By Mike Rifkin
To describe the New York Mets first half of the season it’s been a roller coaster ride. Since he took over the franchise Steve Cohen has discussed making the Mets into an east coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Last year’s trade deadline Steve Cohen used his big wallet to eat the contracts of future Hall Of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in order to acquire better prospects from the Rangers and Astros respectively.
After last season Cohen hired David Stearns to be the President of Baseball Operations and General Manager. Stearns and Cohen have reiterated time and time again that the goal of this team is to make the playoffs and not punt on the season. And if you look at what the Mets did during the winter, they signed a lot of one year deals, that’ll give the team some financial flexibility with an eye towards 2025. At 26-35 the Mets have a month to decide what they’ll decide to do at the trade deadline.
So one of the things I hate in sports is the term “selling”. If a team is out of it at the trade deadline they trade pieces off for a prospect/young player. I like to call this a long term buy, because let’s face it we don’t know how prospects will pan out, sometimes they’re awesome and it works, other times the player doesn’t turn into what the organization thought.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN the Chicago White Sox are considering trading Center Fielder Luis Robert Jr. The Chicago White Sox are 15-46, the worst record in MLB and are not close to what we thought they were going to be just a few seasons ago.
Robert returned to the White Sox lineup on Tuesday after missing a month with a hip flexor strain and hit a home run. Robert in 2023 hit 38 homers and drove in 80 runs with a slash line of .264/.315/.542 for a team that lost 101 games last season.
Robert will turn 27 in August and is signed through 2028. Robert will make 15 million dollars next season, before two 20 million dollar club options the following years. If Robert is indeed available the Mets should look into the possibility of a deal. Of course there’s a price they won’t want to pay but they have to do their due diligence. If the Mets were to re-sign Pete Alonso (they should) Robert would be fantastic protection, something Alonso hasn’t really had in his career.
For the Mets this is about the long term vs the short term. Robert is signed for the next three seasons and could be a very good player for the Mets, and they have some options. But if the Mets want to make a positive splash at the trade deadline, Robert would be the guy I’d go after.
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