The 2023 Mets were never supposed to be a Cinderella story. With a historically high payroll and some of the best talent in the big leagues on the roster, the Amazins’ were scrappy underdogs no longer.
And yet, the clock struck midnight on the Mets on Thursday night.
Right-handed reliever David Robertson was traded to the Miami Marlins during the ninth inning of the Mets’ 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. The return was two minor leaguers, infielder Marco Vargas and a catcher named Ronald Hernandez. This effectively signaled the club’s plans for the Tuesday trade deadline: To sell talent and gain future assets.
“We were faced with where our club was at this time of the season,” said Mets general manager Billy Eppler. “We’ve had a number of inquiries on our players and we were listening. In this circumstance, the value of the players that we acquired kind of exceeded our expectations. So we executed it.”
The Mets are currently seven games out of an NL Wild Card playoff spot with only five days left until the trade deadline. Eppler chose his words carefully and did not explicitly say the club is open for business, but if the GM was going to approach this slowly then he likely wouldn’t have traded away the team’s most important bullpen piece, especially since Robertson made known his desire to stay in Queens.
Robertson recently told the Daily News that he hoped to remain with the Mets throughout the rest of the season, but the 38-year-old veteran knew that would have required a magical run that never happened. At 4-2 with a 2.05 ERA and 14 saves in 17 opportunities, he was the club’s best trade piece. Robertson, who signed a one-year contract with the Mets in December, stepped in as the team’s closer when Edwin Diaz was injured during the World Baseball Classic in March.
“I figured I would be moved, but I just really didn’t have any idea where,” Robertson said. “It was kind of a shock, but it’s part of this game.”
The Mets have been in a state of limbo since the All-Star break. A six-game winning streak to start the month of July gave the group hope they could turn the season around, but then they lost their final two games before the break and the first two after it. They never gained enough ground.
Eppler couldn’t wait much longer when he received an offer he felt was more than adequate from a division rival.
“Our farm system has got a way to go,” Eppler said. “We’ve had some drafts that, I think, a lot of people feel good with. But we have to continue to add. If we’re going to go where we want to go in the long-term, we’re going to need an upper-tiered farm system to get there.”
Robertson is glad the GM didn’t wait.
“This has not been the funnest part of the year, that’s for sure,” the former Yankees reliever said. “When you come in here and everybody is asking where you’re going and what are your thoughts, it’s a lot to deal with when you still have to go out there and compete knowing you might not be on the team for very long.”
This scenario seemed unfathomable last winter. It seemed highly unlikely when the season began. So to say that it’s a disappointment is an understatement. The expectations were as high as the payroll and a talented team failed to deliver.
When they pitch well, they can’t hit. When they hit, they can’t pitch. They play dazzling defense some nights and they look defenseless on others. No one has been able to figure out why a roster full of winners can’t seem to win consistently.
“We had a big injury to Edwin this year, which probably cost us 6-7 games and that would have put us right in the thick of it,” Robertson said. “Can’t do anything about that. It was an accident and they happen. But we still had the guys to get it done. We just weren’t able to put it together. I don’t know what it was.”
Now that the improbable has turned probable, the Mets will look to trade left-hander Brooks Raley and outfielders Tommy Pham and Mark Canha. Time will tell whether or not the Mets or the Marlins won this trade since Vargas, 18, and Hernandez, 19, are still teenagers playing in the Florida Complex League. Their careers have only started.
But the 2023 Mets? They’re just about finished.
“It’s not where we want to be,” Eppler said. “It’s not what we want to be doing. We’re trying to balance the best interest in the team and we also have to balance the best interest of the organization. Sometimes, those are more perpendicular than they are parallel.”
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Source: Berkshire mont