Just Mets

With the Mets offense continuing to sag seemingly worsen with each passing day, their need for offense continues to grow and become more dire. After all, their 83 OPS+ ranks last in the big leagues, according to FanGraphs.

Over the last month, Sandy Alderson has described the trade market as, “thin,” despite reported interest in players such as Ben Zobrist and Aramis Ramirez.

But now that the trade deadline is 24 days away and teams who believe they’re contenders are starting to identify needs, the market is beginning to materialize and define those who may be considered buyers, and those who are considered sellers.

As recently as 11 days ago, Alderson said the market was still difficult to navigate, but was prepared to, “overpay” for a player worth overpaying for on the open market.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, one of those players Alderson would overpay for is in fact Zobrist from the A’s, but Oakland’s general manager Billy Beane supposedly pulled Zobrist off the block.

The Mets aren’t the only team interested in Zobrist. The Cubs, Yankees, Nationals and Angels are all reportedly interested in acquiring the star utility player, so chances are Beane is waiting for the trade market to start cooking to play big market clubs off against each other as July 31 closes in.

It remains to be seen if the Mets would entertain overpaying for Zobrist to the degree it could require if Beane is able to generate a bidding war for his asset.

At any rate, in a report today for CBS Sports, Jon Heyman lists the Astros, Blue Jays, Royals, Dodgers, Pirates and Yankees among the clubs looking for starting pitching.

While Alderson has essentially labeled the Mets as a buyer this month (as long as they remain in contention, of course), he does have some pitching assets to deal to clear additional payroll space for the offense he really has to acquire.

Jon Niese has pitched extraordinarily well over the last month, posting a 2.41 ERA in his last five starts dating back to the beginning of June. He’s probably not going to pitch this well over an extended period of time, but he’s also not likely to pitch to the 9.00 ERA he was during his slump in May. That makes him an attractive mid-rotation starter for teams who are gun-shy about giving up what it would take to land someone like Cole Hamels, the premiere starting pitcher on the trade market.

Of course, Niese needs to continue to pitch well as the deadline approaches, and the return for Niese could depend on how much of the guaranteed $13 million  he is owed through the end of 2016.

While moving Niese could offer the Mets some extra payroll flexibility to take on a larger contract, there’s also the situation surrounding David Wright and the money he is owed while on the disabled list.

Wright is earning $20 million this year (minus $2.5 million which is deferred), but according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Mets have an insurance policy on Wright’s contract which allows the Mets to recoup approximately 75 percent of the money owed to the third baseman while he is on the disabled list. Wright has been on the disabled list for more than 80 days, meaning the Mets are beginning to recoup their losses.

However, in order for the Mets to truly benefit from the policy, their premiums and deductibles must be paid for, which takes additional time beyond the 60 days on the policy stipulation.

Even so, the Mets should soon begin to be out of pocket at a significantly lesser amount than the approximate $95,000 per day the captain is owed. In fact, their daily commitment to Wright will eventually be about $24,000 based on the reported policy benefit.

As such, the Mets should be able to take on some additional payroll regardless of what happens with Niese, or Bartolo Colon, or any other high-priced asset they have on their roster.

Of course, the caveat to all of this is the Mets remain within striking distance of their races (which would require those here to start playing better), everyone else remains healthy, and they get Travis d’Arnaud back from the disabled list in short order.

And of course, they actually use this flexibility.