It appears as if the New York Mets are finally coming to their senses, and preparing for a rebuild.
Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that the Mets are listening to trade offers for a number of players, including Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed, Jay Bruce, Asdrubal Cabrera.
Sources: Mets open for business now, willing to listen to offers for Granderson, Addison Reed, Bruce, Cabrera, etc. Far behind in races.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 23, 2017
Bruce, Cabrera, Granderson and Reed are all pending free agents and unlikely to factor into the team’s future plans. Jose Reyes and Neil Walker could also be shopped around, but due to ineffectiveness (Reyes) and injury (Walker), may not hold much trade value.
Winners of just two of their last 10 games, the Mets sit 10 games under .500 (31-41) and occupy fourth place in the National League East. Any optimism that remained about their chances to turn things around seems to have vanished.
Of the hitters the team reportedly has put on the block, only Bruce has been a consistent producer in 2017. The rest have simply underperformed. Injuries have decimated the pitching staff, and the minor league arms the team has called upon have struggled.
Those struggles have led to maddening inconsistency. Either the offense is clicking only to be let down by poor pitching, or the pitching gets little-to-no run support.
There is no question that when healthy, the Mets can compete with most teams in the league. Unfortunately, only a select few have managed to avoid the injury bug this season.
The time for a rebuild has arrived. Mets fans can only hope the return the team gets for some of its veteran assets will pay dividends in the not-so-distant future.