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The New York Mets are in that gray area between trade deadline buyers and sellers, but leftfielder Brandon Nimmo thinks the team should look to add. He's made sure to let Mets owner Steve Cohen know about it.
“Any chance that I get, I kind of throw that in there,” Nimmo said in an interview with The Athletic published on Monday. “I don’t think that we are that far off from being a real contender.”
Despite being a game below .500 headed into play on July 9, the Mets are only looking up at the Arizona Diamondbacks as teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race and still out of the playoff picture.
The Mets lost, 8-2, to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday to finish a 4-4 road trip. After, Nimmo expressed optimism.
“I know everyone thinks we’re supposed to go like 6-2 on this road trip,” he said, “but honestly, 4-4 is not the worst.”
He added that he feels the team is close and wanted to focus on the positives from a mediocre road trip.
“Honestly, that’s the story of the year so far. We haven’t been able to lock down wins all the time,” he said. “And that’s a problem. But we’re hoping to address it. We’re hoping to continue to get better at it. We know we went on a streak there where we did a lot better. So we know it’s in there, but it’s a problem. There’s no question. But still think there’s positives to look at on this road trip.”
For what it's worth, before the trip, the New York Post's Jon Heyman reported that the Mets were leaning toward buying at the deadline.
Possible Mets trade deadline priorities
If Cohen heeds Nimmo's advice, he would likely start by trying to upgrade the bullpen.
Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, and Jake Diekman have all had uneven seasons. Diekman is also the only lefty reliever on the current roster and he has an ERA north of 5.00. Tanner Scott is the biggest left-handed name on the market and he's enjoying a career year. They also traded for Matt Gage and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday. He has not pitched in the Majors this season and had just five MLB appearances in 2023 with the Astros.
The Mets will probably need more than one more reliever, however, and could look to the American League and pitchers like Carlos Estevez or Michael Kopech as possible trade targets.
Mets president David Sterns confirmed on Monday that the team will look to address the bullpen at the trade deadline.
“Certainly, this is an area of the team we’re going to continue to monitor,” Stearns said, per Heyman.
Additionally, the Mets may look to upgrade at second base. Jeff McNeil has been with New York since 2018, but is enduring the roughest year of his career (.214 BA, 69 OPS+).
Heyman teased the idea in June that McNeil may benefit from a “change in scenery.”
“Jeff McNeil looks like a change-of-scenery guy but the Mets understand McNeil’s trade value is nil now and are talking to him about a plan to help him regain his form,” he said.
If that doesn't happen, perhaps a trade for someone like Luis Rengifo of the Angels could make sense, assuming he bounces back quickly from a wrist injury that landed him on the Injured List last week.
