QUEENS, NY — In the weeks leading up to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline on Tuesday, the New York Mets were able to address needs for a left-handed-hitting outfielder, bullpen, and starting-rotation help — finishing off the period with a late-afternoon flurry by acquiring starter Paul Blackburn before snagging relievers Tyler Zuber and Huascar Brazoban.
This came after president of baseball operations David Stearns brought on relievers Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek along with left-handed outfielder Jesse Winker.
“We were looking to add to the team in a variety of different ways: Add some quality arms to the pen, after [ace pitcher Kodai Senga’s] injury, try to fortify our rotation a little bit, and then add a lefty bat,” Stearns said. “To be able to come away and do that, it’s good and we’re happy we were able to do it.”
Stearns managed to do all that while parting with just one top-20 prospect (No. 19 RHP Tyler Stuart) despite being involved in nearly every corner of the market — even for high-priced starting pitchers like Blake Snell of the San Francisco Giants.
But asking prices were what Stearns described as “pretty aggressive this year.”
“But that’s to be expected and we certainly anticipated that going into this thing,” he continued. “We’ve got a lot of good teams that were trying to add and teams, for various reasons, that were reluctant to sell. So that’s a pretty clear dynamic that was going to yield the type of deadline that we had.”
Those high asking prices and other trade calls were mostly inquiring about the Mets’ top prospects — the likes of No. 1 prospect Jett Williams, outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford, and infielder Luisangel Acuna.
“I mean, that’s their job,” Stearns began. “Every single one of our top prospects was asked about multiple times.”
Since Stearns’ arrival, the Mets have been adamant about not parting with their top young talent in situations like the trade deadline to establish some sort of future sustainability. The 39-year-old front-office stuck to his guns, mostly, but also alluded that his phone lines were open, too.
“We don’t take anyone off the table. There’s not an organizational philosophy to just say we’re not going to talk about anyone,” Stearns said. “I think that ties your hands a little bit. But clearly, we value some of our top prospects very highly. We think they’re going to contribute here for a long time and we’re very mindful of that as we went through the process.”
