The Mets are bad. The trade deadline approaches: Monday, August 3 at 6 PM EDT. That means it’s time to do an inventory of what the Mets have to move and what they might get for those pieces.
Rental relievers
Relief pitchers on one-year contracts are perhaps the most obvious pieces for a deadline seller to move, and the Mets have a couple good lefty options here. Brooks Raley has a 2.04 ERA over 35.1 innings this season, though his peripherals (3.62 xERA, 15.5% K-BB%) are a bit less favorable. A.J. Minter has been even more effective in his 19 innings, with a 1.42 ERA and peripherals that largely match.
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Neither of these guys quite break through into the top tier of arms, but a return similar to what Ryan Helsley fetched last season for the Cardinals—INF Jesus Baez, RHP Nate Dohm, and RHP Frank Elissal—is within the realm of possibility. Something a bit lighter given Helsley’s potentially elite upside (at least at the time of the trade) is more likely, but the Mets should definitely be walking away with a handful of interesting prospects out of both of these deals.
Potential Buyers: Cubs, Twins, Astros, Pirates, Mariners
Relievers with control
This is perhaps a bit more painful, but a selling team should also consider moving any relievers they have under contract (including those under team control). Could these guys help the 2027 Mets? Absolutely. But year-to-year reliever performance is mercurial, and selling high gets the Mets future value while also potentially setting them up to duck the highest level of tax penalties in 2027.
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Huascar Brazobán is the first name to consider here who, despite lacking high-end swing-and-miss stuff, has a 2.76 ERA backed by a 2.90 xERA on the season. Brazobán is a credible opener, middle reliever, or even a 7th inning guy. He’s also under team control until 2030, but he’s already 36, which mutes the value somewhat. Expect a modest return but one that should be better than what the Mets gave up in 2024 (infield prospect Wilfredo Lara).
Luke Weaver is possibly the best reliever likely to be available at this deadline, as one of the 10-20 best bullpen arms this season. He’s also signed for a very reasonable $12.5 million in 2027, giving whatever team acquires him two bites at the apple. This is a guy the Mets are hopefully getting a top-100 level prospect for—again, not a Jhoan Duran or Mason Miller level return, both of whom are better and had more control, but something better than the previously mentioned Ryan Helsley return from 2025.
Finally, there’s Devin Williams, who is the least likely arm to be moved here. He’s signed for an additional two years and $30 million beyond this season and has a 4.83 ERA on the season, along with three blown saves. That’s not great, but maybe a team looks at his solid peripherals and chooses to buy low, similar to what the Braves did in acquiring Raisel Iglesias from the Angels in 2022. It seems unlikely that there’s a serious suitor here but if one appears, offloading this deal is definitely in the Mets’ best interests.
Potential Buyers: Varies by arm, but any contender could be in play for Weaver
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Starting pitchers
With the Tigers surging in the standings and the Marlins currently sitting in a Wild Card spot, the Mets may actually find themselves in an advantageous position when it comes to starting pitchers. Freddy Peralta, for all his struggles this season, may very well be the best starter moved at the deadline. Clay Holmes, despite working his way back from injury, may be the second-best starter moved at the deadline. Obviously you don’t want to be in a spot where you’re selling in the first place, but holding a limited resource isn’t the worst spot to be.
With Peralta, the hope is that some team is willing to bet on a bounce back to his prior form. His stuff metrics—along with his strikeout and walk numbers—have gone the wrong direction this season, perhaps suggesting his inflated ERA is earned. On the other hand, he has a 3.82 xERA and was a significantly better arm as recently as last season. The Mets are unlikely to get two top-100 prospects back (which is what they gave up in the offseason for Peralta), but they should comfortably beat the QO pick they’d get by holding Peralta and offering him the QO after the season given current market conditions.
Holmes is even trickier. He’s yet to make it back on the mound after breaking his fibula in mid-May, with a potential rehab assignment scheduled for after the All Star break. He also has a player option, further complicating any negotiations given the potential downside risk to a buyer. Given these factors, Holmes might not fetch quite as much as you’d expect given his quality. Nevertheless, the Mets should be able to grab something interesting in a deal here.
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Potential Buyers: Astros, Cubs, Braves, White Sox
Outfielders
Tyrone Taylor is the clear name to move. Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing are already receiving the lion’s share of the outfield playing time and should continue to do so for the remainder of the season. Beyond them, the Mets would likely be better off giving someone like Nick Morabito a bit of run in the majors rather than continuing to trot out Taylor, who is a free agent after this season. Taylor has bounced back a bit from his down 2025 with the bat but at this point is a 4th outfielder—not a real difference maker, but maybe there’s a team that could use some extra depth.
