It's been a topic of conversation for a while now. The New York Mets (36-36) have been experiencing a dearth of offensive production and it's finally becoming a glaring issue. On their current road trip they've scored eight runs in six games and are 0-6 against the Toronto Blue Jays, Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers.
How many quality starts did they waste? Last night Jon Neise delivered six innings of two-run ball and the Mets lost 3-2 to the Brewers. On Sunday the team couldn't score a run and lost 1-0 after Matt Harvey pitched 6 2/3 strong innings. Two days prior to that, New York was rendered useless against Braves' rookie Matt Wisler and the team could not get behind Jacob deGrom's strong performance.
The Mets still have two games left on this road trip against the Brewers. Bartolo Colon and deGrom will take the mound against one of the worst teams in the MLB and if they drop these two matchups they'll likely fall to third place in the NL East behind the Washington Nationals and Braves.
Bottom line: the Mets need to make a trade before the deadline to bolster their offense if they want to stay relevant, and many experts support that notion.
Trade rumors have suggested they could be active on the market, but at this point the indecisiveness needs to end.
"There really is no excuse for the Mets to not make a major deal to help the 2015 team," writes ESPN Insider Buster Olney. "They have an exceedingly low payroll, ranked 21st in the majors at the outset of this season, and they have a surplus of prospects to deal. Thirty-eight days remain until the trade deadline, and if nothing significant is completed, the failure of the Mets' leadership will be akin to one of the players failing to run out a ground ball in a crucial spot."
However, general manager Sandy Alderson is in a tough spot. He's done a tremendous job building up the team's farm system and owner Fred Wilpon has the franchise on a strict budget. Injuries have really handicapped what the Mets have been able to do, but they have the resources (both prospects and money) to trade for a big-time bat to inject some life into their hapless offense.
"This combination is what is needed from the Mets: ingenuity and a willingness to use the money they have not been spending for years now," adds Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
"It is totally understandable if Alderson does not want to mortgage the future just for 2015. So if he wants to take Noah Syndergaard, [Steven] Matz and outfielder Michael Conforto out of trade discussions, fine. But he must be open-minded about the rest of his farm system and, perhaps, taking on a bad contract to get a bat he wants."
New York can keep calling up their top prospects, with Matz next in line, but that's not going to provide the proper experience or offensive production that's needed to endure the rest of the season.
Alderson says it's a possibility Wright returns around the All-Star break, but there's still no update on the veteran's status. Daniel Murphy is expected back by the weekend, but he's not going to be the offensive source to get the run production back on track.
New York has been linked to a myriad of names in trade rumors. They can't rely on the health of their players to keep them in contention for the rest of the 2015 season.
It's clear who they have to work with. If Alderson doesn't make a trade then the Mets' chances of sinking will exponentially increase as they'll be forced to compete with much more talented clubs such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, all of whom, by the way, have made the playoffs more recently than New York.