Help is assuredly on the way for the New York Mets' rotation, but how much help?
With Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea nearly ready to return to the fold, the Mets will finally have some rotation stability after a rash of injuries within the past month. Those two can form a formidable top-of-the-rotation trio with Clay Holmes.
However, in a stacked National League, the Mets' rotation still doesn't look as promising as some of their fellow contenders, at least on paper.
One baseball insider thinks the Mets should rectify that by swinging a blockbuster trade for a slumping former All-Star.
On Thursday, ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote that the "best match" for the Mets at the trade deadline is Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen, who has had a rough year after back-to-back excellent seasons in 2023 and 2024.
"The Mets started 45-24 on the strength of their starting pitching. With a 2.79 ERA that was nearly a quarter-run better than the second-best rotation, they cut the figure of a juggernaut. Since June 13, their starters' 5.61 ERA is worse than every team in baseball aside from Washington," Passan wrote.
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"Gallen has looked more like his old self in recent starts, and if his home run rate stabilizes -- typically one per nine, it has jumped to 1.6 -- alongside a perilously low strand rate normalizing, he can shake off the 5.15 ERA and be a real difference-maker for the Mets before hitting free agency after the season."
With a salary of $13.5 million and free agency impending, Gallen is something of a high-risk, high-reward trade target. Nothing he's done in Arizona this season would matter if he came to Queens and shoved for three months.
But it wouldn't be like the Mets under president of baseball operations David Stearns to pay a premium for a veteran starting pitcher. We'll have to see if Stearns is willing to buck his normal trend to make a move he feels is essential.
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