The New York Mets did not get any top-end pitching talent at the trade deadline, but you wouldn't have known it after watching their first game post-deadline.
Sean Manaea threw an absolute gem, and Edwin Diaz locked down a four-out save.
Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down the game, and what that level of pitching performance can do for the Mets the rest of the way.
Also, what did we learn from David Stearns after the deadline, and how does this Mets roster stack up with their new additions?
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It's the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Did Sean Manaya and Edwin Diaz just show us that the New York Mets have enough top flight pitching? I'll talk about that more on today's show. You are Locked On Mets, your daily New York Mets Podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you're listening to Locked On Mets, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Thank you for making Locked On Mets, your first listen every day, Locked On Mets is free and available on all platforms including YouTube. From the show today, a Mets victory to discuss where they got a great pitching performance from Sean Manaya, as well as Edwin Diaz, I want to break down what those two could mean for the Mets down the stretch here. So go all through all that in the first segment and the second segment, I'll break down the comments that David Stern's made after the trade deadline, what do we learn for the Mets president of baseball operations. Then in the final segment, where does this roster sit after all these deadline moves? Who are going to be the eight arms in the bullpen? This Tyler or McGill heading back to Syracuse, I'll touch on all of that, but before we get into any of it, I'm your host Ryan Finkelstein, if you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Finkelstein Ryan, could also find some of my writing at justbaseball.com, where I work as the managing editor. This episode is brought to you by a prize picks, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports, at aprisepix.com/LockedOnMLB and use the code on lowercase, LockedOnMLB for a first deposit match up to $100. So after the trade deadline, there was sure to be a lot of questions about the moves the Mets made. I did talk about all of them on a post deadline livestream on YouTube, you can still find that on our YouTube channel, I did post it to your podcast feeds, where I broke down each individual trade. Now the Mets at this deadline, they made a lot of good moves and again, we'll talk about that a little bit more later, but there still was a question and there still is a question about the top end talent of the Mets pitching staff, the presence of enough lockdown relievers and having the type of pitchers you want to hand the ball to in a playoff game. Well, it's one game, but Sean Manai and Edwindia's bookend did a shutout that to me promised that the Mets might just have enough in house, right? And particularly looking at Manai, because if you wanted to know who's going to start a playoff game, prior to this deadline, of course, we were dreaming of a Blake Snell or any of the Mets would get a Jack Flaherty or Garro Crochet, all these big names that were in the market. They don't get any of them. They get Paul Blackburn. Now you got to wonder who's going to grab one of those starts outside of Luis Severino and Sean Manai is clearly the number two on this staff right now. If not the number one at times, I mean, he has had some of the best starts we have seen this year. And this might have been his best start yet. He was dominant and this was a fun game to watch as it just cruise through. I mean, it was a little over two hours in games over and Sean and I had a lot to do with that, particularly going through the heart of that twins order, facing Byron Bucks and Royce Lewis and Jose Miranda. Those guys came up to the plate nine times Royce Lewis walked once. The other eight trips all ended in strikeouts, which is ridiculously impressive from Sean Manai. Two singles, the entire game, walked one that walked to Luis, needed just 96 pitches to get through seven innings and he struck out 11. I mean, that right there is a dominant, dominant performance and it does make you optimistic about what it would look like in a playoff game because that twins lineup is not bad. And particularly this year, they've been great against left handed pitching. Didn't matter. Sean Manai took the game plan that Jose Quintana sort of laid the blueprint on the night before he was using his sweeper slider to get ahead and counts to steal strikes, to put them away at times. The sinker, the two seam, the fastball up in the zone that just completely can put guys away. It's a joy to watch Manai when he's on and when he's not his own worst enemy walking batters, getting to deep counts, nibbling. When he's attacking like that, he can be so effective and the Mets need that of him. And there's no one else coming, right? The best you might get is Christian Scott coming off the IL or Kodai Senga in the playoffs. But here on forward, it is going to be Luis Severino and Sean Manai as the big