In today’s episode of the Exit Velo Podcast, Curt Bishop examines where each team in the National League East is, and what they may do at the trade deadline. Will they buy, sell, both, or hold pat? Hear Curt’s thoughts and takes on what will happen.
Welcome back to another episode of the exit velo podcast. Today we’re wrapping up our segment on each team’s deadline strategy and we’re finishing with the National League East.
This has been perhaps the weirdest division in all of baseball. The Mets are at the top, followed by the Phillies, who went over the .500 mark with a win last night over Washington. The Braves sit in third and are having a rather disappointing season on the heels of three consecutive division titles. The Nationals are in fourth and slipping out of contention fast. And then we’ve got Miami at the bottom. Now I think we all expected this division to be top heavy with the Mets adding Francisco Lindor and the Nationals making a few tweaks to improve their roster, but instead, it’s quite a weak division. So let’s jump right in.
We’ll start with the Mets, who may be looking for an upgrade at third base or in the outfield. The article we’ve been covering has them listed as buyers and they’re in a perfect position to do so. It’s possible they could deal some prospects to the Cubs in order to bring in Kris Bryant. That would give them a guy who could play third or the outfield to fill that hole. Right now, as is the case with many other teams, they’re most glaring need is in the starting rotation. Carlos Carrasco is on his way back, but they’ve been without Noah Syndergaard all season, and Jacob DeGrom just went on the IL. That pretty much leaves Marcus Stroman and Taijuan Walker, both of whom have been great. If the rumor is true about several teams being in on Merrill Kelly, that could be someone that could help. I also heard speculation about Tyler Anderson and even Jose Berrios. Imagine if they add Berrios. Next year, with Syndergaard back, they’d have him, DeGrom, Berrios and Stroman. That rotation would be unstoppable, even this year depending on when DeGrom comes back. They haven’t been in the postseason since 2016 and now is the perfect time to try and end that drought
Now onto the city of brotherly love. The Phillies sit in second place, 3.5 games back of New York. MLB.com has them listed as undecided on what they’ll do, but I think it’s clear that they should buy. We’ve talked a lot about Merrill Kelly the last couple of days, but of the teams interested, the Phils were said to be one of them. They don’t exactly have a strong farm system, so they won’t do anything crazy, but the bullpen is an area where they need help. Could we see Richard Rodriguez move up to the east side of Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh? Could we see them make a play for some of the guys the Rockies have, a la Daniel Bard and Mychal Givens? That would certainly help them. They haven’t been to the postseason since 2011, and they’ve got Bryce Harper signed long-term, so I think they have to try and get some pieces so he could play in October for the first time since 2017.
Now let’s move on to the Braves. They’re two games below .500. MLB.com predicts that they’ll do a little buying and a little selling. They’ve already done some buying with the acquisition of Joc Pederson. But with Ronald Acuna down for the year, they’ve kind of come to a crossroads. Pederson helps some, but he’s no Acuna. If the Braves can’t get to .500 or above, we could see them sell some of their pitchers such as Shane Greene, Drew Smyly, or Charlie Morton. With pitching at a premium, it’ll be interesting to see what they can get for those guys should they decide to sell. They’ll be an interesting team to watch.
Onto the nation’s capital, where the Nationals are falling out of the race. At the time the article we’ve been discussing came out, the Nationals were still very much in it, and expected to be buyers. That’s obviously changed now, especially in light of the reports that they’re willing to deal anyone not named Juan Soto for the right price. This includes Max Scherzer and even Trea Turner! There are several teams in on Scherzer right now, including the reigning AL Champion Rays. Scherzer has even said that he’d be willing to move. It’s highly unlikely Turner gets moved, but it’s seeming increasingly likely that we’ll see Scherzer be moved. Where he will go is still up for debate, but it’s clear now that the Nats are in full sell mode.
Finally we have the Marlins. The article predicted they would buy and sell simultaneously, but there’s no realistic hope of them getting back into the picture. So, in my opinion, they should sell. They’ve already traded off Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson to the Blue Jays. The main question is where will Starling Marte end up. A team like the Yankees could use a little extra thump in a struggling lineup. I’ve also heard that Boston has checked in on him. Their starting pitching has been their strength, but that won’t be enough to get them past the four teams ahead of them, especially with Sixto Sanchez out for the year and Trevor Rogers also on the shelf. It seems like being a postseason team last year was just a fluke, and that they benefited from the 60 game schedule.
That concludes our segment on each team’s deadline strategy. Thanks so much for tuning into the Exit Velo Podcast. We’ll be back soon with more. I’m Curt Bishop and thanks again for listening.
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