10 Players Mets MUST Trade For This Offseason

10 Players Mets MUST Trade For This Offseason

The off season is officially here and the Mets can look to be active not only on the free agent market but also on the trade market. So today me and James are going to get a via 10 more like 11 or 12 players that we think the Mets could realistically trade for. We need pitching, we need center field, we need bullpen. This team didn’t make the playoffs. There’s a lot of improvements that need to be made. Before we get going into this list, make sure you guys are subscribed to the Metsub podcast YouTube channel for all the video versions of this podcast. And if you can’t watch us, you want to listen, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google, drops a rating, drops a review, download and subscribe. James, I think the top place we have to start with this number one guy, we’ve mentioned him before. As long as he’s still available, Terrick Scooel, number one target. Mets got to go after him. A number one target by leaps, bounds, far and away, different galaxy from the other targets. One, because he’s that good of a pitcher. Two, because it just oddly feels realistic. the way that we were linked to school the second that rumor came out. Will Sam on the Athletic. The way that people in the Mets world keep mentioning it, keep bringing it up. The way that for some reason the Tigers seem to be making him actively available. And the way that because he’s only going to be in a one-year deal, he will be very attainable in terms of prospect cost. Every single thing lines up for this to be the quintessential move the Mets make this off season to wash away the embarrassment of what just happened and put themselves back into us feeling like they’re actually a World Series contender. Yeah. How many times did you guys say Mets need an ace? Mets need an ace. Mets need an ace. This is the ace. If it’s not Paul Ske, it’s Terrick Scooel. Those are the two best pitchers in baseball. It’s clear. And especially on the left-handed side, you can’t really find anybody like Garrick Crochet is amazing. Top five pitcher in the league. Scooble is still a class ahead of Garrick Crochet. He is that good. And while there is the fear, like you mentioned with that one-year contract, maybe he doesn’t sign an extension. Nothing’s guaranteed. the Mets have the ability, like you said, to give up a prospect hall back to the Tigers that might not be as expensive as people are making it out to be. Like, obviously, there’s people on Twitter who are going to put out their trade predictions and their ideas and throwing Ben and throwing Tong and Williams and and different guys in different packages, but at the end of the day, because Scoo has that one-year contract left and Scott Boris is his agent and you know that you’re going to have to pay him a lot of money, it’s not going to be as expensive as we think. And we should be confident enough from the Mets perspective to be able to do this because one again we now have I think a pretty blatant top five farm system in baseball that has elite talent at the top, good talent in the middle of impact major leaguers and tons of depth of guys in the lower miners that we think can become the next batch of guys we’re talking about trading now. And you should be very confident resigning him because we are the Mets. We have the most money in baseball. Really, it really shouldn’t be a question if you’re able to acquire him to resign him. So, if there was ever a guy to make the most expensive pitcher of all time, it’s Derk Scooel. It’s the guy. Like, we know that the Cohen era at times has spent money frivolously. And we know that David Sterns wants to go out and get the best guys. That’s when he wants to make his moves. Derek Scubble’s that guy. They’re not trading for Paul SK. This is the move. This is the piece. No, for sure. And there’s also some people out there, a weird contingency, both of Tigers fans and Mets fans who are like, uh, the injury concerns are too much. It’s just simply going to be every single pitcher. And we’ve seen now backto-back years of him be healthy. And I don’t know, you could I could even hear an argument that because there were few innings earlier in his career, he might have more innings late in your career. And he has elite philosophy. He has elite stuff. Terable seems like a guy who will be one of the best pitchers in the league until his late 30s. Like he’s the rare pitcher who I would say, yeah, I’m comfortable with it. 9 10 year contract just because he is that caliber of player. There’s also a weird contingency of fans Mets across baseball who are like, “No, I don’t want to trade for him. I don’t want to deal with that. Let’s just wait till the free agent sign him then. To you guys, I say, don’t you want him on your team as soon as possible? Don’t you want him in the building? Don’t we want to try and win next year or we want to push those plans back to another season? Because a guy like Terrace School on the Mets in 2026 instantly makes the Mets a much more serious World Series contender than they are without him. And we know once you get the guy in the building, it’s a lot easier to keep him there than if you’re trying to take him away from another team. Mookie Betts got traded to the Dodgers, never hit the free agent market. Francisco Lindor got traded to the Mets. Never hit the free agent market. You don’t want these guys to have the opportunity to go anywhere else. And when school is available, you got to take your shot at him. Same thing Garrick Crochet last year, never hit the free agent market. That’s just kind of what happens here. And there is usually the reluctance of Scott Boris to sign any kind of extensions, but if you tell him Terrick school will be the highest paid pitcher of all time, 10 for 400, they’ll sign it. I just don’t think there’s any way you turn that down. I just think there’s I mean unless maybe you try to go out and get 10 for 500 the next year. I just I still don’t know how you turn down being the highest paid pitcher in the history of the sport. And I do think the Mets would give him that money pretty instantly. I think the day that he passes his physical, they’d be like, “So 400 million sound good for the next 10 years?” And I think that dotted line would be signed and I think that would work for everybody. Just again before we move on, let’s just talk about what you’d give up from. Want to do all these guys? I think too many videos, podcasts, whatever, they’re