BOSTON — Hours before the Mets concluded their disappointing series with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday night, the ball club still had hope for the 2023 season. Another series win would have provided some reasons for optimism.
Any reasons for hope were quickly forgotten when Jarren Duran absolutely smoked a 105.6 MPH single off right-hander Carlos Carrasco to lead off the game. If it felt like a bad omen, that’s because it was. The Mets lost to 6-1 to drop to 7.5 games back from a Wild Card playoff spot. They’re 46-53 on the season and haven’t even sniffed .500 in nearly two months.
This week, the Mets will play the second half of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium. It could be their last stand and their last chance to convince Steve Cohen, Billy Eppler and every other decision-maker in Queens to give the current group a shot at getting back into playoff contention.
“I think everybody knows what’s going on,” manager Buck Showalter said late Sunday night.
But here’s the thing, the current group hasn’t shown that it is capable of making a run that would be sufficient enough to get the team back into the mix. The Mets cannot hang their hat on that six-game winning streak from earlier in the month. They don’t have the pitching, they don’t have the bench depth and they can’t go more than a few games without making sloppy mistakes and mental errors.
When the defense is good, it’s really good (case in point: Mark Canha’s three outfield assists Sunday night). But when it’s bad, costly.
Coming into the series, team brass was still undecided as to whether they would buy, sell or stand pat at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. General manager Billy Eppler made the trip with the team and fielded calls from executives all weekend. Although he’s been encouraged by the offensive output in recent weeks and the growth of Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez, he knows there are other factors he needs to consider.
Eppler will look at a variety of factors this week when the Mets play six games against the Yankees and the Washington Nationals. He needs to see progress from his own team, but he’ll also look at the projections for the rest of the season, the strength of schedule for the Mets and their opponents, and most importantly, the personnel available on the market and the cost.
The Mets don’t have a deep prospect pool to work with if they decide to acquire talent at the deadline. Eppler has mostly avoided making blockbuster trades in order to protect the few blue-chip prospects the Mets have. This was always going to make the 2023 deadline a challenge, so maybe it’s a silver lining.
Outfielder Tommy Pham and closer David Robertson are the Mets’ two best trade candidates. Mark Canha and right-gander Adam Ottavino could also be dealt.
The Mets are extremely unlikely to move first baseman Pete Alonso, who has one more arbitration year, or aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. They’re making $43.33 million and would probably only be acquired for mid-rotation help. It’s a high price to pay for a No. 3 or 4 pitcher, so the Mets would have to pay that down and then pay for new pitchers over the winter. Only Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana are under contract past 2023.
Scherzer balked at the idea of waiving his no-trade protection this weekend.
“I’m just not commenting on trades. I’m just not, just not,” Scherzer said after taking the loss Saturday night. “I’m here to win with the Mets, nothing else. There’s no reason. It’s clickbait.”
There is a third option, which would be doing nothing. The Mets could keep the group together as is if they feel confident enough that enough wins are coming.
This would be foolish. The trade deadline is a way to add more talent to a roster or a prospect pool. A losing team cannot afford to pass up an opportunity to add. The Mets have to pick a lane. They can be buyers or they can be sellers, but they have to be something.
Until that decision is made, they’ll try to be winners starting Tuesday in the Bronx.
“It’s a big one for New York and we want to win,” Canha said. “You always want to win that series and you always feel like the next series can be the one where you turn it around. That’s how we keep approaching it. Nobody is too down. Everybody is just kind of even-keel. Everyone is waiting for us to show a sign of life here, but we come to the ballpark expecting to win every day and we’ve got winners in this clubhouse.
“We expect to go to New York on Tuesday and win.”
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