For Mets, there's a significant difference between this year’s trade deadline and last season's

A year ago, the Mets were in a different place: Excited by the dual adrenaline rushes of a strong first half and ambitious new owner, the team and its fans found themselves swept up in the need to do something -- anything! -- at the trade deadline, and to demand that it be big.

The Mets, run by president Sandy Alderson and interim GM Zack Scott, engaged in serious discussions about high-profile players like Willson Contreras, Jose Berrios and Josh Donaldson, and finally landed Javier Baez from the Cubs.

Baez and Trevor Williams cost prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, which didn’t bother the Mets much at the time. But the team is bothered by it now, or at least motivated enough by Crow-Armstrong’s continued development for another organization that it is determined to avoid another deal of that type this week -- even if it means adding nothing to the lineup.

Talking over the past few days to Mets and league sources about the team’s progress with the Cubs on Contreras and the Boston Red Sox about J.D. Martinez, it’s clear that Billy Eppler’s front office might as well be wearing t-shirts in their war room that read, "We Aren’t Doing Another Pete Crow-Armstrong trade."

The problem is, that’s exactly what other clubs are trying to get them to do at present.

(As an aside, I think Scott and Alderson fulfilled the assignment at last year’s deadline, and it’s easy to criticize them in retrospect for a trade like that. At the time, they were under pressure to land a big name, and they delivered).

Specifically, while the Mets are unwilling to move top prospect Francisco Alvarez for anyone but Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani, league sources say that they feel essentially the same way about Mark Vientos, the team’s fifth-ranked prospect via MLB.com. 

Eppler leans strongly against moving him for a free-agent-to-be like Martinez or Christian Vazquez (in 2020 the Red Sox tried to trade Vazquez for a package highlighted by Vientos).

The Cubs have indicated the type of return they expect for Contreras, and it’s more than the Mets will pay. If it doesn’t come down, the Mets will walk away.

Information like this coming out of the New York market might read like team posturing, and we’ll see what happens before Tuesday, but this aversion to trading a top prospect does seem like an authentic position, for the following reasons:

-- Eppler is under no pressure from Steve Cohen or Alderson to make a deadline splash. Cohen is often misunderstood as an owner who acts out of Steinbrennerian impulse, but he has made clear to Eppler that he wants a strong farm system and a path to sustainable success. Alderson has communicated the same.

-- The Mets lineup looks deep and diverse again, defined by tough at-bats and the unselfish, move-the-line approach preached by new hitting coach Eric Chavez. Mainstays including Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil practice it, joined now by fresher faces like Mark Canha and Daniel Vogelbach.

Put those bullet points together, and you begin to realize that the Mets will only add a bat before Tuesday if the prices come down.

If not, the team will likely promote Vientos and proceed with trades that bolster the bullpen.