The more interesting name to consider here is Luis Robert Jr., who is nearing a return from a swollen lumbar spine that has kept him out since late April. Describing Robert’s injury history as “lengthy” doesn’t do it justice, but he was playing well early in the season before the injury slowed him down. He’s a good upside play capable of handling center field, and he has a team option for next year to boot if things go well. I’d anticipate the Mets wind up getting more back for Robert than they gave up for him initially, if only because Luisangel Acuña has been so bad.
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Potential Buyers: Marlins, Phillies, Astros, Blue Jays, Guardians
Catchers
The Mets’ catching situation is odd at the moment. They made the strange decision to extend Luis Torrens, locking him on a two-year deal, and have since been giving him more playing time behind the dish than Francisco Alvarez. Torrens is a 30-year-old with a 71 DRC+ and bottom of the scale batted ball metrics who rates as a very good defender under both Baseball Prospectus’ and Statcast’s metrics (credit to him, he’s improved a lot back there). Alvarez, by contrast, is a 24-year-old with better-than-league average offense and supporting peripherals. Alvarez has been a mediocre framer this year and was poor last year, but was an above average framer in 2024—perhaps the hand injuries have sapped some skill there, or perhaps this is something he can eventually get back.
Given where the Mets are, their decision to prioritize Torrens behind the dish is questionable to say the least. Practically, however, it’s relegated Alvarez to more of a DH role, a spot where his offense isn’t nearly as valuable. If the front office’s view is that Alvarez isn’t a catcher anymore, capitalizing on a thin market—one where Hunter Goodman and Ryan Jeffers seem unlikely to move—could make sense. All else being equal, it probably makes more sense just to keep him barring a particularly large return.
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As for Torrens, it’d be very odd (and likely a significant PR hit with players) to trade him so soon after extending him. You can almost certainly count on him sticking around through the deadline.
Potential Buyers: Yankees, Astros, Red Sox, Rangers
Bo Bichette
Bo Bichette’s contract structure makes him basically unmovable. It is highly unlikely that any team would take the risk on him getting hurt and opting in for next season, particularly given his performance to date and the “general leg and right ankle soreness” that held him out of games prior to the All-Star break. If someone is willing to take on any amount of money here, the Mets should pounce, but don’t count on it.
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Potential Buyers: Slim to none
Francisco Lindor
You can bury your head in the sand if you like, but the reality is that Francisco Lindor’s name is out there in trade discussions. Reporters don’t typically get the inkling to ask about no-trade clauses out of the blue, there’s usually a root cause behind it. With a recent Steve Cohen podcast recently confirming the long-suspected tension between Lindor and Juan Soto – the younger, better, more highly paid player – it’s not even a stretch to think that Lindor might actually want out at this point. His answer to the aforementioned no-trade clause question didn’t do much to quash that line of thinking at the very least.
Lindor has absolutely been very good in his time with the Mets, and he’s largely paid for the extension the team handed him prior to the 2021 season. That does not mean, however, that his contract does not have negative value at this juncture. Lindor is a 32-year-old shortstop with five years and ~$170M remaining on his contract after this season, one who is also showing clear signs of aging across his athletic metrics and on-field performance. Is he cooked at 32? No, probably not, but his days as a reliably elite, 5+ win player are likely over. Couple that with his seeming unwillingness to move of shortstop and you’ve got a potentially prickly situation that the Mets, from a completely rational, unemotional, process-driven perspective, should explore extricating themselves from.
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So who is going to buy that sort of asset? Very difficult to say. Ten, five, or even three years ago there would have been a line of suitors, but most teams are run better than that these days. The Mets would need to find either a team that has…let’s call them regressive tendencies or a contender who is willing to eat the out years for improvement on the infield this season. Oh, and it has to be to a team that Lindor would waive his no-trade clause to.
That limits the suitors somewhat. The Yankees could be a fit, but trading an aging former star to the cross town rival might be too big a PR hit for the team to stomach. You could imagine the Blue Jays rolling the dice here and they likely have the financial flexibility to do so (plus, trading him for Andres Gimenez’s bad deal would be a good bit), but Lindor probably wouldn’t waive his NTC to play in Canada. The Red Sox are perhaps a decent fit, especially if the Mets ate the last year of Trevor Story’s deal in return, but also just dumped Rafael Devers’ money (a much, much worse deal to be clear). The Giants and Padres don’t have the room nor the impetus given their place in the standings.
All of this means that Lindor probably doens’t get moved, at least not at the deadline. But don’t be surprised if the rumors swirl or even if a deal comes to fruition.
Potential Buyers: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Mariners, Padres