horse is carrying the shortation. Jose Quintana too. So those three veterans have to get the job done. I think this was a really good start, not just because of the performance, but the tone that it set, right? The Mets have enough in that dugout and Manai just showed you. All right. Let's go out. Let's play ball. Two months left here and I feel pretty confident that every fifth day when you get Manai on the mountain, we're going to have a good chance to win. So it was really fun to watch him pitch that way. The Mets didn't score a bunch in this game. Brandon Nemo scored the first run. He drew a walk in the fourth inning. He then advanced the second on a ball, advanced the third on a wild pitch. JD Martinez cashed him in with a base hit. Then in the fifth inning, Mark Fientos hit a solo home run his 15th of the season. That's all the Mets did. Five hits on the game, one walk. Jesse Winker did get a knock. I was wrong about that one, folks. I'll say it again. When you look at the Mets, deadline and totality, pretty awesome that they were able to land a winker and not just a bunch of bullpen arms and Paul Blackburn. That was a very nice little addition that the Mets made, especially when you talk about the cost of it. But the bottom line again, from this game, you have an eye, carry you through seven. The Mets winning two-nothing. Ryan Stanik comes on. Pete Alonso makes a terrible error to start off that eighth inning. Fields the ball cleanly. All he has to do is make a good flip to Stanik and he almost threw him out of the season because he made him try to jump and leap to make a catch. Awkward fall. Luckily, Stanik was fine, but that was just a brutal flip by Pete Alonso. That put Stanik in a pressure situation, got to fly out, walk the batter, got another fly out. With two runners on, Byron Buxton coming up, Carlos Mendoza was not messing around. He called on that Windy S and Windy is that a long and bad to Byron Buxton was attacking with fast balls, ultimately got into a 2-2 count through one slider out of the zone that Buxton spit on, went right back to it, a nastier one. The Buxton could not hold off on in a full count. He gets a huge strike out to strand two, then he pitched a perfect ninth, 1-2-3, gets a strike out to lead it off, then gets two quick outs. There you go. Edwin Diaz locks down another save and he has been very good lately, hasn't been talked about much, but Edwin Diaz has allowed just one run over his last 11 innings pitch and the month of July, he is six for seven in save situations and the save that he blew was that game against the Pirates where he blows the game in the eighth inning. I think it was either going for a four out save or a five out save, gets the final adds the inning, having just allowed the one run, then the Pirates have a rolled as Chapman come on for the save, the Met score two runs off of them, get a three to two lead if I'm not mistaken, and then Edwin Diaz holds on and gets the win. So even though he blew a save there, he got the win and he pitched a ninth inning with a one run lead and got the job done. So I'm going to count that seven for seven in some ways at locking down Met's victories this month, that's a huge, huge piece to what the Mets have here, we've been talking about Edwin Diaz's importance the last two years when he was just gone in 2022, how much the Mets felt that loss and then this year with the injury at first, the lack of performance prior to it and then the suspension, there's been a lot of uncertainty in the back end of that bullpen. Well, now you're seeing Edwin Diaz look like Edwin Diaz and that just sets the tone for everybody else in that bullpen, yeah, they didn't go out and get Tanner Scott or Carlos Lestebes or Kyle Finnegan, some of those closer types that were on the market. But you know what, they didn't need a closer type. They have Edwin Diaz, they need guys that can bridge the gap to him and I think they did a good enough job getting that. So overall, this game to me, it was very indicative of the fact that this is a Mets team that has enough talent to make a run. There are other teams in this wildcard race that did some big things. The Padres are the main one. They sold a ton of prospects, what was it? Four of their top five and six of their top 12, AJ Preller is always reeling and dealing. You can say that he's dealing for his job right now because the seats are a little bit hot with the state of the franchise and how long he's had there and the change of ownership that Peter Seidler sadly passed away and he was his biggest advocate. So you don't know how much time Preller has left in that position, but he probably would have operated like this two years ago anyway. He's always aggressive, but is that lockdown bullpen going to be enough to overcome their issues in their rotation? The fact that they're line up, I don't believe as good as the New York Mets lineup? I don't know. And you go down the line, the Cardinals, the Adderick Fettie, that was pretty much it. Tommy Pham hits a grand slam in his first game tonight. So that edition is voting well so far, but I still look at the other teams in this wildcard race and I really do believe with the line that the Mets have constructed and how much they're able to just pile on runs at times with the bullpen and the starting rotation that doesn't look sexy on paper, but I think has enough talent in it to get the job done at least in the regular season. I still believe that the deadline of the New York Mets are a playoff team and now we're just going to watch it play out, which is the fun part. So I'm excited to be covering the rest of this journey with you this season and we will talk a little bit about the deadline and what David Stern's had to say about the moves that he made in just a minute here. First though, quick word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. 