvedts value to the Dodgers was rooted in his familiarity with the club and the stability he provided during last years injury-hit stretch, and moving him now suggests the Mets were willing to turn a useful depth piece into a return they felt better matched their needs down the stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Deadline Purge Is Already Hitting Familiar Names
The Mets' deadline reshuffling has already started to put a familiar feel to the churn, with the front office turning over pieces and bringing in prospect capital as the trade market heats up across the league. New York sent Freddy Peralta to the Tampa Bay Rays and moved Huascar Brazobn to the Chicago White Sox, part of a broader stretch of deadline activity that saw clubs around baseball making their own swaps and roster changes before the clock runs out.
On the roster side, the Mets also made room by promoting Robert Stock and Bryce Conley while designating Kevin Herget and MJ Melendez for assignment. For a team trying to thread the needle between present depth and future value, these are the kinds of decisions that can reshape the bullpen and the organizational picture in a hurry, even if the final ripple from this purge is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]