MMO Roundtable: How Would You Grade The Mets Trade Deadline And Why?

The trade deadline has come and gone. Last month, we shared whether we thought the Mets should be buyers or sellers. Now we know the answer to that question – we saw quite the sell-off. General manager Billy Eppler even said that “the organization is making strides towards a better future.”

What did you think of the Mets moves? Did you love them or hate them? Did you think they were the right ones to make or the wrong ones? Here’s how we grade things. For a full recap of trade deadline moves, click HERE! 

Patrick Glynn

B+
The process of realizing their losses and using them to get great prospects is wonderful process. But it’s hard to ultimately be happy with the fact the Mets became sellers this year. If sadness this year translates to success next year and beyond, it’s worth it. But I can’t hand out an A+ when the deadline was full of selling.

Chris Bello

B+
Facing the reality of their mediocre season, the Mets turned something negative into a major positive. They got Luisangel Acuña, Drew Gilbert, and Ryan Clifford (all top 100 prospects) for two aging pitchers, and added another potential top 100 prospect in Marco Vargas for David Robertson, who will be a free agent this offseason.

By adding these players, the Mets have an entirely revamped farm system, setting them up for immediate success next season, and for the years to come. While no one wants to throw a season away, the Mets were obviously not better than some teams ahead of them in the NL Wildcard race, and they made the smart choice to build a sustainable winner.

John Sheridan

C
The Mets minor league system is far better today than it was a week ago. Honestly, for the amount of money the Mets covered, I would’ve expected 2-3 more prospects in the door. But, that’s not the reason for the low grade. The reason for the low grade is the news the Mets aren’t expecting to put a contender out the next two seasons. They essentially said they’re going to waste the remaining prime of players like Alonso, Díaz, Lindor, McNeil, Nimmo, and Senga.

After Cohen said he wasn’t going to overreact to a poor season by firing Eppler and Showalter, he decided he was just going to get rid of Verlander. Verlander is gone, but the people who led the Mets to this point stay and are making franchise altering decisions. Now, there’s no Ohtani. Maybe Alonso doesn’t sign an extension. Who knows who else is out the door. In all, it seems like a promise to Mets fans was broken. If nothing else, the remaining players seem to feel that way.

James Villani

A-
When looking at what the Mets and general manager Billy Eppler did at the deadline, independent from the extremely disappointing reason they had to do it, the team is now tremendously better suited for it’s future.

The Mets, aided by the riches of their owner, were able to completely bolster their farm system. The team was able to acquire two-to-three top-100 prospects in the league, as well as five-to-six prospects that will rank inside the team’s top 15. Not to mention, as an added bonus, they were able to swing a once decently-rated prospect (Jeremiah Jackson) for a veteran reliever who struggled with the team.

The organization did what they unfortunately had to. They cashed out on their aging veterans while they were still able to, and improved the team’s future immensely. Disappointing season aside, Billy Eppler and team had themselves a terrific deadline given the situation.

Ross Bentley

A
While the performance of the 2023 club, and the position it put the organization in this week is certainly perplexing, the front office and ownership deserve immense credit for understanding the reality of the situation they were in and making the hard decisions that were necessary.

While parting with multiple future HOFers in two days is stinging, the truth is that the 2023 and 2024 clubs were not, in any realistic way, going to be serious contenders. The window for the current group likely expired, as evidenced by their complete inability to get out of their own way this season and the regressions of several key pieces from last year. Now, they have acquired four Top-100 prospects for three pitchers 38 years or older. Calling that anything less than a complete success, given the circumstances they were in, would be in bad faith.

The Mets now have a clear, three-step blueprint to building a championship-caliber roster. 1). Develop their elite young talent and ensure they maximize their potential. 2). Use Steve Cohen’s financial resources to build through free agency and sign high-quality MLB players 3). Use the newfound organizational depth to make smart trades and bolster the MLB club without completely gutting the farm.

While all three of those steps need to be performed carefully and concurrently, and it by no means guarantees a championship, the pathway is at least there, which is something that would have been hard to say a week ago.

Jordan Baron

B+
The bottom line is, baseball happened.

The Mets tried to contend and rebuild the farm system at the same time, and they did so by putting together the most expensive roster baseball has ever seen.
And they did a good job of it on paper. If the Mets, or another team, tried this strategy again in the future, there’s a high chance it might work. Unfortunately, the baseball gods reared their ugly heads; there were unexpected injuries to key players and severe underperformances that put the Mets in the position where they are today.

I feel relieved and proud of the fact that the team and the front office accepted the reality of the situation they are in, and didn’t shy away from it. This was a sellers market and the Mets took full advantage. The Mets put money into free agency this past offseason to try and win now. When it didn’t work, they took that same money and invested it into fast-tracking the development of a farm system. Now we sit in a position where we have four possible top-100 prospects, with arrival times to the MLB scattered over the next few years.

There is no saying that the Mets cannot compete in 2024. They still have an established core and will spend in free agency to compliment that core over the coming years.

I agree with Patrick above in that I cannot give the Mets a higher grade because they did in fact sell, and this was a disappointing situation to begin with. But I give the B+ because I think they made the best of a bad situation, and I still feel confident, if not more confident, in the future of this franchise.

Christian De Block

A-
The 2023 New York Mets have underperformed for nearly the entire season. Since May, the lineup, the starting rotation and the bullpen has each gone through difficult stretches. The group failed to click, and as a result, Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler were put in a position to sell at the trade deadline.

With that in mind, the Mets did a fantastic job in their quest to build up the farm system. Adding guys like Luisangel Acuña, Drew Gilbert, Marco Vargas, etc… put this franchise in a much better position moving forward.

Cohen spent big in his first couple seasons in ownership. The had a 101-win season in 2022, but other than that, it hasn’t been the most successful strategy. I applaud the front office for pivoting and looking towards the future.

On the surface, it is hard to compartmentalize with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander no longer being Mets? Absolutely, but if the window is going to reopen in 2025 and 2026, Cohen and Eppler did the right thing by tearing the ‘23 Mets down.

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