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If you want to be locked on Mets insider final link in the option description there's subtext dot com slash lock on Mets six forty five David Stern's hopped on and met with the New York Mets media and I got to tell you what he looked like a guy that had been through it because he had over the past week. I was right there with him honestly I was really feeling those vibes as I watched David Stern's because man I crashed tonight. I am the manager at just baseball.com and it's very hectic during the deadline. I'm not building phone calls but as the trade circle in I'm assigning articles to writers and coordinating the staff and then I hopped on a two hour live stream for just baseball before then doing the one here with locked on Mets. I really felt David Stern the energy he was giving off I was right there on that level with them burned out and it's taken me a while to be just up and ready to go to record this show tonight. It's one thirty two now. I needed a little nap man I was exhausted I hope David Stern's got one himself maybe he slept through the first five things of the game and caught up with my eye at the end of it and of course is bullpen holding on strong but going through what he said I don't have five key takeaways like I've done in the past when stirs talks. For me it was just sort of a collection of sentences that I jotted down that I thought were interesting first one goal is to help the penny said fortify the rotation get a lefty bat they laid that out you've seen reports about that in the media they checked all those boxes now how well did they fortify the pen and the rotation will learn that in the coming months and they obviously got their lefty bat and Jesse winker but they were able to get everything that they required at this deadline despite the hefty prices that were out there they didn't meet those crazy demands they found the pieces in the market that were affordable to them and they struck while the iron was hot on those type of deals and I really credit them for that because you know he talked about that as I said there was some pretty aggressive pricing this year and he really talked about his philosophy and I think that was interesting to learn more about just that the Mets were in on every conversation you know if Gary Crochet is in the market the Mets aren't going to just say oh well we're not going to touch him like they're going to make the phone calls they're going to do their due diligence because that is a great way to learn about not only what else is out there but what you have internally he said there was you know a lot of teams asking what their top prospects he also said that they fielded a lot of calls on their rental players not that they put out any outgoing calls he said they didn't do that they didn't make any calls shopping a shamanaya or Jose Cantana but teams are calling about it and so you're able to get a sense of who's looking to do what and you you're able to piece everything together that's what this guy does and what that front office does is a lot of people in there that have to lay out the roadmap take all the information they have and try to put it all together and I don't know about you guys I'm a Giants fan you might say the flag behind me a little banner there and I've been locked into the hard knocks off season you know going through and seeing oh it's Tuesday we had another episode don't we gonna see the Malik neighbors episode they draft them officially but it has been cool to see that behind the scenes look at Joe Shane and what he's been doing in that front office or what he did this past offseason and just see how much information goes into these decisions and how much of a game of cat and mouse it is you know in the hard knocks you saw at one point they're at some combine or something where there's a conversation with the Panthers GM about Brian Burns and then that turns into a trade a couple months later it's the same thing you know maybe the Mets swing a trade for Garrett crochet in the off season at that time maybe they're more comfortable dealing their top end prospects for crochet after they watch him complete a full season it's just interesting how these guys have to navigate their jobs how many commute how many conversations you have to learn what's out there and then to just do the best you can to predict the market and I think when you see the moves that the Mets made to me