At this point, it had to happen. The Mets were becoming a disjointed, expensive mess. They had to be sellers at the deadline.
The magnitude of the sale wasn’t known, even after the David Robertson trade broke first. Steve Cohen and his front office assembled MLB’s largest payroll ever and then watched it all unravel. They hoped, though, and kept hoping. Cohen even called a crisis press conference for June 28 to give that optimism — “we still have time,” he said — as prominent a megaphone as possible.
But then came the Robertson deal. The Max Scherzer trade. The Justin Verlander deal. Even Tommy Pham, Mark Canha and Dominic Leone.
There would’ve been risk involved with trying to run it back in 2024 with mostly the same underperforming group — including Scherzer, Verlander and others — because at some point, their value would diminish to the point where Cohen couldn’t get the same return. There was a below-average farm system to roll with. It was just a disastrous scenario, and a sale became necessary.
Cohen’s hope could only last so long when faced with a 50-55 record entering Tuesday night’s game against the Royals (which the Mets lost — appropriately enough — on a balk in the 10th inning).
The Mets made their final four deals ahead of the deadline, with Verlander’s reunion with the Astros — in exchange for outfield prospects Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford — serving as the headliner.
Their final trade was acquiring pitchers Adam Kolarek and Phil Bickford from the Dodgers in exchange for cash considerations.
The rest of 2023 could get ugly for the Mets. Really ugly.
David Peterson and Tylor Megill will need to fill two rotation spots because the Mets don’t have anyone else. Kolarek is a 34-year-old reliever. Bickford has appeared in 36 games this season out of the Dodgers’ bullpen, but he was designated for assignment on July 29.
But, if it’s possible to look past 2023 and even 2024, the Mets might have improved. Their updated MLB.com organizational prospect rankings list Luisangel Acuña — acquired in the Scherzer trade to the Rangers — at No. 2, Gilbert at No. 4, Clifford at No. 6 and Marco Vargas (acquired from the Marlins in the Robertson deal) at No. 9. That top-30 list also doesn’t include Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez or Mark Vientos, each of whom is 23 years old or younger.
Getting younger appeared to be their aim, according to The Post’s Joel Sherman. In a span of five days, Cohen’s immediate World Series quest turned into a request for more time.
“We will be competitive in ’24 but I think 25-26 is when our young talent makes an impact,” Cohen wrote in a text to The Post’s Jon Heyman. “Lots of pitching in free agency in ’24. More payroll flexibility in ’25. Got a lot of dead money in ’24.”
Scherzer had articulated that pivot during an interview with The Athletic, revealing what he said were the details of his conversations with Eppler and Cohen following his final Mets start.
“I talked to Billy,” Scherzer said. “I was like, ‘OK, are we reloading for 2024?’ He goes, ‘No, we’re not. Basically our vision now is for 2025-2026, ‘25 at the earliest, more like ‘26. We’re going to be making trades around that.’
“I was like, ‘So the team is not going to be pursuing free agents this offseason or assemble a team that can compete for a World Series next year?’ He said, ‘No, we’re not going to be signing the upper-echelon guys. We’re going to be on the smaller deals within free agency. ‘24 is now looking to be more of a kind of transitory year.’”
The Mets’ season was spiraling. Even though their roster had the experience — and the contracts — to rip off a 12-game winning streak at any point and zip back into the playoff conversation, the task kept getting more difficult.
Now, the Baby Mets have a generation of top prospects behind them. There will be growing pains. There will certainly be plenty of boos at Citi Field until the construction is complete.
But this still could be considered a trade deadline win.
Now, after you check out The Post’s Mark W. Sanchez’s trade-deadline grades, let’s assign some superlatives from the 2023 MLB trade deadline:
Deadline loser: Yankees and GM Brian Cashman
The Yankees didn’t really do anything. They were the only MLB team to not make a deal in July, and on Aug. 1, it took until the minutes leading up to 6 p.m. — when they acquired middle reliever Keynan Middleton from the White Sox and Spencer Howard from the Rangers.
Cashman and the Yankees are stuck in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t sell. They didn’t buy, at least in a meaningful sense, either. They’re not any better. They’re not any worse.