like, “Here, we’re going to make these trades. You never talk about returns.” I think that I’m sure the Tigers want to do the thing where they get rid of Terk Scho, but they still pretend they’re trying to win, so they get back some major league caliber-ish players. Like I think Brandon Sprro would be a absolute perfect piece to headline this deal. And then past that, I don’t know who’s even matching that. Like that’s a that’s a pure 50 value future starting pitcher, a mid- rotation guy through and through. If you have to go higher than that, you just throw Tong on top. I think that Jet Williams is someone that you could also put into that deal. I’m sure that the Tigers would like him as like a a primary position guy to go along with Sprro, but that even is like you only I don’t even think you have to start there. Yeah. Like cuz we we comp this to the Corbin Burns trade. While Scubble’s probably better than Burns was when he got moved, they didn’t give up anything to get Corbin Burns. They give up DL Hall and Joey Ortiz, both guys who are like fringe Major League Baseball players right now. And they’re it’s because they’re on the Brewers that they’re really getting as much shine as they are. He’s going to cost more. Like we we know right now if the Mets went to the Tigers, Jet Williams, Jonah Tong, he’s a New York Met. There’s no there’s a guarantee he will be a New York Met unless the Dodgers or somebody comes in with an even crazier package. But the idea is trying to thread that needle a little bit conceptually for us. The Mets might have to hit the home run and and go Jet and tongue to make it actually happen. And I think the Tigers would be in well in their right to ask for that. But like you said, Sprro, Jet Williams, maybe Clifford, like there there’s a bunch of guys in this Mets system, which luckily they’ve built up so strong that you can afford to be a little of an overpay, per se. Definitely. And again, you can afford to overpay a little bit when you are confident the extension could be in the offense, which I’m not sure if you could be or you will be, but like similar to the Red Sox who did go over the top of Garrett Crochet who had like 200 major league innings in his career even though he knew how talented he was giving up multiple high-end players. People are in early in the major leagues playing well like you this is this is just simply the time to do that. And if it takes Tong is the highest I go it’s I I wouldn’t love to part with him again. I’d love the sweet spot is I still think Sprro and Jet, Sprro and Rhyr, Sprro and Yuing, some combination of that, but you kind you just have to do what you have to do here. Yeah, whatever it takes honestly to get it done as long as we keep Nolan Mlan around. I’ll be pretty happy. All right, moving on to the next guy. This is going to sound funny. It’s going to cost way more to get him if he’s actually available. Some rumors that Hunter Green and the Reds Reds could be looking to move him. I mean, it’s malpractice again. A shame that Bob Castellini owns the Reds and refuses to spend any money outside of the absolute bare minimum that he has to. But Hunter Green has a ton of control. He’s one of the better pitchers in baseball and he’s free for like the next three, four seasons. No, it’s this is this would be really a black mark on the league if Hunter Green were to be traded. There’s a Reds team that just has this this would be lockout is a guarantee if Hunter Green gets traded. Really, it just should be like why does this guy still own this team? Like this is this would be a situation where someone’s owning a team to make profit every single year rather than ever considering winning. Hunter Green this year is going to make $8 million. Next year is going to make $15 million. The year after that $16 million. And the year after that when he’s still only 29 years old, we’ll have a club option for $21 million. So you’re getting four years of Hunter Green for $62 million. It’s free. Uh what do we see? Jack Flity just signed for like 20 million last year a year with I think an option this year that could pay him up to 30. Yeah. So, like Hunter Green when all things are clicking is one of the what 10 15 best pitchers on the planet. I would say six. There you go. Seven. Like he’s I think he’s actually in that top tier. Like I’m comfortable putting him in there. And he’s been in that top tier in a place like Cincinnati. That’s one of the worst ballparks for his skill set because he is a power pitcher, fast ball slider, challenge hitters. It’s the worst place in the league for for fly balls. Like that’s it would be incredible for him to come here. But at the same time, this is one where I think it would cost Carson Bench. Yeah, they would have to give up a lot for him because of the control and because of how cheap the contract is. Like you said, four for 62. Just so you guys are aware like Luis Severino got $60 million for three years. That’s how cheap this contract. Yeah. Like we paid we’re going to be paying Shawn Maniah more than Hunter Green gets paid. And again, that’s also the factor of the age, the how how long he’s been in the league, the fact that this extension was to buy an arbitration. There was a lot of risk on Hunter Green when he did sign this extension. He was still someone at the time that couldn’t stay healthy and he still is someone that has those durability concerns just because he throws 101 miles an hour. But at the same time, this is the same it’s the same ilk of scubble where you’re getting one of the best starting pitchers in the league. It does profile similarly to Crochet where you are have you do have to take a risk and I think you will have to trade more because of the the the control that’s on him where again I don’t think that this is a realistic conversation without Carson Benj being involved. Yeah. You know, I think Carson Benj I I wouldn’t be shocked if they also want Sprrot along with that and some of the other prospects have been Benj and Tong, truthfully. Yeah, they’re well in their right, too. I was going to say if they put Sprro, it might also include some of the other fast risers that have been the Mets system. This one’s going to cost an arm and two legs and it should cost an arm and two legs. Hunter Green right now, if you lined up every single player’s trade value in baseball, he’d be in the top 20, even 15 the entire league. I know Fangraphs does that chart every single year. I’m curious where they have him. I’ll see