The Trade Market Is the Mets' Best Path to Achieve Offseason Goals

There are generally two currencies baseball teams use to acquire new players in baseball: cash or talent. The Mets have leaned heavily into the first bucket under Steve Cohen, making big free-agent outlays to try to protect a farm system they are trying to build up into something that can sustain a perennial contender like the Los Angeles Dodgers.

President of Baseball Operations David Stearns has a few outstanding needs to address in the offseason, including the rotation and first base, but he is dealing with one of the worst free agent classes in years. Even though the Mets should and will go after Tarik Skubal to be their ace, the majority of the class features either risky bets on players coming off outlier performances or lower-cost fits who don't move the needle that much.

First base, in particular, could be problematic to address via the free agent market alone. The top player on the board may be Milwaukee's Jake Bauers, who set a career high in homers this season and was rewarded for it with a qualifying offer by the Brewers. The Mets haven't been afraid to sign free agents with a QO attached before, but burning draft capital for a player who had his best season at age 31 is not smart business.

The rest of the class isn't great there either, as Ty France may get overpaid off a strong year in San Diego, while Alec Bohm feels like a "meh" pickup. There are, however, a lot of intriguing trade possibilities that could cause Stearns to pivot in that direction more often this winter.

Why the trade market is a better option for the Mets this winter

Given the economic uncertainty surrounding baseball, it is very possible that Stearns will want to avoid clogging up his payroll with more questionable contracts for the long haul. Trading for players opens more possibilities, particularly at first base, and offers some cost certainty in terms of salary for those players.

The smartest rotation strategy the Mets could pursue this winter would be to sign Skubal and make a trade for someone like Minnesota ace Joe Ryan, giving them a potential postseason rotation when Nolan McLean and Christian Scott are added to it. There are also a wide range of first base possibilities via trade as well, ranging from players likely on the block (Houston's Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes, Detroit's Spencer Torkelson) to bigger swings (Kansas City's Vinnie Pasquantino) that take more convincing from Stearns.

A strong second half from the Mets' farm system, combined with good returns from the deadline sales, gives Stearns the kind of depth to be able to afford parting with a few useful pieces to get a big upgrade elsewhere. Two players on the current roster, infielder Brett Baty and starting pitcher Zac Thornton, are the kinds of useful big leaguers with club control that make sense for smaller market clubs to add in deals to part with players closer to free agency.

The two biggest depth areas the Mets have are in the middle infield and the rotation, which could also make them an attractive trade partner for teams who don't want to give big free agent dollars to the likes of Jazz Chisholm or Freddy Peralta. Stearns has been willing to use the trade market to take big swings before, as evidenced by the Mets' trade for Peralta last year, but a bad result from that deal won't dissuade Stearns from trying again if he thinks the value is there.

The only deal of more than two or three years the Mets should be willing to hand out in free agency is to Skubal, who is a no-brainer to add to the roster. If the option is overpaying to bring someone like Bohm in to play first base or trying to find a match in the trade market, paying with talent will be a far better value than paying with cash based on this free agent class.

Get Mets On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.

Add us as a preferred source on Google