We are heading into the home stretch where the Wilpons will lose the controlling interest of the New York Mets. No deal will be struck before midnight tonight or in the early morning and therefore they will ask BVW for one more favor, made a big trade on the August 31st trading deadline to try and keep the Mets in contention.
BVW knows he is likely gone shortly after Steven Cohen takes over the club. The Mets need pitching. They are down Noah Syndergaard (since spring training), Steven Matz, Marcus Stroman (opted out), Dellin Betances, and the list grows daily. So, what top prospects will the Mets give up now to get a front-line starter? The answer, Johnny Cueto.
Cueto is making what is surely his last start for Gabe Kapler and the San Francisco Giants. He’s under contract to make $21 million next year and then the Mets would have an option for $22 million in 2022, this perfect. He’ll be 36 and honestly, the Wilpons as 5% owners won’t care about his contract or effectiveness down the road.
Now a more reasonable target might be Royals relief pitcher, Greg Holland. His salary is $1.25 million, and you won’t have to give up Andres Gimenez to get him!
Another target could be Indians starter, Mike Clevinger. The Indians seem fed up with him after his whole brush with the COVID-19 protocol violation. He’s 29, so that will take either Ales Gimenez, or Ronny Mauricio or both and might as well throw in pitcher Matthew Allan. The Price is said to be high for the 29-year-old starter but if you don’t intend to be there, you might push almost all of your organizational chips to the center for one more playoff run.
Mets fans will be nervous tomorrow. 99% of them don’t want any of their top prospects traded. They just want to see this season ride out, maybe with a minor tweak like Holland, and then see what happens this winter when they will have a lot more money to spend, looking at you J.T. Realmulto.