if I can find it at some point during this video. But he is that high level, high caliber of an asset, a true game one pitcher in a playoff series. I know he just got lit up in the only game one he’s ever pitched against the Dodgers, but that’s, you know, it’s neither here nor there. He is he’s that good. There’s tons of risk involved. It’ll be much more prospect capital, but if he’s available, similarly to we talked about Terco, you’d throw your hat in the ring because he’s an ace 100%. Another guy who is definitely a frontline starter. I think you could debate whether he’s the best two or a one of the backend ones. Freddy Peralt of the Milwaukee Brewers, $8 million option seems too rich for the Milwaukee Brewers blood apparently. Another one of those where it’s like they should not be trading this guy. And I will say this, until they do, I don’t actually believe it because again, that contract is so so cheap for Freddy Peralta. It’s weird because of how cheap he is, he might actually cost a decent bit and there’s no real incentive for them to move on from that contract either. No, but the one thing similar to Scooble is that, you know, this is the last year Freddy Peralta will be a Milwaukee Brewer. And I think a team like the Brewers fairly have earned the hubris to be able just to trade these guys because they know they have another pitcher coming up behind. Like they know they’re going to have big rotation depth. At the same time, you just watched your team fail miserably against the the best team in baseball like at the time and you saw that you just didn’t have enough guys to do it. So instead of trying to accumulate more guys to do it, you’re dumping the one guy you want to do it. It doesn’t. I don’t like it. I hate it. We’re going to keep saying this every single time we throw up one of these guys. It’s not us having the East Coast cockiness. It’s just that we know that 20 of the teams in baseball don’t try to win baseball games. So that’s just what it comes down to. At the same time, I want their players. Yeah. Ownership doesn’t care about winning baseball games. I think the front office is actively very much trying to win. And again, I’d found that Hunter Green number 29 on Fangraph’s trade value chart for this past year, which I think is honestly a little low. A little low, but that also probably is going to get bumped going into the next season. Definitely Emma Catel Marte who might be on this list very not right next to each other on that but at the same time Freddy Praalta similarly being on a one-year deal will be cheaper than Terrick Scuba will be far cheaper than Hunter Green you’re looking at a Sprro flip. Yeah, they probably take that. And and Sprro’s name keeps coming up but that’s because he’s major league ready. I think teams are confident he’s a mid- rotation guy 98. Yeah. With a with a great sweeper, a feel for a change upside for more and he can right now go into a team’s rotation next year. A team like the Reds and the Brewers who will be trying to make the playoffs next year despite trading top end talent. Yes. And give you 150 innings and be probably pretty okay. This episode of FT is brought to you by Square. Your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. Give me an example. In Pennsylvania, Cratz, right down the street from my house, the Tap House. Not only is it an awesome place to hang out, get your beers, get your drinks, whatever it is, but you know what? The company has the simplicity of Square and they give back to the community with 10% of all the proceeds that they bring in going back to community projects. I love it. Sports and sports bars are so good at bringing together local communities and you can actually take this ad as an excuse to go support your local spot and have yourself a day or weekend in the neighborhood. Square is a proud partner of more than 4 million neighborhood businesses around the world. These businesses are what make the neighborhood the neighborhood. So visit square.com/go/foul to learn more. But before you do, go support your favorite neighborhood spot. You’ll be happy you did. Square. See you in the neighborhood. Again, that’s square.com/go/fval to learn more. And Freddy Pala made a lot of changes this year that were really cool. Like Freddy Peralta always kind of had the stain of being not the stain, but like he was just a fastball slather guy. That kind of made him being like a chaos pitcher a little bit. Similar to when we’ve talked about Dylan Cece as an option for the Mets this off season. If you lose command of one of those two pitches, you’re [ __ ] And Freddy Palta is a guy who could lose command in the past. This year, tons of great development on his changeman curveball. Makes me again confident that you can give him a five for 125. Five forund five for 150. Insane for Freddy Pal. Kind of feels crazy, but like that might be what he costs when he gets to the open market. Like Robbie Rayish. Yeah, he’s the kind of guy like where if there was someone I would be down to wait for unless he is so so so cheap, he’s the one I’m like I’d rather go after Scooble wait for Peralta if he hits the market. Definitely. But also like Freddy Peralta, if you look back over the last full few years in Major League Baseball, he’s just a very good starting pitcher. He’s since the beginning last three seasons 3.40 RA. That’s great. 500 innings in three years. Like that’s one of only doing the math right now, one of only 19 guys to have 500 innings over the last three years with a top 20 RA. Like he is very good. He’s a good very good pitcher. If he’s your one, like you feel fine. You don’t feel great, but if he’s your two, you feel spectacular. And get them both. I was about to say like the crazy thing is like I don’t know how insane we’re going to be about the our trades this offseason. But I can see us being a little bit crazy because we finally have the farm system in place. I think we’re confident the player development machine. The Mets actually do have enough to pull off two tra I again they have a lot of trades they can pull off. We’re being crazy right now. I’m just we’re having some fun talking. You know what we’re excited to do offseason content the Mets podcast. Like it’s a mess of ter school for the problem and the team next year. I’m going to I’m going to go ballistic. Oh it’ be unbelievable. What a flip of a rotation that would be. Like suddenly you have three. We’re just living in a fantasy world right now. I I don’t know what’s going to