it has to give you more confidence in David's terms moving forward you might not like that they didn't push all the chips in that they weren't the a.j. Preller Padres of this deadline going all in on this season but then if you take a step back and you think about where this team is what would Tanner Scott had done to increase the Mets chances that significantly yeah maybe you win a game or two more maybe but if you end up out of the race at the end of the season and you traded Louisa and Hella Koona and blade 10 well for Tanner Scott and now Tanner Scott's a free agent that's a huge loss to the franchise and I think if you understand where this team is right now as a franchise they don't have a deep enough farm system to make trades and not feel it the Orioles have that so the Orioles were able to make that tree for Trevor Rogers today and give up Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers two guys that I almost make that package very similar to a Koona being close to a Norby and Beatty's probably better than a Kyle Stowers but similar in the sense that it's a guy that's in Triple A performs well there hasn't really put it together than the big leagues yet so I think the Koona Beatty package would be better than Stowers Norby and the Marlins probably would have taken that over the Orioles package but it's just evidence of how much you would have had to give up to get that perceived upgrade and how much better is Trevor Rogers than Paul Blackburn so you know sort of taking that look now you take a step back and you think about what the Mets did they didn't lose any trade here they didn't and they checked everything on the market they saw the price for certain pitchers that was just astronomical and David Serns was not going to make a really bad trade for a team that's not comfortably in a playoff position he made you know a comment about someone asked him about you know building a playoff rotation or something along those lines you know how do you feel about your team in a short series it says a lot easier to make those decisions to make those trades when you're the Phillies because the Phillies are going to make the playoffs it would take a historical collapse it would never happen not in a million years no chance in the world where the Phillies ever blow this league they just couldn't possibly try and put the jinx out there guys we'll see if that works probably not and that's the whole point they have the team where they're going to be there and so if they had made the big move to get a huge frontline pitcher it would have made sense because they're going to be in the playoffs so they'll have a playoff rotation the Mets you hope they're in the playoffs but the last thing they needed to do was trade significant prospects for Jack Flaherty and then all of a sudden Jack Flaherty comes over gets hurt in his first three starts and then the Mets may fail to make the playoffs and they gave up a ton of prospects for a guy that didn't have control he mentioned that control was important and outside of Jesse Winker and Ryan Stanick all the other pieces have a level of control Phil Maiton there's a club option you look at the two relievers they got today who scar Brazoban and Tyler Zuber they both have control and optionality which he also mentioned was important roster flexibility we'll talk about in the next segment where the Mets roster sits they now have a stable of relief option that they can cycle through so if they go to a six man rotation at some point they'll have the arms that they can move in and out of that seven spot of the bullpen to churn the roster whenever they need a fresh arm if they just go with the Nate man bullpen it's still the same thing you have the options to do it because you picked up some relievers that you can send down which does bring some value because the Mets their best bullpen might just be what they had might just be getting read Garrett Sean read Foley and Daniel Nunez back plugging them in with Stanick and Maiton as well as of course Edwin Diaz and Jose Boudo that might be the pen speaking Jose Boudo it does seem like the addition of Paul Blackburn will keep Boudo in the rotation David Stearns called him a Swiss army knife so that you can really use him in a lot of different ways instead for the moment Boudo will stick in the bullpen there's still some debate about what's going to happen with Tyler McGill though we'll talk about that in the next segment I'd imagine he's going to be the roster move to bring Paul Blackburn onto the active roster but the bottom line here the Mets got a lot deeper as a team they have the depth now to make it through the final two months of the season if one of their stars goes down well Tyler McGill can get called on again if two of them go down well you got McGill you got Boudo so getting Blackburn was a big addition to be able to just fortify that back end of the rotation and when it comes to the playoffs you just hope that maybe Kodai Senga can get better by then and you would still have a Senga, Severino, Shamanaya top three in a wildcard series I think that's good enough especially with the lines of the Mets half now as it