Robertson deal begins Mets’ sell-off amid ‘disappointing’ season

NEW YORK — The costliest Major League Baseball crew ever assembled is disassembling.

The 2023 Mets, who ran their payroll to round $375 million however spent a lot of the season under .500, are breaking apart the band. Late Thursday night time, the membership traded nearer David Robertson to the Marlins for 2 teenage prospects, signaling a wider sell-off that ought to happen over the approaching days.

Given numerous alternatives to keep away from that destiny, the Mets couldn’t win constantly sufficient to steer common supervisor Billy Eppler and proprietor Steve Cohen.

“We probably should have played better earlier if we wanted to be buyers instead of sellers,” outfielder Mark Canha mentioned.

The commerce of Robertson occurred throughout a one-hour, 37-minute rain delay that bisected the Mets’ 2-1 win over the Nationals within the collection opener at Citi Field. During that point, Marlins common supervisor Kim Ng introduced Eppler together with her ultimate provide of 18-year-old shortstop Marco Vargas and 19-year-old catcher Ronald Hernández, Miami’s 18th- and Twenty first-ranked prospects, in response to MLB Pipeline. Eppler thought of it an excessive amount of worth to cross up for Robertson, who can grow to be a free agent in November.

“We were faced with where our club was at this time of the season,” Eppler mentioned of the fourth-place Mets (48-54). “I’ve had a number of inquiries on our players, and we were listening. In this circumstance, the value of the players that we acquired kind of exceeded our expectations.”

From a large lens, the deal represents an virtually unfathomable destiny for the Mets, who started this 12 months with World Series aspirations following the richest offseason spending spree in MLB historical past. But the membership struggled to show these excessive salaries into an equally excessive win charge, falling beneath .500 on June 6 and by no means making it again to that mark.

As the Mets squandered probability after probability to run up the standings, Eppler and his crew started contemplating a sell-off upfront of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline.

“It’s not where we want to be,” Eppler mentioned. “It’s not what we want to be doing. We’re trying to balance the best interest of the team but also balance the best interest of the organization. Sometimes, those are more perpendicular than they are parallel.”

Trading Robertson, a 38-year-old nearer on an expiring contract, was an apparent first transfer. With a 2.05 ERA in 40 appearances, Robertson had steadied the again of the bullpen after the Mets misplaced Edwin Díaz to season-ending proper knee damage. Robertson is a confirmed playoff commodity, showing in additional postseason video games than all however one lively MLB pitcher. Last 12 months, the right-hander helped lead the Phillies to the National League pennant following an identical midseason commerce.

But that didn’t make Robertson’s departure from Flushing any much less stunning. Like so many within the Mets’ clubhouse, he signed as a free agent “expecting to be on a team that was going to compete for the division.”

“This was the place to play,” Robertson continued. “I thought this was the spot to be and have a good chance of winning it all.”

Instead, he — and certain others — will try to do this elsewhere. In addition to Robertson, the Mets possess a number of tradable belongings in relievers Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino, outfielders Canha and Tommy Pham, and beginning pitchers Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and José Quintana. It’s unlikely the crew will deal all of them, particularly contemplating how unwieldy the contracts of Verlander and Scherzer could be to maneuver. But New York is extremely unlikely to cease its offers at Robertson.

“If the economic equation points to us making a deal that’s best for the organization, then we’re going to have to really consider it,” Eppler mentioned.

In a quiet postgame clubhouse, gamers reacted to the Robertson commerce in various methods. Canha and Brandon Nimmo bemoaned the shortcoming of the crew to play effectively sufficient to keep away from this destiny. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso shrugged off the implications of the deal, saying they intend to proceed competing for a playoff berth even with out their nearer.

But that activity, which was already tough, is about to grow to be considerably extra so. Selling off items might not be “where we thought we were going to be when we started the season,” as Nimmo put it. Yet it’s the place the Mets at the moment are, regardless of all of the {dollars} spent and contracts signed and hopes and goals and aspirations.

“It was disappointing, this season,” Robertson mentioned earlier than leaving Citi Field along with his three youngsters. “There’s a ton of talent in this clubhouse. We just weren’t able to put it together. When you can’t put it together in time, GMs and owners have to make decisions. I was one of those decisions.”