come out before this video or after this video but you guys we’re going to do it out of the park. Another full offseason out of the park. It’s going to be the first moves we make. Maybe we pull this one off. Why not, right? Yeah. See what Terco Scubal and Freddy Peralta would cost us to bring in. All right. Another guy that we know is going to be interesting on the trade market just to group in another pitcher here. Sam the Alcantra. Name’s been floating around forever. We know the Marlins are probably going to look to move on from him even though he is still a good pitcher. The season wasn’t great. The Marlins are in a weird spot where they were closeish, but Sandy probably isn’t about the future plans. and knowing Peter Bendix, this would be a guy to cash in on to help the future rather than maybe being closer to a wild card team at this exact moment. And weirdly, the Marlins have pitching depth for days. Like, the Marlins probably have two of the best pitchers in the upper Minors right now. They’re yet to debut in Robbie Snelling and Thomas White ready to go in the minor leagues. Would be, I would say, solid opening day pitchers in their staff. And while I do think they want to contend for wild card birth, like they’re just going to they’re just going to be agile. That’s the way Peter Bendix is, way he was with the race. That’s the way the Marlins have the best shot to get themselves forward. And I think a lot of people are going to be obsessed with Sandy Alcantra’s full season stats. The fact that he had a 53 RA, he didn’t really strike tons of guys out. He walked a few more guys than we’re used to seeing from him, at least until since he broke out. But if you just look at the second half when it seemed like he finally started to shake that Tommy John Rust off, it was a 13 start sample where he threw 83 innings and had 3.3 erra, slight uptick in strikeouts, pretty significant downtick in his walk rate, and he went at least six innings in every single start except two in the second half. Like this is still a frontline pitcher 100%. And the contract is really affordable. It’s basically two years, $40 million for the next two seasons. 17 this year, 21 the next year. comping that to guys on the market. Lucas Gelo who blew out his arm and signed with the Red Sox signed for 2 for 38. Uh Chris Sail two for 38 extension. Jack Flity 2 for 35. Frankie Montas 2 for 34. I mean like these these contracts are so free for a guy like who unlike any of the guys that we just mentioned has the ability to go back to being a frontline starter. He might not ever be that Sai Young ace guy again, but the fact that he does throw 98, still throws a bunch of strikes. Another one that you mentioned, you would love to have Sandy as number two in your rotation. You’d feel great. Would you rather just as a pitcher for the next I guess I mean just for the next year Sandy or Freddy Peralta. Probably Freddy Peralta. I think Freddy Peralta. I can feel confident in that. And I would say that Sandy probably costs more in a trade than Freddy and but you do get that extra year. But also with I mean I don’t know I’m sure this comes into the conversation with a lot of the executives right now with the lockout looming you probably do give so much more credence to this year than another year. Like that second year of control for Sandy probably doesn’t hold as much weight as it would in a different offseason. Especially because if they miss a month you’re like oh great one less month of the guy I just traded for. And again, it’s not a simp it’s not a onetoone comparison, but guys did opt out 2020 season because not the same thing and then they still got that that year where they got to that that still was acknowledged on their contract. So I do do think that’s interesting because Sandy with with a defacto two years of control cost a little bit more. Also, I don’t know exactly what the Marlins would want and that’s where I’m in a weird spot with trying to like pick out a proposal for them. Ronnie Mauricio, do they why why do they want Ronnie Moraicio? The reason I say that is because well one they have no they have no infield prospects whatsoever. Their infield is they have tons of infielders that they’re like Ronnie does the thing that the Rays loved in the past which is major league ready player. All you need to do is make the adjustment at the major league level which they Peter Bendix did great with the Rays did great this year with the Marlins. If you can get and Ronnie Mauricio in terms of like these MLB ready players we’re looking at Max Exilo there’s one of the highest ceilings there is. He can hit the ball harder than almost anybody in baseball. So maybe just a few quick little tweaks to his game and you feel like you have a guy who could be a I don’t want to say cornerstone, but someone that you help build around with this Marlins organization. I still think with that you certainly need to give more than just Ryan just Yeah, it wasn’t just him, but I’m saying I think they want a major league ready players. That’s what they I think going to be targeting like 4A or guys who could be in AAA making their major leagues in the next year or two. I I think that even with that, you probably still have to give up one of our next tier of pitching prospects. One of the Winger, Sanuchi, Will Watson’s like that. One of those guys definitely in the mix for that as well. We’re also I again, you tell me that return. I think that’s commensurate with different frontline starting pitcher packs we’ve seen the last few years. I do think that’s something that I’d be kind of okay with. [ __ ] I’d love to give him Ventos, but I doubt they’re going to take him. Not anymore. I mean, again, like I W’s probably the one guy from that list I just said who I want to hold the most. I do like Will Watson a lot too, but I think he’s a little bit less. What about Tucci? Tucci. I like Tucci. But Tucci, I need to see it. I got to see that change up from Too. Yeah, I think that we saw a little bit more in college than we’ve seen the pros so far. Maybe the Mets just wanted to have him perfect the two before we get to three while knowing that you need the three to take the next step. So maybe this year Double A like the big cue for Touch is I I want to call him Toouch. I think we just figured that out. He’s Touch. I think that that’s the cue this year. Like you got to start seeing the change up now that you’re in the upper miners because you can’t just you can get away with the lower