Mets president updates trade-deadline stance amid resurgence

New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns surprised some when he acquired right-handed relief pitcher Phil Maton from the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

Stearns later addressed his mindset regarding the July 30 MLB trade deadline before the Mets defeated the Washington Nationals 7-5 at Citi Field.

"I think this is really a continuation of us trying to improve our team, supplement our team where we can," Stearns explained about the Maton move, as shared by Manny Gomez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "We’re going to continue to learn about our team over the coming weeks and we’ll take that opportunity to determine what our full trade deadline strategy looks like."

While the Mets seemingly were on track to become sellers for the second straight summer when they fell to 28-37 on the season in mid-June, the club has been on fire since, improving to 45-45 with Tuesday's win. The Mets will begin Wednesday's MLB action just one and a half games back in the battle for the National League's final wild-card playoff berth.

"We’ll find out," Stearns said about additional moves possibly occurring weeks before the trade deadline arrives, per Andy Martino of SNY. "I think for now [the Maton trade is] probably a little bit of a unique circumstance. But we’ll find out. There is industry discussion going on right now, there’s no question. Whether that yields a more active mid-July trade season, I don’t know yet."

Tuesday night may have shown that the Mets still need more bullpen help despite the addition of Maton. After all, the hosts required four relievers to record the game's final six outs. If nothing else, the Maton trade should've bolstered those inside the Mets clubhouse after veteran outfielder Brandon Nimmo publicly campaigned for Stearns and team owner Steve Cohen to buy instead of sell this month.

A "high-ranking executive" and a "plugged-in evaluator" suggested to Martino that teams punting on the remainder of the ongoing season could be ready to discuss significant trades as soon as next week, during the All-Star break. As for the Mets, they will play two more home games versus the 42-50 Nationals before they host the 32-60 Colorado Rockies for a three-game series that begins on Friday.