The number of scouts at Citi Field has been steadily increasing during this home and was up to 11 on a Tuesday night for the kind of game the profession loves at this time of year — two potential sellers in one place.
The underperforming/disappointing White Sox and Mets have both told suitors of their intentions, even though the Mets may pitch in until the nearest August 1, 6 p.m. deadline.
They leave room for the opportunity of Hail Mary to return to the quarrel.
They may delay deciding on, say, July 29th the way forward—buying, selling, both or not; As well as how far you should go in the sale if this is the trend.
He helped the Mets in the long run, Why Can’t This Be, 1973, again by defeating the White Sox 11-10.
This is 2023, though, and even the win came with home runs and boos, particularly directed at the recent “we’re still trying” possession of Trevor Gott, who did as much as he could to make as much of a seven-run lead as possible in a faded seventh.
Francisco Alvarez, who — if nothing else — provides the cornerstone for 2024 and then no matter the direction of the Mets’ deadline hits a pair of two-run homers.
He has 19 homers as well as a fan club among veteran Mets pitchers for the seriousness with which he takes his defensive work.
Mr. Meet has a better chance of trading in the next two weeks.
It’s still possible, even if they don’t hit the ground running toward an unlikely spot in the next 10 days, that the Mets will keep everyone.
I hope there will be a late rush of “oh you gotta believe”.
Or, at least, the honor of selling a lot of tickets for the month of August/September and unless they can significantly influence their immediate future with trades, why bother?
I feel there is an overheating market.
There are a lot of contenders.
No organization has come close to spending what the Mets have on payroll this year.
But many have pushed the team to record highs.
There is widespread focus on 2023.
A motivated seller may find return prices high.
It will be surprising for the Mets if Steve Cohen is willing to take big paychecks from Max Scherzer and/or Justin Verlander to bring back leads — of course, one or both of them would have to waive non-trade terms as well.
But even if only year-round players are rare success stories in 2023 — Tommy Pham, Brooks Raleigh, David Robertson — the Mets might do well enough to make trading them worthwhile.
They could, even in that scenario, try to re-sign Robertson again in the off-season to see if in 2024 he can actually join Edwin Diaz.
I wonder what pairing Pham and Robertson in one deal would do.
The Yankees (if they are already in contention) can use both.
The same goes for the Rangers.
So is Phyllis.
So can others who have interlude dreams.
At this point, it’s hard to see the pham as being in a good period.
Throughout the season, he played hard, hit good runs, hit the ball consistently hard, handled defense out of the field, and ran the bases well.
Many of the scouts in attendance on Tuesday were especially drawn to White Sox outfielder Lucas Giolito, the most enticing of several Chicago players likely to be transferred in the next couple of weeks.
But Pham was part of an offense that made it a bad night for Golito and the White Sox sales pitch.
The veteran righty allowed eight runs in 3 ⁄ innings on six hits (including three home runs) and five walks.
Pham doubled the lead in the first inning on the 0-2 home field.
To set up Jellito’s knockout in the fourth inning, Pham singled and stole his 11th base on 12 attempts.
He walked in each of his last two plate appearances, including one in which he worked a nine-pitch struggle after trailing 0-2.
He hits .277 with .841 OPS.
Raleigh, Adam Ottavino and Robertson — all potential trade bits — limited Chicago to one run in 2 ⁄ innings.
Raleigh helped clean up Gutt’s mess in particular so the Mets could avoid being outrun by a seven-run lead and losing for the first time since August 26, 2008, when they built a 7-0 advantage in Philadelphia with Pedro Martinez on the mound only to lose 8-7 in 13 innings.
The Mets blew a division lead to Philadelphia for the second straight season that year.
They are not in a position to have that kind of breakdown.
Perhaps the best they can do is try to make the future even better by deepening their farm system – especially merchandising.
The number of scouting eyeballs on them just in case is only increasing.
Scouting should be very plentiful for Verlander on Wednesday.
The Mets didn’t give up on Hail Mary.
But these scouts aren’t here to see if the Mets have a miracle in them.
They’re here to see if there are pieces that can help the actual contenders.
