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I'm a little shocked at the level of detail Max relayed to Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic after his conversations with Billy Eppler and Steve Cohen.
https://theathletic.com/4739281/2023/08/01/max-scherzer-mets-trade-deadline-retooling/
It was referenced in another thread that Billy told him free agents after '24 would be available at the deadline, but dig these very revealing snippets:
“I talked to Billy,” Scherzer told The Athletic. “I was like, ‘OK, are we reloading for 2024?' He goes, ‘No, we're not. Basically our vision now is for 2025-2026, ‘25 at the earliest, more like ‘26. We're going to be making trades around that.'
“I was like, ‘So the team is not going to be pursuing free agents this offseason or assemble a team that can compete for a World Series next year?' He said, ‘No, we're not going to be signing the upper-echelon guys. We're going to be on the smaller deals within free agency. ‘24 is now looking to be more of a kind of transitory year.'”
Eppler, according to Scherzer, went on to say the Mets were open to trading not only players who would become free agents after 2023 but also after ‘24. That group included three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander (who was traded to the Astros on Tuesday), three-time All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso, left-hander José Quintana and lefty reliever Brooks Raley. |
and this:
After Eppler informed him of the club's plan, Scherzer said he told the GM, “I've got to hear this from Steve. This is a change in organizational direction.” Cohen, Scherzer said, told him, “exactly the same thing, kind of verbatim.” Scherzer then gave the Mets permission to trade him, and the next day he went to the Rangers along with approximately $36 million for infielder Luisangel Acuña, a top 100 prospect.
“If they had said, ‘We're going to hold on to all the ‘24 pieces,' that would have been a different story,” Scherzer said. “But they were saying no, we're going to be moving players that are under contract for 2024 before the deadline.
“We walked through some players I had in mind who would be that. It turned out it was much more extensive than that. The players we ended up talking about who are free agents after ‘24, they were more substantial names. Any player who was a free agent after 2024 at the right price could be moved right now at the deadline.
“That's a completely different vision from what everybody had in the clubhouse. All the players had a vision of, we reload for 2024. That was no longer the case.” |
Of course Billy went on to say the Mets were not rebuilding and there was no fire sale but unless he was full of shit to Max, it doesn't sound like the Mets will be flirting with any of the larger ticket free agents, unless they feel like locking them up ahead of '24 lays things out nicely for Billy's 2026 goal. But that's not the sexiest sales pitch, is it? The Mets, am I right?!
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