Mets Seeking to Deal a Starting Pitcher and Acquire Offense

Having too much quality starting pitching is a problem any team would love to have, and at this point in time, the New York Mets of all teams find themselves in this enviable position.

That is expected to be the case when your pitching staff boasts arguably the best young trio in all of baseball, consisting of Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and 2014 NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom, not to mention serviceable veterans Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese, and Dillon Gee. With promising youngsters Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero close to stepping into a full-time position, that means someone has to go, and that is exactly what the Mets are trying to accomplish.

It doesn’t look like New York will be trading away one of their key future pieces in Syndergaard, whom the Mets reportedly could have dealt to Washington in a trade for Ian Desmond. They ultimately declined, and have their eyes set on trying to dispose of either Colon, Niese, or Gee. In fact, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Rockies, Giants, and Padres were all exploring to acquire Gee, who seems to be the most likely to go of the bunch.

#Rockies talking to free-agent RHP Vogelsong, per @jonmorosi. Rox, #SFGiants, #Padres also looking at trade for #Mets’ Gee, per sources.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 12, 2015

It is clear that the Mets possess special starting pitching heading into 2015 -- so significant, in fact, that despite coming off their sixth consecutive losing season, many people have them pegged to break out in the upcoming campaign -- and all they seemingly need is one offensive piece to tie the rest of their lineup together.

New York appropriately is pinpointing on upgrading the shortstop position, where the unintimidating tandem of Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada currently resides, and if they could just land even somewhat of a big bat to take over the helm there, then this very well is a legitimate playoff contender. It appears their move will be made within the next week or two, and as always is the case in Flushing, it’s certainly going to be intriguing.