Trading ace Max Scherzer doesn’t imply the Mets are making ready to endure a full-blown rebuild, normal supervisor Billy Eppler insisted Sunday.
Eppler mentioned the entrance workplace isn’t punting on the 2024 season and expects to area a aggressive roster, regardless of sending Scherzer to the Texas Rangers with one other 12 months left on his contract.
“We took this opportunity to serve another goal of the organization, which is to enhance the farm system,” Eppler mentioned Sunday after the commerce turned official. “But I do want to be clear: It’s not a rebuild. It’s not a fire sale. It’s not a liquidation. This is just a repurposing of [owner Steve Cohen’s] investment in the club, and kind of shifting that investment from the team into the organization.”
In buying and selling Scherzer, the Mets obtained minor-league infielder Luisangel Acuna, the 21-year-old brother of Atlanta Braves famous person Ronald Acuna Jr. and one of many Rangers’ high prospects. The Mets additionally traded nearer David Robertson to the Marlins final week for a pair of teenage prospects.
The Mets will proceed to take heed to affords for gamers on their roster, in accordance with Eppler, who mentioned his costs are excessive. He considers buying and selling Schezer, 39, a “strategic decision” primarily based on the crew’s low odds of constructing the playoffs.
“We used this opportunity to bring a player into the organization that we’re extremely excited about, that’s close to the big leagues, talent that you can’t access,” Eppler mentioned of Acuna, who has superior to Double-A. “Generally with clubs that are going to go through a rebuild, you have to endure five, six, seven years of losing, and we don’t have the appetite for that. We’re not gonna do that. What we want to do is use Steve’s investment and enhance this farm system and get us to our larger goal.”
Coming off a 101-win season, the Mets entered the 2023 marketing campaign with the most important payroll in MLB historical past. The crew didn’t dwell as much as its sky-high expectations, getting into Sunday with a 49-55 report and 7 video games out of the third-and-final National League Wild Card spot.
Scherzer is within the second season of a three-year, $130 million contract. He waived his no-trade clause and picked up subsequent 12 months’s $43.3 million participant choice as a part of the commerce to the AL West-leading Rangers, who hope the three-time Cy Young Award winner can bolster a rotation that misplaced ace Jacob deGrom to elbow surgical procedure.
The transfer got here a day after Scherzer mentioned he needed to talk with the Mets’ entrance workplace about its intentions forward of Tuesday’s commerce deadline. Eppler mentioned he was already speaking to different groups concerning the right-hander at that time however didn’t get into specifics with Scherzer till Saturday afternoon.
The commerce surprised members of the Mets clubhouse, together with Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo.
“Honestly, shocked,” Alonso mentioned after Saturday’s recreation. “Max wasn’t around the clubhouse and I didn’t really see him around today, so that’s when I knew it was like, ‘Oh man, this is legit. This isn’t just, like, clickbait.’ … It’s a loss for us for sure.”
Eppler believes Las Vegas’ preseason odds for the Mets in 2024 shall be decrease than the previous two seasons. His objective is to construct a top-flight farm system, he mentioned, however acknowledged the crew might want to stay lively in free company.
“Free agency is not the market that we want to rely on to build a championship team,” Eppler mentioned. “It’s a market that we want to use to enhance the team that we have, but we would rather go to that market for opportunities than necessity. We’re not there yet.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com