Would New York Mets Dare to Move Scherzer, Verlander at Deadline?

The New York Mets are off on Thursday, six games under .500 and coming off a 10-8 loss to the Houston Astros in a game in which they led, 9-6.

The Mets are limping toward July and could, potentially, be sellers at the trade deadline. If so, how much would they trade? And who?

The Athletic recently put together a Top 100 big board of players that could potentially be traded. They’re not on the market now, and they may not even get to the market. But the criteria was these were players that general managers are either interested in or tracking through scouting as the deadline approaches on Aug. 1.

Four Mets made the list. Two of them are players the Mets have made huge investments in — pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.

Neither Scherzer nor Verlander look quite like themselves this season. Scherzer is 6-2 with a 4.04 ERA. He’s coming off a dominant win over the Astros on Monday. Dealing him would be about trying to get the rest of his $43.3 million for this season off the books, along with getting a team to take on his player option for 2024.

The same goes for Verlander, who signed with the Mets this offseason. He’s 2-4 with a 4.50 ERA in nine starts, as he missed time to start the season due to injury. Verlander’s contract is a bit more iron-clad. He’s guaranteed $43.3 million in 2024 and has a vesting option for 2025 — if he pitches 140 innings in 2024 at age 41.

The other two players have a little less contract baggage. Starling Marte is batting .258 this season and a contender could use him as outfield depth. He can still steal bases efficiently at age 34. He has two more years left on his deal that pays him $20 million per year. The team that trades for him has to hope he can be productive for two more seasons.

The fourth is pitcher Carlos Carrasco. He’s 2-3 with a 6.48 ERA. He would be much easier to move. He’s an impending free agent.

The Mets are not talking like a team that wants to sell at the deadline. Circumstances could change. Given that players like Scherzer and Verlander are on opposing teams’ radars, in spite their contracts, sends a clear sign that teams might take a pass at them come late July — if the Mets are out of it by then.