miners. probably still get away with double A with elite fast ball slither combo, but we need to see more. But I I’m I’m kind of falling in love with Winger, especially the fact that Winger has like the horse build. Like I I love a guy like Will Watson with the low the low slot fast ball and the slide they’re building off it, but I always get scared about what future workloads look like and home run rates look like for guys who are 61 180 with great shape fast balls that only 94 miles an hour. It’s very funny because we have a guy on the same list that’s the exact same build. Exactly. Literally the same guys. We’ll just talk about him real quick. Throw him in. I mean, we’re doing the pitchers part of this first and I guess we’ll get other positions after. Yeah. Joe Ryan. We know Watson. Yeah. It’s the Will Watson build. That’s being really, really generous to Will Watson. Disrespectful to Joe Ryan who’s the Yeah, the build is the same. The quality of pitcher is not the same because Joe Ryan is a top 20 pitcher in the game. He’s really really good. The fast ball’s fantastic. Gives up home runs. We like everything that you just mentioned. Worried about durability. Yeah. Worried about durability. That being said, he’s going to be available. Twins are going to be selling. They They got the weird ownership thing going on. They stink. Like, I can’t imagine that they’re they’re dying to keep Joe Ryan around. But also, at the same time, if the Twins ever wanted to compete, they’re like two signings away from winning the AL Central. I mean, they may even one signing away from the AL Central. Like, seriously, they might be like one reliever and one just position player of a random position away from winning the AL Central because they got Baldi and his stink out of there. No, and just also just for clarification, like the Twins also could trade Paba Lopez. The Marlins also could trade Edward Cabrera, but we’ve heard very little about those guys on a trade front, and those guys also have more control than Sandy and Joe Ryan who were mentioning. So, I think it’s worth highlighting those two, but focusing this attention on Sandy and Joe Ryan. Ryan is fun. I think that we’re almost at a point where Joe Ryan has super maybe he’s already superseded what his talent actually is in terms of the pitcher he is. We love philosophy in the messed up podcast. We love stuff on the MedStep podcast. And while Joe Ryan has sensational fastball shape, he’s had trouble in his career sustaining plus velocity. And when he’s had the most velocity in his career in 2024, that’s also when he got hurt. He missed the last two months of that season. This year, he sustained the whole season slightly better velocity. Couldn’t get back to 94 95 from 24. This year was more than 92 to 94. And he’s still an elite pitcher. I still think he’s a top 20 guy in the game, but he to me is bucketed with Freddy Peralta. similarly has developed more secondary stuff that’s helped him get to that spot though. Do you remember who Joe Ryan was originally traded for? Twins going to the Rays? Any idea? Was it Nelson Cruz? Nelson Cruz and one of your boys in the relief. One of my boys in relief. I can’t remember. New Orleans. Who? Calvin Foch. Ah, fun one. That was Joe Ryan. Also, just ties back to Will Watson. He had the same hipster prospect pedigree that will Watson’s starting to get now where the people who were like this is something that isn’t again it’s the time for Joe Ryan he was even more hipster because I think publicly we weren’t as focused on fastball shaving yet that was when we were just also like high fast balls kill sinkers like that was the prospect wave for Joe Ryan like 2018 2019 when he was starting to get famous that was also when we kind of felt like the Rays were starting to lose their fastball in terms of acquisitions where they were like why are they making this trade everyone loves Joe Ryan but it’s it’s a fun system but I’m I don’t know how confident I am in giving Joe Ryan a huge extension. You also don’t have to because you have until 2028. And that’s why I think the Mets would be interested in is he could be a frontline starter without having to ever pay him a lot of money or at least get a lot more data on him before we have to consider paying him a lot of money because he’s going to hit free agency at like 31 or 32, I think. So, it’s a little less enticing than some of these other guys for extensions. He’s arbitration eligible right now. So, yes. Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about some hitters. Wait, it’s one. Oh, four. Would you want to trade for Joe Ryan? Similarish package to what you said for Sandy. Yeah, I think he might be a tiny bit more truthfully because you got two full years of control on probably. But like 26 27 not for a till 28. That’s the same thing as Sandy. No, Sandy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Two full years a year, right? Yeah. I think they’re comparable. I think Joe Ryan slight more. You might get one better prospect or maybe more prospect capital rather than MLB ready guys. It depends what the twins want. I think young prospects too. Like Joe Ryan’s a guy where I could see the twins just just to just to say it just asking for Ellie Pñena. Yeah. Because they’re like give us give us the fun 17y old you got. Yeah. 18 now. Oh, he’s 18 now. So I do think that would be someone that where there’s a that name could come up. I I think the Mets honestly though still would b if anybody brought him up. I do. I agree. All right. Now for hitters bats. I want Catel Marte. I want him so bad. I want him so bad. I can tell Bearte is criminally criminally underrated in Major League Baseball. And we’re he’s starting to get the respect that he deserves, which I’m happy about. But like the the fun stats I always like to read out, it’s like, you know, Catel Marte was seventh in WRC plus this year in Major League Baseball. 