Trade deadline deals between the Mets and Phillies don’t come around often. When they do, they usually carry a little extra weight. In 2019, both clubs were buying, both were chasing a postseason spot, and on July 29 they made one of those rare swaps that felt small at the time but ended up mattering a lot more later.
The Mets had a rotation that suddenly had more arms than jobs. Jason Vargas became the odd man out after New York added Marcus Stroman, and the veteran left-hander was shipped to Philadelphia for minor leaguer Austin Bossart.
Vargas was in the middle of a much better second season in New York, with a 4.01 ERA through 18 starts and one relief appearance, so the move looked like a practical roster decision. For the Phillies, it was supposed to help stabilize a need at the back of the rotation.
It didn’t work out that way.
Philadelphia got 11 starts out of Vargas, and that was the end of his major league run. He went 1-4 with a 5.37 ERA for the Phillies, a far cry from the version of him they were hoping to get. The Mets, meanwhile, had effectively passed the veteran along to a division rival and watched the deal become part of a rough finish for Philadelphia.
That late-July snapshot tells the story. The Phillies were 55-50 and sitting third in the division.
The Mets were 50-55 and in fourth. New York had every reason to be selling, not adding, but the season still had plenty of baseball left.
Vargas’ track record made the gamble understandable, even if the outcome was ugly for Philadelphia. Mets fans may not have remembered that he led the American League with 18 wins for the Kansas City Royals in 2017.
But after a preseason injury delayed his 2018 debut, he wasn’t nearly as effective when he finally took the mound, going 7-9 with a 5.77 ERA in 20 starts. That version of Vargas was much closer to what the Phillies received.
By season’s end, the Mets had surged to 86-76 and finished ahead of Philadelphia, which landed at 81-81 and fourth in the NL East. With expanded playoffs just out of reach, this trade stands as one of the reasons the Phillies’ season slipped away. It also leaves the Mets with a strange little footnote: a deadline deal that didn’t really help them directly, but did help spoil a rival’s run.
In Other News...
Mets Deadline Picture Just Shifted With One Roster Update
A rainout turned the Mets schedule into a split double-header, but it also nudged the trade-deadline conversation into sharper focus. With next Monday looming, Laura Albaneses latest look at the roster framed several Mets as possible movers, and the names under discussion include players whose value is tied as much to timing as performance.
Luis Torrens has drawn attention from clubs looking for catching help, even as the Mets appear reluctant to part with him, while Clay Holmes second rehab start is being watched as more than just a health checkpoint. Austin Warren has also begun a rehab assignment in St. Lucie, adding another layer to a week when every roster move seems to carry deadline implications. [Read more 🡒]
This Mets Deadline Gamble Became A Painful Bullpen Reminder
Back in the summer of 2017, the Mets made a deadline move for AJ Ramos as the roster was leaning more toward selling than adding, hoping the veteran reliever could steady a bullpen that needed help. The price was Ricardo Cespedes and Merandy Gonzalez, a reminder that even smaller deadline deals can carry long tails when a club is trying to thread the needle between the present and the future.
Ramos never gave the Mets much of the payoff they were chasing, and the move became one more cautionary tale from that stretch of roster churn. His time in New York ended after a rough 2018 run, and the two prospects sent out in the deal did not develop into meaningful big-league pieces, leaving the trade as a quiet but costly bullpen misfire in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Could Make One Deadline Move Fans Would Instantly Debate
With the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaching, the Mets are expected to do what contenders usually do at this point in the calendar: move players who are not under contract for 2027 and keep an eye on pitching. The rotation has been the obvious place to look, and if the front office decides to chase a starter, the names on the board are the kind that can change the conversation in a hurry, from Angels right-handers Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano to Mariners arms Emerson Hancock and Luis Castillo.
The problem is that starting-pitcher shopping rarely comes cheap, especially for a team trying to balance present urgency with longer-term roster control. ESPN has already surfaced a few more possibilities in that same lane, including Joe Ryan, which only adds to the sense that the Mets could be weighing a move that would help immediately but also invite plenty of debate about how much future value they should be willing to touch for a rotation upgrade. [Read more 🡒]