The New York Mets enter the second half of the regular season with a 42-48 record, which has them seven games out of the final Wild Card spot in the National League.
Basically, the Mets look destined to be sellers at the August 1 trade deadline.
Rival teams believe the Mets are likely to trade closer David Robertson and outfielder Mark Canha at the deadline because they're on expiring deals.
But these same sources think the Mets will take a hybrid approach, where they don't trade everyone in order to be able to try to compete the rest of the season.
This means the Mets are expected to hang on to their aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, as well as other veterans such as Starling Marte and Jeff McNeil.
But Tommy Pham is on a one-year deal and has been the Mets' best hitter. Like Canha and Robertson, he could also be dealt as well. Pham took over Canha's starting left field job, but if both of them are traded then the Mets will have to call-up someone to fill that void. Adam Ottavino would presumably take over the closer role if Robertson is shipped out.
The Mets, who have the highest payroll of all-time, have had a disastrous season any way you slice. But the glimmer of hope is that they went on a six-game winning streak prior to the All-Star break. If they can get hot again there is a chance that they become buyers. However, they would need to be close to a playoff spot for that to happen.
The best thing that the Mets could probably do is to trade a few players on expiring deals and compete with what they have left over. Like owner Steve Cohen said at his news conference a few weeks ago, they aren't going to add if the team is this far out of a playoff spot.
We still have a few weeks to go before the August 1 deadline, but rival teams believe the Mets will be trading David Robertson and Mark Canha by this date.
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