relates to the specific relievers he picked up or even just all three pitchers on Paul Blackburn he just talked about consistency how he's a throw at everything you know kitchen sink type a guy he's got a six pitch mix he's just a really solid arm I watched him highlights of him very simple delivery he likes his curveball a lot from what I saw in the few starts that I watched the highlights from you know doesn't throw very hard but you know he can throw a two seam and kind of freeze a guy with his sinker he's you know has the ability to go to all four quadrants of the zone as a cutter that he can throw he's just got a lot that that can work for him any pitches to contact in the Mets defense one of the quietest thing is about July their defense has been on a different level lately when you have a glacius playing more at second base the way Vientos has been very solid if they're having the door as a gold lover at short and then an outfield where you have Bader out there and Nemo and look even while I knock just in Winkler's defense I don't think he's going to be as bad as DJ Stewart was at times and then you're also seeing the Mets really getting Tyrone Taylor in there in pretty much every game so yeah Jesse Winkler is going to start but Tyrone Taylor is going to be out there if the Mets have a lead in the final three innings making sure that he's run down every fly ball in the gap so I think Paul Blackburn is a type of pitcher that can really do well with a great defense behind him and in those starts because you might expect some extra fly balls maybe you do start a Tyrone Taylor that day and give Jesse Winkler a blow I mean that might be the time that you would make that type of a move so I think this team got deeper I think Blackburn was a very nice addition quiet one but when you consider the cost of other starting pitchers I thought that was a really nice one then you look at the other comments the sterns made on the relievers as far as Brazoban he said another sort of Swiss army knife a guy that can play you know multiple different roles he has gone for multiple innings for the Marlins this year you could shorten them up pitch him in leverage talked about a unique pitch mix and yeah just basically said the roster flexibility was important as well this is a guy that you picked up who I think he's 34 years old but he's got one year of service time so you pretty much control the rest of his career in a weird way and he's got three option years left so this year is one of them that means the next two years you have a piece in your bullpen that you can go up and down with that is really valuable and I only thought they give it that much to get him so very good move might be my favorite of the deadline honestly Brazoban either him or Winkard have funny enough but I really the more that I chew on all these moves the more I think I like them and the bottom line through all of it and I'm looking through any other big comment that he made that stands out he said there's really a clear cut decision on these things just talked about weighing all his options bottom line to me with David Stern's there's a reason why I said last year when he was hired around this time a little bit after the deadline I made the comment that David Stern's being the president of baseball operations for the New York Mets was the biggest acquisition of the Steve Cohen era even bigger than that of Francisco Landor and I stand by that because it is a steady hand on the wheel Billy Epler would not have run this deadline as well Billy Epler might have tried to swing for the fences a little bit he might have traded a ton for Trevor Rogers for whatever pieces out there and we saw how the Daniel Vogelback trade worked Tyler Naikwin there's a lot of bad deals at that 2022 deadline when the Mets are in position. Epler did a great job that you're building the team through free agency but that was spending Steve Cohen's money now you just see the way the Mets are able to maneuver their roster the fact that David Stern isn't afraid to DFA anybody so who knows I mean for all we know one of these players that he picked up might get DFA'd at the end of August doesn't matter it's about having options being able to shuffle your roster and always try to find a solution when there's a problem I think he did a great job giving his team all the resources they need to navigate these last two months of the season and get to the playoffs I guess that is the last comment that he said there was all this talk and I've hated it whenever I've seen it that the goal was this to be a bridge year the goals for the Mets to sell and yeah you could sit here now and say oh the Mets missed out an opportunity to sell based on the prices that were out there for some of these guys but he said that since the beginning the stated goal for the Mets was to be a playoff team and that they put themselves in a position to do that and so that was the goal they were following through with the goal was never oh we're definitely going to sell if they were in a position where the team wasn't good enough of course they would have sold and they would have probably done very well but they