145. That was ahead of Pete Alonzo, Freddy Freeman, Corbin Carroll, Vlad Jr. who’s a superstar, Rafael Devers, like Jose, he had a better WRC plus than Jos Ramirez. Like that’s these are elite elite players. The only guys better are like Sodto, Cal Raleigh, Show Otani, Judge. He also plays a completely acceptable second base. It’s not good. It’s not bad, but when you hit like Catel Marte, you don’t really mind it. The two big issues with him, one, Dimebacks probably might not want to trade him. We know there was the weird rumors about his commitment to the team uh in the second half of the season, but Heraldo Portomo squashed those. Also, he costs a lot of money and he’s injuryprone. Those are kind of the the big elephants in the room and it’s it’s the injuries that are just always kind of there. It’s really just annoying tickytac nonsense. Can I can I read you out the history of Katel Marte’s injuries? Every single reason he’s missed a game in his major league career. Hit me. All right, this is going to take a while. So, you got to strap in. Foot, foot, groin, hamstring, ankle, lower body, hands, back, back. That was just 2025 and 2024. I mean lot operation here. God, a lot of muscle. Sounds like not a lot of water. Not a lot of stretching. Illness. Knee, quad, back. Undisclosed. Hamstring, hamstring, hand, hip, hamstring, hamstring, wrist, back, hamstring, leg, back, groin. Just get this guy stretching and he’ll be healthy. I hate how often you hear the word hamstring in a situation like that cuz that’s the one that Jose killer. Yeah, cuz Marte sneaky old as well. He’s like 32. Yeah, turned 32. So, you’re still kind of like hoping that you get the elite version of Catel Marte, but again, like you said at the top, this year, his OPS for the season was nestled between Juan Sodu and Corbin Carroll. Like, this is a super elite hither at the end of the day. One that’s not really available very often. No. And we don’t know if he is, but it’s a name that I want to throw out there and I’ll always throw out. Let’s trade salaries. We’ll give you Brandon NMO and some prospects. You give us Catel Marte. I think that is where this one becomes interesting. I was hoping you wanted to bring up the Nemo aspect because Katel Marte is in the he’s only in the second year of a sixy year $17 million extension. So he’s due five for a hundred straight up after this with some some escalators. He’s a way better player than NMO and NMO even in a world where the Diamondbacks say yes. NMO would have to say yes too cuz he got a no trade clause. But my crazy no trade clauses. Oh, okay. I didn’t know Catel does too. Catel had a five team no trade list and then he has full no trade protection starting 2026 via 10 five rights. There you go. All right. 10 five rights for you guys when a player is in the league for 10 years and it’s with one team for five. There we go. Simple. But yeah, I love Catel. Yeah, Catel is also I love I love looking at um the escalators the like the little little bonuses guys get in their contracts for things. Catel Marte gets money for play appearances. So every year he gets 500k for 500 play appearances. Another 500k for 550 and 750k for 600 and 750k for 625. So if Marte get 625 played appearances, he just made $2.5 million. Yeah, that’s great. I’d love to pay him that extra two million. That means he’s playing. And the NMO aspect is interesting because we’ve said before and we’re gonna say a lot this offseason. I think that the Mets want to trade Brandon Nmo. I think they almost have to. It’s a It’s a contract that David Sterns didn’t sign. It’s a contract that David Sterns wouldn’t sign and it’s a player that Brandon still had a good year. Brandon Nmo is still a good player. Brand you don’t lose because of Brandon NMO, but in terms of seeking flexibility with a roster, that’s a spot where you’d love to have some. You’d love to just have more athletic corner outfielders. as crazy as to say, he was horrible in left field this year. Yeah, he graded fine. We know we see the public grades being fine, but we know that these teams have different defensive metrics than OA and DRS inside because we know how flawed those are and those have been developed by again, it’s the public sphere. And just watching Brand NMO run, you know, you can get a more athletic corner outfielder. So, if you could attach him, they’re basically they’re do very similar amount of money for and Nimmo’s do it for fewer years. So, if you flip that where the Diamondbacks could also use an outfielder and they can sell like, hey, and they have infield depth relatively in their systems. If you can kind of sell that and then being like we’re going to add again pitching prospects that we have similar talk about the Will Watsons talk about the Sanuis maybe throw in one of the Rhyrs or the Euings if you even have to go that far with the salaries matching like it is something that I’m sure this conversation will happen behind the scenes. Yes. And hopefully it goes in our favor. Another salary conversation talk trade guy here Luis Rober Jr. You guys heard me and James but I was I was so damn loud about how badous Yeah. Luis Robera. I I said I’d drive Mark Vento to Chicago and back. Like I I will do anything. I still think this guy change of scenery. He is going to go back to being an all-star caliber player. All the under the hood stuff looks fantastic. Was actually pretty good last year. The under the hood stuff played best of his career. Yeah. Played elite defense. Got on base. Hit the ball hard. He probably just looks around and goes, “Where did all my friends go?” Because he was he was brought up the team won. Then they said, “Wait, we need to bring in Tony Larusa. He poisoned the White Socks along with Jerry Ryanorf being an idiot and everybody else in that organization still using pen and paper or pencils and paper. And then all of a sudden Luis Rober is the only guy from those teams that had success on this roster. I’m sure he wants to get the [ __ ] out of there. I want him on the Mets. And Luis Roar is still an elite defensive player. So you have that floor. And again, the $20 million was a sticking point for Luis Rober. And we talked about him a lot at the trade deadline. And if you look at the free agent market this year, you’re probably not getting a player that is a has a two- win floor for $20 million. That probably is actually basically what it costs. Like Trent, I don’t think Trent Gisham is getting two $20 million a year, but he’s probably going to get not much less than that. And you probably give multiple years. That’s a little bit more risk even though I don’t know if it’s that big of a risk. But this Luis Roar, I think it’s a two- win floor and I think it’s a five or six win ceiling. Like I still think that’s in there because you’re getting a lead center field defense and he’s had he just had the best chase rate of his career, just had the best walk rate of his career. His bat speed is still super elite. His sprint speed is still super elite. Like this is a premier athlete who’s still in the prime of his career. You have a unique opportunity to buy low right now. And I think that’s something that was considered at the deadline and should be strongly considered again given the Mets gaping hole at center field. Yeah, he could be he could be a differencemaker in this team. He could really change not only offensively, but more so defensively what this team looks like. Do you think that Marco Ventos is still on the table? 