Over the weekend, I attempted to frame just how good the Mets have been over the last calendar year — producing the majors’ best record in that time and by a nice little gap over the equally upstart Tigers.
I think that reiterates that the Mets were no fluke last year and are heavyweights this year, and heavyweights go hard at finding solutions at the trade deadline.
Now, two provisos:
1. You may want to go hard at the deadline, but the marketplace has to cooperate and — right now — it is difficult to see the kind of sales piece that makes the sport stop and gasp. The bad teams — we see you over there, Rockies, White Sox, Pirates, etc. — are bad because they lack difference-makers and/or are unwilling to part with them (see: Pittsburgh, Paul Skenes). But a lot changes as the draft comes and goes and organizations have to look in the contention mirror and decide whether they are or they aren’t.