And that’s just not good for the Yankees — The Post’s Joel Sherman called it “failed strategy and player procurement layered over years” — who are forced to roll out a stale and underperforming lineup full of slumping veterans and journeymen night after night after night (Exhibit A: Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss to the Rays, in which they had three hits before the ninth inning).
Aaron Boone has insisted the Yankees are fine and control their playoff destiny.
But a finish short of the postseason could leave his job, and perhaps Cashman’s, in jeopardy, especially with the Orioles’ rebuild nearly finished and the Rays as powerful as ever. Last place in the AL East isn’t out of the question.
Deadline winner: Angels and GM Perry Minasian
In the days and weeks leading up to the trade deadline, most of the buzz centered around Shohei Ohtani. The Angels beat even took a photo ahead of what might’ve been his final home game, with most of the Japanese reporters covering their country’s star likely to shift to Ohtani’s next city.
But then Minasian made a statement. He took Ohtani off the market and made the Angels buyers the same night, acquiring Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the White Sox. Then, he acquired Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron from the Rockies.
Ohtani’s contract situation doesn’t change. His free-agency sweepstakes still will commence this winter and likely end with the winner paying at least $500 million for the two-way superstar. But the Angels are — finally — set up to make a run at the postseason. And if they get Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon back from injuries, that’ll only help.
Best trade: Scherzer to the Rangers
Scherzer’s comments following his start Friday made it seem likely he’d waive his no-trade clause. All the Mets needed was a destination, and the Rangers — leading the AL West with an up-and-coming roster — emerged.
If the season ended Thursday, Scherzer’s 4.01 ERA would mark his worst since 2011 with the Tigers, and he’d allowed four runs in three of his final seven starts in 2022, too.
But what made this deal a win-win, at least on paper, was that Texas got Scherzer to opt in for 2024 and the Mets got Acuña in return. He’s only 21 years old. He’ll start in Double-A Binghamton and have to progress toward the majors from there. But if he contributes even a fraction of what MVP front-runner and older brother Ronald Acuña Jr. has with the Braves, he could become a staple in the Mets’ lineup soon.
Worst trade: Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs
Last week, the Cubs appeared to be a team that would sell. They had tradable assets with starter Marcus Stroman and outfielder Cody Bellinger, and they were an underperforming team in an underperforming NL Central.
But then they won eight consecutive games in the days leading up to the deadline, all against lowly National League teams, and decided to buy. The Cubs parted with two of their top-20 prospects (Kevin Made and DJ Herz) to acquire Candelario — a rental — from the Nationals.
Maybe it leads to a playoff run, even though FanGraphs gives the Cubs just a 28.9 percent chance of reaching the postseason. It could also backfire and deplete their farm system.
Weirdest trade(s): Dodgers acquiring Joe Kelly from the White Sox, Kiké Hernandez from the Red Sox
This just felt like the Dodgers were trying to get everyone back together, assembling all the pieces that helped them win the 2020 World Series and create another title three years later.
First, they acquired Hernandez in exchange for two pitching prospects. Then, they added Kelly and starter Lance Lynn from the White Sox and sent back pitcher Nick Nastrini, pitcher Jordan Leasure and outfielder Trayce Thompson.
Sneakiest trade: Aaron Civale to the Rays
The Rays’ rotation has cemented its place as one of the league’s best with Tyler Glasnow and Shane McClanahan, but they’ve dealt with rotation injuries year after year.
Glasnow missed most of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and an oblique injury sidelined him to start 2023. Drew Rasmussen had a 2.62 ERA through his first eight starts,but then needed UCL surgery, forcing him to miss the rest of 2023 and into 2024. Jeffrey Springs, whose name was floated in (very early) Cy Young conversations, also needed Tommy John. Shane Baz, one of the Rays’ and the league’s top pitching prospects, will miss the entire season.
So with Civale, the Rays made a very Rays-like trade, acquiring a pitcher who’s not a rental. But they needed to part ways with top hitting prospect Kyle Manzardo, who could become the Guardians’ regular starting first baseman next season and has flashed potential as a power hitter — blasting a 455-foot home run against Triple-A Syracuse earlier this season.