100%. Is that a trade you’d make? Yes. I think I I would like to know you guys in the comments what you would do about Luis Rober because we know how divisive that was in July after what we saw from the Mets down the stretch and Mark Ventos especially in September. Want to know what you guys think about the Mark Ventos for Luis Rober Junior swap? I mean I’d do I’d do Ronnie for him too. Like either one of those I’d be okay with. What about as we get down to some of the more fun younger guys? Would you do like a Clifford than a Yuing? No. Too much. Which one of those do you like more? Clifford. You I still can’t get you in on Yuing. Huh? It’s not that I’m not in on youing. It’s just seeing what Clifford like the the underlying stuff in TripleA feels like he could be again we say this it’s the laziest comp ever but Lucas Duda but maybe a little better could be like a better version of Marc Santos. Yeah, literally a better version of him. AJ Euing AJ’s just I’m going to need a little more on him still. Yep. All right, moving on. A couple another hitter. I think this is the last big hitter we’re going to talk about. And this is one I don’t really want to talk about because this means something else will not happen. But Wilson Contrarus on the Cardinals. Wilson Conturus has said a few times he doesn’t want to be traded, but at the same time, we’ve heard the Cardinals say that they’re going to tear this [ __ ] down from the seams. The Cardinals, after having an offseason where they signed no baseball players, might not do that again while trading every single member of their core that has any value. And oddly, Wilson Contreres is a guy that has kind of significant value. Yeah, Contras was low-key good. He’s made the He’s made the change from catcher to first base. Still could catch, by the way, in a pinch. Totally. Totally an emergency catcher. But when you look at, you know, hitters at first base this year, Wilson was like around the top 10 in WRC plus. Still put up 20 homers, 80 RBI’s, walks. That’s also missing time with injury. Yes. Walks enough, doesn’t strike out a ton. He’s just he’s a good baseball player. Obviously, Pete Alonzo is way better. Pete had the highest WRC plus of any qualified first baseman in baseball this season. So, there is a difference. There is a drop off here, but Wilson Contrarus wouldn’t be such a dramatic drop off for what we would have to pay him and also what we would give up, which pretty much wouldn’t be that much. No, Wilson Contrarus has 2 years and 36.5 million left due to him and that’s what the club option the following year for 17.5 million. And that’s signed through 36 years old, which is the sticking point. We’ve talked to you guys a lot about with wanting to resign Ponzo being like, I we all know what he looks like at 3536. Now we’re trading for a guy 35 36. At the same time, Wilson Contrus still has the elite bat speed. He’s still shown the elite bat to ball year over year. Wilson Contra has never been a bad hitter. And the other element about Wilson Contrarus that’s interesting is that we knew about the how do you want to call this? The the way the Mets club has kind of evolved over the year. The clicks. Yeah, the clicks of it. Wilson Contrarus is a player that, for lack of a better term, has some [ __ ] to him. This guy is not going to let players take it easy. He’s someone that is a bit of that rahrh guy. He’s a kind of a bit of a highad. We saw the tie rate he had with an umpire towards the end of the season. He’s he’s a little nuts. I think that there’s some people I think want that for the Mets. Some I can see some people being like, I’m scared of throwing, you know, throwing a match into this into this gasoline that we’ve poured over the Mets club past year. But I can see there being some value and what that could bring. And that’s of course if the Mets don’t bring back Petonzo, only if the Mets don’t back Ponzo. We want Ponzo. We’re on the record. We both want Ponzo back in the Mets. But just and we’re going to have another episode for you guys soon about every other first base option that could possibly exist if we don’t bring back the Alonzo. And it’d be foolish not to mention Wilson Conturus with them. 100%. Last two guys here that we’ll briefly talk about not nearly as cool, but this is the Mets podcast. We got to get weird on the pitching side. James Bullpen Arm, Carlos Estz. We might need a closer. There’s a chance if Edwin still need a setup man no matter what. Carlos could do either of those roles. Well, Carl Estste sneaky led the league in saves this year. Did he really? You would. Yeah, led the league in saves this year. You would never know it. And Carl Estz still sits 96. Still gets up to 98 99. He doesn’t have to face Francisco Lindor. So that’s good. Huge plus for Carlos Steves. I mean, he had a good year by Yar and Whip. He still has good stuff. Like I said, it’s not like the best profile ever. Carlos Steves, and we say this all the time, doesn’t really get that many swings and misses, which is why I wouldn’t really love having him as my closer, but a team like the Royals always kind of likes to add talent. Again, the Royals are one of the teams of baseball that absolutely tries to win as much as they can given the revenue. Yes. Given the revenue they create. So, I don’t know if they would dump Carlos Estas, but he’s due 11 million for one year. So it could be a Jeff McNeel for Carlos Estis swap and maybe you throw in a prospect or you kick in the money for McNeel to make him cost the same est going to be starting Michael Massie possibly second base want to upgrade there. So and it’s it’s a situation where they might know he’s not an elite reliever. We know that Jeff is not an elite second baseman anymore but it’s kind of just deal from what you can for either guy and it’s just we just want to throw them out there because we wanted to find a reliever that was making enough money on a smaller market team where a team could want to trade them. Last guy we’re going to throw out here that this is your guy. This is my guy. This is my chaos baby that I’m I’m trying to start. I