Advertisement

Mets have three All-Stars yet team all but set to be sellers at trade deadline

matt ehalt
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 30: Jeff McNeil #6 of the New York Mets reacts after his eighth inning two RBI single against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

NEW YORK – The 38-win New York Mets have as many All-Stars –three-- as the 54-win Yankees, and one more than the 53-win Twins.

This allows for one of two possibilities: Either the Mets are vastly underachieving or they are the norm and the Yankees and Twins are the outliers.

The obvious answer is the first option.

Of the 11 teams with at least three All-Stars, the Mets own the worst record with a 38-47 mark even after Sunday’s 8-5 come-from-behind win over the Braves.

That win featured a pair of two-run hits in the eighth by two of those All-Stars, infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil and first baseman Pete Alonso.

McNeil’s two-run single off A.J. Minter gave the Mets a 6-5 lead, and Alonso followed with a two-run double to triple balloon the lead. The two will be joined in Cleveland by reigning NL Young Cy Young winner, Jacob deGrom.

“Pretty unbelievable day,” McNeil said. “This is right up there with when I got called up. To have a day like that is awesome.”

That the Mets are wasting such brilliant seasons from McNeil and Alonso makes this season all the more difficult to digest since these types of individual campaigns can fuel a playoff push. McNeil leads MLB with a .348 batting average, overtaking Cody Bellinger, while Alonso trails only reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich in homers.

Teams dream of having a cheap, formidable duo like those two, and the Mets also have deGrom, Michael Conforto and Dom Smith, among others.

That brilliance only goes so far though when the bullpen can’t hold leads and leads MLB in saves, and the supposed starting pitching is not what it’s cracked up to be.

Those are reasons why a team that entered the year that labeled itself as the ML East favorites is now fully aware that it needs to be sellers, according to a source.

Even Sunday’s win, which featured the Mets erasing a two-run hole in the eighth, only served as the team’s first win in eight days.

They had lost seven games entering Sunday, all against playoff competitors, which all but sealing this team’s chances to be buyers at the deadline.

The Mets had their chance to showcase their skills. And they flopped. Badly.

They’re 12 back in the division and 6.5 back in the Wild Card.

“We're disappointed where we're at because we're disappointed where we're at,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said after his team's first win since June 22. “It's not because of these guys are actually doing what they can do and we're still losing, it's just we're disappointed as a team because we win and lose as a team."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 30: Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets avoids the tag from Tyler Flowers #25 of the Atlanta Braves to score a run in the third inning at Citi Field on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is now faced with the tall task of retooling the roster and finding the pieces to complement McNeil and Alonso.

The Mets are pass the point of rebuilding. You don’t trade away a stud prospect in Jarred Kelenic and take on Robinson Cano for $100 million to just turn around the next year and blow it all up. Officials said the plan to win now and in the future.

The bullpen needs to be overhauled, and the starting rotation has to be addressed since Zack Wheeler and Jason Vargas could be traded soon.

Wheeler, who will start Tuesday against the Yankees, is the Mets’ top trade chip, and one league source believes he could net a mid-tier prospect.

The team lacks other trade chips with its veterans on expiring deals in Vargas, Todd Frazier and Juan Lagares will bring back little.

The team could explore trading Smith for another young controllable piece, but he could also be a starting outfielder in 2020. A trade of Noah Syndergaard, who allowed three runs in 5.2 innings in his return from the injured list Sunday, is best suited for the offseason since his value is not at its peak right now.

The Mets are not a hopeless team. They just need significant tinkering.

“This team doesn’t give up. It doesn’t matter what our record is. No matter what state we’re in. We always fight to the last pitch. Some times during that stretch things didn’t go our way,” said Alonso, the Mets’ first rookie position player to be an All-Star. “Today, we could have easily folded. The character of this team, today was a really great example of that. …Today was huge.”

If the Mets can find the right pieces to go with Alonso and McNeil, perhaps next year their record will be more in line with other teams that have multiple All-Stars.

The Mets and Braves both have three this year, yet Atlanta is clearly better in 2019, and could be for the long haul. That’s the team the Mets will be chasing for a while.

Alonso and McNeil can only do so much. They need some help.

“Those two guys,” Syndergaard said, “you can’t praise them enough.”