QUEENS — With two days and two major deals completed before Major League Baseball’s 2023 trade deadline, the Mets might still be open for business.
But buyers be warned: It’s going to cost you.
“We’re going to listen but our price points are high,” general manager Billy Eppler said on Sunday. “We have valuations on our existing personnel and the bar is high to meet it.”
The Mets have been one of baseball’s largest sellers ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline, a concept that many would have seen as unthinkable heading into the 2023 season given just how high expectations were. But a miserable four months had New York entering Sunday’s play 18 games out of the National League East race and another seven games back for the final Wild Card (and postseason) berth.
It prompted owner Steve Cohen and Eppler to begin cutting some of their losses, sending David Robertson to the Miami Marlins for two prospects and Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers for an MLB top-100 prospect in Luisangel Acuna.
In no way do the Mets appear done. They have a number of short or expiring veteran contracts, including that of Mark Canha and Tommy Pham, that they could ship out of town to clear more money off their historically high books.
Plenty of focus understandably will be on starting pitcher Justin Verlander, who made his scheduled start on Sunday against the Washington Nationals and has received interest on the market ahead of Tuesday. Considering he was already in the middle of his most successful stretch of a trying season, indications of him being a serious trade candidate would have been even stronger if the Mets decided to scratch him — either to preserve his value or cut down the chances of picking up any sort of injury.
At this rate, though, one can never say never.
“We are willing in certain circumstances to use these investments and repurpose that investment to serve the larger goal, which is to build a championship organization,” Eppler said.
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