On Thursday, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen stated that, despite the team’s recent on-field difficulties, he is not currently considering another summer fire sale. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns supported Cohen’s statement prior to New York’s 6-5 extra-innings victory against the Philadelphia Phillies that same day.
“We’re not anywhere close to having discussions like that,” Stearns said about the club’s possible trade-deadline strategy, per Robert Sanchez of SNY. “We’re in mid-May. We’re focused every single day on trying to win baseball games. From a trade deadline strategy discussion, that’s something that we’ve got months to figure out and is not anywhere close to my thought process at this point.”
Once boasting a 12-8 record, the Mets had dropped to 19-23 before their Thursday win, which they narrowly avoided losing amid a 2-5 skid. Their only other victory in the past seven games was secured by a walk-off home run.
In simple terms, the Mets’ offense has been inconsistent since late March. According to ESPN stats, they started Friday ranked 19th in MLB with 183 runs scored and 20th with a .232 team batting average. Despite these struggles, New York remains in the thick of a crowded wild-card playoff race heading into the weekend.
“I think we’ve had periods where we’ve been really good and we’ve had periods where we haven’t played well enough and that leads to the record we have which is probably pretty indicative of how we’ve played over this first quarter of the season,” Stearns said about the 2024 Mets. “I think we’re a good team. I think we have a talented group that has a run in it and we probably haven’t played our best baseball yet.”
Phillip Martinez of SNY reported that after the Mets’ 10-5 loss in Philadelphia on Wednesday, first-year manager Carlos Mendoza spoke to his players. Additionally, SNY’s Steve Gelbs noted that some veteran Mets held a separate meeting following the defeat.
“We are not going to let that happen this year,” Francisco Lindor stated, referring to the possibility of the Mets falling apart to the extent that Cohen considers trading veteran players before the deadline.
The Mets have a chance to gain some positive momentum as they start a three-game series against the struggling Miami Marlins (13-32) on Friday.
