With a Major League record payroll of close to $357MM on Opening Day, the Mets have been one of the trade deadline’s busiest teams. With just a 50-55 record entering today’s action, they unloaded both major and minor names, rental players and some players controlled beyond the 2023 season.
There’s a long list of players departing Queens including Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Robertson, Tommy Pham, Mark Canha, Dominic Leone and Eduardo Escobar. In return, the team wants more young talent.
In a recent interview to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Max Scherzer said the Mets’ plan apparently extends to rebuilding not for the 2024 season, but for future seasons. He had to waive his no-trade protection in order to be dealt to the Rangers.
“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.’”
A conversation between Scherzer and Mets owner Steve Cohen inspired the player to waive his no-trade clause and approve the deal to the Rangers.
“That’s basically what Steve said: ‘I never thought in a million years we’d be in this situation, being at the deadline and we’re actually selling. But the math is the math. And the math says this organization needs to retool.’”
“I understand from Steve’s perspective that’s the direction he wants to take the team based on where everyone is at within their contracts, arbitration, free agency. That was the new vision for the Mets.”
Scherzer, Canha and Verlander were the only players controlled beyond 2023 who ended up being moved. On the other hand, the likes of Jose Quintana and other club-option players like Brooks Raley, Omar Narvaez, and Adam Ottavino are all still with New York.