ended up in a spot where they're in a wildcard position and now they just got to go out and win the games to get there and I feel very good about their chances to do that based on how they've played and even some of the additions that they made but what does the roster look like after all these moves we're going to talk about that in just a minute first though another word from our sponsors today's episode is brought to you by supply house get supplies from the site that's made for skilled trades supplyhouse.com supplyhouse.com is a reliable way to order plumbing HVAC and electrical products online with their easy to use website which is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help get the job done right get expert support and industry leading service from the friendliest folks in the business and talk to a real person every time. 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Stay up to date with all the latest in the world of sports by checking out locked on sports today streaming 24/7 on YouTube. Alright so what's the state of the roster after the trade deadline first things first what will the rotation be moving forward. Luis Severino is going to pitch today game on Wednesday and then you have it off down Thursday so the Mets have some time to make the decision on the rotation moving forward and Paul Blackburn last pitched on the 26th so he can start on Friday on 5 days rest. Could be the move now Tyler McGill was supposed to start on Friday. I'd imagine that the Mets are going to option McGill and then add Blackburn to the roster in his spot. That's what I think is going to happen. Now if they do that their rotation will be Severino, Blackburn, Peterson, Cantana, M&I in that order that's how they'd be lined up. With that said that is three lefties in a row if the Mets wanted to they can start David Peterson on regular rest on Friday and then insert Paul Blackburn after that to split up those lefties if they so chose or they could even kick the can down or even further on Blackburn. They could go Peterson to Cantana then Blackburn and maybe give him some time to get acclimated. That's a decision they'll have to make once they get him in house. Now that's what's going to happen with the rotation. I'd be very surprised if they want the six men rotation to keep McGill I just can't see it. I think the value that the Mets starters bring right now is that ability to pitch every fifth day. I think that is actually a huge asset because it allows you to have an extra arm in the bullpen and if those guys end up only going five which I think you certainly have the risk of that with the Blackburn, with the Peterson, with the Cantana, even Manaya at times make sense to not have a six men rotation. I just don't think you have six starters that are good enough to do that. So with that said eight spots in the bullpen Edwin Diaz, Jose Budo, Phil Mayton, Ryan Stanek. Those four are your leverage guys right now. Now Adam Montevino could be DFA at some point but I don't expect it just yet. Alex Young is pitch great as a left-handed leader for them. I think he holds on to a spot. So I believe that those six are going to be in the bullpen for now. So it comes down to a decision on Danny Young who is coming off a good performance two innings pitch five strikeouts. Actually his last seven appearances have been pretty solid. Matt Gage who has added to the roster we haven't seen him yet. He replaced Jake Deakman, felt like a placeholder. I'd imagine he goes down and then it's the two new guys Tyler Zuber and who escar Braza Bond. Now I think Braza Bond is going to be in this bullpen. So I'd pencil him in. Then it comes down to Danny Young. Do you want a second lefty? Do you want Tyler Zuber? I will note Danny Young has been optioned at least three times already. You get five options on a pitcher throughout a season with their option leaders before you at the designate them. So you still have a couple left. I do wonder if because of that though and because Young has told the ball a little bit better as of late and having a second left in the bullpen maybe Zuber ends up in Syracuse. Get your eyes on him for a little bit. Get your own pitching coaches on him and see what you have. And then they could always add him back to the roster or add him to the roster or the active roster at some point later. You never know though if they love Zuber and apparently they've been talking to the raids about him for weeks. Maybe it is just Zuber and Braza Bond that entered the bullpen and you have Diaz, Buto, Maiton, Stanik, Adavino, Alex Young, Tyler Zuber and Braza Bond. Now other options on the Mets 40. You have Grand Heartwig, Eric Worsey. Those guys are still on the roster. Heartwig just started rehab assignment. He had a knee injury and then Centaro Fujinami, not on the 40. He cleared waivers. So now he's right back in Syracuse and he's still that option that you never know the Mets might call on if they can figure him out. So that is nice to still have in your back pocket. And then you have Nunez, Sean Rufoli and Regarit weighing in the wings. So when you count all them up, there's nine pitchers the Mets have right