Mets' trade deadline plan can't only be about relievers — here's who else they should target
Reinforcing the relief corps has been bordering on a necessity for the Mets, we get that now. But things do change almost daily, and with setup men Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek looking strong this week, José Buttó back from his mystery illness, and a few other obvious roster imperfections to consider, let's face it: the Mets need to upgrade elsewhere, too.
It's nice that a rededicated Francisco Alvarez has returned from Syracuse, that co-aces Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga are here now, too, and that the Mets stole a few wins over the improved L.A./Anaheim Angels, including a 6-3 victory that sealed the sweep at Citi Field Wednesday. But, from here, the team from Queens doesn't look quite good enough to compete for a title, not against the superteam Dodgers in the superior National League.
While it's also a plus they've spent $332 million and are well into the top-tier Steve Cohen 110 percent luxury tax, they'll need to pony up more loot to get where they want. We can celebrate them for digging themselves out of the abyss, but they're still six games to the bad since June 12.
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Eflin was a potential trade target, but has made only 14 starts this year and is on an expiring contract. ___ AP Baseball Writer Noah Trister and Mike Fitzpatrick, along with AP Sports Writers Howard Fendrich, Kristie Rieken, Will Graves, Greg Beacham, Dan Gelston and Joe Reedy contributed to this story. ___ AP MLB:
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Mets made a Dodgers-like move in trading for Cedric Mullins
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman discuss New York's deal to acquire the Orioles outfielder before Thursday's MLB trade deadline. Hear the full conversation on the 'Baseball Bar-B-Cast' podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Cedric Mullins is going to the New York Mets to fill in and probably be the everyday outfielder. Now, at first glance, a platoon would make sense. He's a lefty; Tyrone Taylor is a righty. However, Mullins's numbers against lefties this year are better than his numbers against righties. He's kind of a reverse splits guy this season. So I think he's just going to kind of be the everyday center fielder, at least at the beginning. And that's a strong piece for the Mets, who have been waiting for Joseri to get back now for a little bit. Yeah, and you know, it's interesting, by the way, people are validating you. They're, everyone's throwing spaghetti, so you're actually in the clear here. So this is on me. I know, I guess I haven't been making spaghetti correctly, so I, I, I apologize. I'm going to hold that out. That's totally on me. That said, as you were kind of mentioning, like, the bigger picture thing about the Mets too being able to do all these deals, this is really the first time where it's felt like what Steve Cohen wants them to be, which is the Dodgers, right? When you're able to flip all these pieces that you didn't know they even had for now Major League talent, you're like, what? How did they do that? They still have all their top prospects. That is very Dodgers-like, especially at a deadline where the Dodgers didn't end up doing very much, I think that says a lot about where the Mets are and you have to give them a lot of credit. Close