Honorable mention: Jordan Hicks to the Blue Jays, who might have the best 1-2 bullpen punch in baseball once All-Star closer Jordan Romano returns. It’s tough to hit an All-Star. It’s even more difficult when Hicks — who has averaged 101.0 and 100.5 mph with his four-seam fastball and sinker, respectively, this season, according to Baseball Savant — is either ahead or behind Romano in Toronto’s bullpen.
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It would be one thing if there were any precedent.
It would be one thing if, say, the United States Women’s National Team had struggled through group play in the past, flashed signs of not being the traditional powerhouse and then lost in the Round of 16.
Then — and only then — would perhaps their current trajectory in the 2023 Women’s World Cup be more acceptable.
That has never happened before, though. They’ve always made at least the World Cup semifinals, always ensured that their reputation within the global soccer discourse remained intact. But after two lackluster group-stage draws, falling short of a third consecutive title and fading into being just another good team certainly appears a possibility.
The USWNT barely escaped Group E and barely advanced to the knockout round early Tuesday morning, earning a draw against Portugal while the Netherlands crushed Vietnam, 7-0, to take first place in the group. Portugal’s Ana Capeta hit the post in the 91st minute, and that likely would have eliminated the USWNT. But they survived. Somehow.
Still, it was a result that made looking ahead to the gold-medal game Aug. 20 seem dangerous. Former USWNT star Carli Lloyd, whose hat trick in the 2015 World Cup final sealed their victory against Japan, even called out their dancing and interactions with fans after the final whistle Tuesday, saying that she had “never witnessed something like that” and labeling it as “arrogance.”
“There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family,” Lloyd said on the Fox broadcast . “But to be dancing, to be smiling. I mean, the player of the match was that post. You were lucky to not be going home right now.”
Through the three group-stage games, Lloyd has already questioned the “heart” and celebrations of the USWNT. Lloyd was embarrassed about a game that fell far below the lofty standard she helped create. The current edition of the USWNT appeared thrilled to be simply advancing.
The USWNT certainly could string dominant wins together and make the concerns seem fixable, but that doesn’t replace the immediate ramifications if the USWNT actually loses to (probably) Sweden, falls in the quarterfinals or just doesn’t win the tournament.
Plenty of change could follow. Vlatko Andonovski’s job could be in jeopardy. Megan Rapinoe announced before the event began that this would be her final World Cup, but what if this just shows the state of the USWNT moving forward instead of celebrating their past accomplishments? The transition would be accelerated.
This feels like it could be a dire week for the future of the USWNT. It was supposed to be a retirement tour, a farewell nod to its veterans and stars from past World Cups and Olympics.
Instead, it has turned into a quest to survive. The glory days have faded. And the future — even more than the present — hinges on what happens Sunday.
It’s fitting that ahead of the MLB trade deadline, Aaron Rodgers gave some insight into what he expects from the Jets’ approach when the NFL version arrives.
In an interview with NBC, Rodgers said that he took a $35 million pay cut because he wanted the Jets to chase “big names” at the trade deadline, and in a press conference Tuesday, he reiterated similar sentiments.
As The Post’s Ryan Dunleavy wrote, this is similar to the approach Tom Brady took while with the Patriots. He voluntarily accepted smaller salaries with the expectation the team would use that surplus money wisely and surrounded him with talent.
“It’s about guys before training camp, guys at the end of training camp that we could possibly bring in,” Rodgers told reporters during his press conference Tuesday. “There’s obviously more trades now that we see across the league, at least bigger names at the deadline than maybe my first couple years in the league. This is gonna be a few-year partnership, and after that, hopefully there’s not a huge kind of cap issue.”
It wasn’t always like that with the NFL trade deadline. There were 10 deals made on deadline day in 2022 — which was the most in league history, according to The Ringer — and what happens in 2023 could dictate whether that was a one-year fluke or a new normal.
Rodgers wants the Jets to have as much cap flexibility as possible for those splashes, in addition to other end-of-camp or mid-season free agents.
One option that has emerged already: The Jets hosted Dalvin Cook for a visit on Sunday.
“This, to me, is a win-win-win for everybody,” Rodgers said. “Win for me. I get paid a ton of money. Win for the team. We got a low cap number and deferred some cash. Win for other guys that we can bring in and sign. I have no complaints. I’m not missing it at all.”