now that have optionality that the Mets can play with. So you have Diaz, Maiton, Stanik, who are set, Adavino as well. But I think he has a roster spot that could be in jeopardy at some point. Jose Budo technically has optionality too, but I think he's been so good that he has proven to be a big leaguer for the rest of the season. It just shows you that the Mets have a really good stable that they can call on so they can cycle guys whenever someone's not performing. There's another guy that's in Syracuse that probably is and you can mix and match. I really like just the collection of arms the Mets have. I do sort of understand if you feel that there's not the lockdown, eighth inning guy or seventh inning guy right now because the best you might have in that regard is Budo. But I think Phil Maiton and Ryan Stanik at least have enough experience pitching and leverage that I feel comfortable with them. And I'm hoping that Daniel Nunez, Sean Rufoli and Regarit will be back and able to resume those positions as late inning, seventh, eighth inning guys that can pitch and leverage. I think the Mets didn't get that big name for their bullpen, but they have enough. And Brasabon is another guy who has a very good E.R.A this season and could pitch some quality names for the Mets. So I like where they're at. Now overall great on the deadline. It's hard to do that. I would say it's it depends on what you want to grade it on. Is it is it a curve based on how ridiculous the prices were on the market? Because in that sense, I might give the Mets an A because they did not trade top prospects and they still address their needs. You look at what they gave up player to be named later or cash for Phil Maiton, Ryland Thomas for Ryan Stanik, Tyler Stewart for Jesse Winker, Wade Morris for Paul Blackburn, Alfredo Lara for, which one was he for? He was for Brasabon and then Paul Dervais for for Zuber. Dervais, my league reliever for Major League reliever. I don't think you lose sleep over it. You know, Thomas ceiling over for a thought fielder, I don't know much about him, but I do know he had a 692, OPS and high A utility infielder. I look at all those pieces that went out. The only one that I'm a little upset about is Kate Morris for Paul Blackburn, but I think that Paul Blackburn was worth it to acquire. But for me, Kate Morris had the chance to be a big league starter or has the chance. The third round pick last year has put up good numbers in high A, but the cost of starting pitching was that. I mean, it was even more than that, a lot of cases. So I don't think that was a bad trade, but that's the one prospect I'm going to think about from this deadline. Tyler Stewart to solid prospect, but for me, Kate Morris is the one that I was a little bit like, man, but again, you got to get to get. So I look at what the message at this trade deadline. I'm very happy with it. Ultimately, if you're not agreeing on that extreme curve of what everyone else did, I'd say it's probably like a B minus deadline where the Mets just accomplish what they needed to, but it's a passing grade for sure. They did not fail the deadline. They did not mortgage their future. They did enough. And now they got, you know, two months to make it happen. And I think the reality is the biggest strength in this team has been their lineup and their best addition, extended that with Jesse Winker. And so that lineup is better. That lineup has to carry them as the rest of the way. And if Francisco Lindor keeps playing like an MVP and you get a lot better performance from Pete Alonzo on the stretch as well as JD Martinez, Brandon Nemo, you're already seeing Jeff McNeil swing it better. This lineup has everything they need to be a fear team in this wildcard race. And it's going to be fun to watch. So that's going to be all for today's edition of locked on Mets. I appreciate all of you for tuning in tomorrow's show. We'll be breaking down the final game of this series. Might do some prospect related stuff over the next couple of days. I still got to wrap my head around everything that just happened. But I appreciate all of you who tuned in today who will continue to tune in. Make sure you follow rate review wherever you get your podcasts. Again, thank you for making this a top 10 baseball podcast over the last couple of days. I really appreciate what everyone has done following the show throughout this entire process. If you're watching on YouTube, our goal is to get to 10,000 subs by the end of the season. So I appreciate all of you who subscribe and please subscribe if you haven't yet. You can follow me on X at Finkelstein Ryan, follow the show at locked on Mets. Thank you for making locked on Mets. Your first listen every day. Now for your second listen or your second watch, head over to YouTube, check out the first ever 24/7 streaming channel that covers everything. The world of sports, the local experts from each team and our legal experts from each league, find locked on sports today's streaming 24/7 on YouTube and on Amazon Thier TV. A Prime Members, you can listen to this locked on podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today! [MUSIC PLAYING]