think Garrett Mitchell might be available. Like looking at the way that this Brewers roster pans out. Garrett Mitchell doesn’t really have a spot, which is kind of crazy to say, but they like Isaac Collins. They like Blake Perkins. They’ve got Chorio. They’ve got Sal Freelick. They play Jake Bowers every single day. Like they they use that outfield spot and it’s very very flexible. Gary Mitchell’s had injury history, which is a reason to get rid of him for the Brewers. You don’t want to keep a guy around who’s not going to play. Serious injury history. Serious injury history. He dropped in the draft because he has diabetes. I don’t know how much that plays into it, but he did drop in the draft. Did he also have a college injury? Maybe. I thought I thought he had a shoulder or something back then, too. I think he did, but also the diabetes thing people were a little bit worried about because he was like, yeah, he was a top 10 talent like coming out of the draft considered wise. Um, but he fell to the Brewers later on. And we know that the Mets need a center fielder. And if you’re going to play Tyrone Taylor, here’s a perfect platoon option. Garrett Mitchell, left-handed bat, play center field, good defense, good athlete. It’s risky. I don’t know what it would cost you. Again, he’s just starting to become arbitration eligible this year. So, this is also maybe the Brewers don’t want to pay him, but it may be more so 2027 offseason, they consider trading him and moving on. Just a name I want to throw out there as an interesting former top prospect guy who hasn’t really gotten the chance to prove himself yet at the major league level. Yeah, again, there’s no reason for the Brewers to trade him. Want to clarify that, but just the fact that this year Isaac Collins and Blake Perkins both prove themselves those they’re both athletic, switchhitting guys who can play. Collins isn’t like really truly a center fielder, but he can play center in a pinch. Perkins is a plus defensive center fielder and that they still have Churia who can play center field and they still have Salley who can play center field. Brewers just kind of [ __ ] these guys out. It’s very easy. And we talked to you guys recently about how Nick Morido kind of is really looking to be this archetype for the Mets, like the first development of our own little Sal Blake Perkins type of player that probably will be on this 40man roster next year. So that’s another part here. But Mitchell is just it’s like a better version of the Josi trade. Yes. Where you’re you’re betting on attributes, you’re betting on what you think is still talent and pedigree. It’s a guy that in he’s actually really good when he plays. Small sample. He has been a very good baseball player in Major League Baseball, but you do wonder if again he’s also elite bassy which we love. He also he’s good at not swinging pitches out of the strike zone. He does make proper swing decisions and cannon for an arm which we need more of those. We felt this year how much not having good arms in our outfield hurt this team time over time. He’s an athlete. He can run. Like he’s he’s someone you take a risk on and you could probably get away with trading just you know anyone in the lower miners that is of interest. Also a David Sterns first round pick by the way. Ah David Stern’s first round pick first round pick. We we have forgotten to give up give a trade package for some of these guys. But I do think like Wilson Contrarius, you could trade kind of like nothing for him. Yeah, pretty much not. Take the money. Yeah. And Gary Mitch, you can also kind of probably get away with trading almost nothing. Jeremy Rodriguez type guys. Yeah. Someone who’s toolsy. Maybe someone who won’t even know about you yet. Maybe one of like the recent kind of tools draft picks like the Cam Lman or the Peter Cous. Could be a Boston Barrow. I don’t know. Yeah. It could be something that’s interesting for the Brewers just to make make another Gary Mitchell in three years. Yes. Exactly. just figure it out. And then uh just cuz we’re agents of chaos. JR Ram said he’s not signing an extension unless the Guardians prove to him that they’re trying to win. If he asks for a trade, I know a team that definitely will come knocking. Pair them back up with Lindor. Definitely. And you can put Brett Bailey as the feature to that package. So you could tell the Guardians similar to what happened with Lindor and Andre Himenez, here you guys go start there at the position, you’re good to go. Measar too. Like here you go. He’s take Jonah Tong. Sure. He’s going to be a three- room player next year. Like you could the in a major league executive be like you know if we could just fill in the pieces around Brett Batty we we’ll get the same amount of production as Jose Ramirez and if it’s if it’s even kind of available again similar to Scoo similar to Hunter Green similar to Kel Marte when elite players are available the Davis turns front office has proven they’re going to go out and get them Steve going we know we know we just guys just watch the World Series you need dogs if you want to win World Series games that’s what the Mets need dogs the biggest dog in the league almost and that was like 30 plus minutes of us giving you 10 guys that we think the Mets could 100% trade for this offseason. We’d love to know if there’s anybody we missed down in the comment section on YouTube. Let us know. Make sure you are subscribed to the Mets Up podcast, not just on YouTube, but also on the audio side, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google. Drop us a rating, drop us a review, download, and subscribe. You can follow James on social media at James. I’m Draft Nick Mark with a C. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you for watching. We will catch you all in the next episode. See you next time. Peace out. Peace out, guys. Let’s go.

The stove is hot and the trade market is about to start churning. We have 10 trade targets for the Mets and they’re each realistically attainable because of how great our farm system is. They range from Tarik Skubal to a high-potential bench outfielder in the NL Central. Also, some good talk about potential returns we’d have to send for all these players.

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0:00 – What is up Mets fans
0:50 – Go Get Skubal
10:42 – Possible Cheap “Ace”
25:08 – Underrated Superstar
32:37 – If We Have to Replace Pete Alonso

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