NEW YORK — With 10 days remaining until the trade deadline, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns on Monday said he will be “active” in the market to upgrade the club’s bullpen and hinted that adding elsewhere is unlikely.
“I think providing our group some reinforcements in the bullpen would be great,” Stearns said. “There are generally relievers traded at the deadline. And so I’m sure there will be some this year as well, and we’ll be involved in that.”
The Mets’ need for bullpen help is clear.
Relievers A.J. Minter, Dedniel Núñez, Danny Young and Max Kranick have suffered season-ending injuries since the start of May. Between those setbacks, a spate of injuries to starters and short outings from their rotation, a heavy onus has been placed on the bullpen, which has produced meager results in recent weeks. Entering Monday, the Mets owned the fourth-highest bullpen ERA in the majors while logging the fifth-most innings since June 1.
Stearns added that if he doesn’t sufficiently solidify the relief corps via trade, he would consider calling up top starting pitching prospects to pitch out of the bullpen down the stretch. The crop of prospects includes Triple-A starters Blade Tidwell, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean. Tidwell made his major-league debut for the Mets this season and has pitched in four games. Sproat and McLean have yet to debut.
“The challenge with doing that in season is, once you do that, you can’t reverse yourself in the same season,” said Stearns, whose club finished action Monday one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for first place in the National League East. “We can certainly reverse ourselves over the offseason, but once we shorten someone up to give them a chance to be a member of our ‘pen, really tough to build them back up if you need them as a starter. And so we want to be very cautious if we’re going to entertain that.”
Beyond minor-league prospects, the Mets are open to trading from their surplus of young major-league infielders vying for consistent playing time to improve their roster elsewhere, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The surplus includes Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuna, Bretty Baty and Ronny Mauricio, all of whom are 25 or younger.
Stearns highlighted center field as “the one position where we haven’t gotten the level of production that we probably anticipated coming into the year.” While he said the Mets will search for an upgrade, he indicated that the chances of acquiring a player better than the combination of Tyrone Taylor’s elite defense and Jeff McNeil’s offensive production in this market are slim.
“I think that, for me, at least the bar to improve center field has probably risen over the past, let’s say, two weeks,” Stearns said. “Because of Jeff’s comfort level a little bit more out there, and also continuing to recognize the secondary skills that Tyrone can provide.
“So that’s the obvious position, and I understand that. I’m certain we’re going to be engaged, but, but we got a clearer bar that we actually think makes us better given the price that I think these things are going to cost.”
As for the starting rotation, the Mets lack the prototypical top-tier ace most World Series contenders carry, but Stearns said he’s “confident” and “comfortable” with the team’s options.
The group received a significant boost when Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea — the team’s top two projected starters entering the season — returned from the injured list just before the All-Star break. David Peterson, Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas round out the club’s current rotation with Griffin Canning (Achilles) for the season and Tylor Megill (elbow) and Paul Blackburn (shoulder) on the injured list.
“We need to keep those guys healthy,” Stearns said. “But I think from a talent perspective, we have guys on our staff right now that can lead us into a postseason series.”
