It’s the second half of the season, and we’ve just been through two long days without baseball.
I’ve started to get that unquenchable need for baseball news that starts around now and lasts to the end of the month. The last few years with 10 playoff teams has changed the deadline, as more teams are buyers and more teams find themselves like the Mets, not sure if they are buyers or sellers.
So what are the Mets?
If it wasn’t the amazing week the Mets had last week, we would still be 10 games below .500, or worse, and would be squarely in the selling column. If it wasn’t for that horrid road trip before that week, the Mets could be really close to .500 or above it, and would be buyers.
Plus, next year the Mets have a young pitching staff with another year of experience, and there are reasons to believe they are only one or two bats away from fielding a competitive team, especially when you consider the two wild card spots.
Will the Mets be buyers at the deadline? That’s pretty unlikely. To get an immediate impact bat, the Mets would need to give up a near MLB ready, or an MLB ready arm (Wheeler, Syndergaard, etc). This doesn’t strike me as a good idea right now because the only reason the Mets have been some-what afloat this season is the depth they have in the rotation.
So next up is Murphy and Colon. Murphy has another year under control and is one of the best hitters in the game. Anything he would bring in would be a long term solution, unlikely to impact 2015, but 2016 and beyond. Keeping him would mean giving him a contract he deserves and a contract a team playing in New York should be able to afford.
Colon is a more interesting case. If we pay chunks on his contract, he could net a good, upper-tier prospect in a trade. If we don’t pay chunks, we are looking at a mid-level or multiple low-level prospects in a deal. I’m jaded with the latter because the Mets haven’t done much in the past with salary dumps. The payroll is still considerably lower than the 2011 roster. I’m not for spending money to spend money, but if we traded Colon for a salary dump, but then don’t extend Murphy, it will be disappointing.
