Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |
Even as the Mets and Mariners continued to discuss players and money on Thursday night, leading to a deal that at the moment will bring Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz and significant cash to Queens for Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista, Brodie Van Wagenen and his group were already planning for the rest of the offseason.
In a word, it will be active.
We can't view the Cano/Diaz trade in a vacuum.
There will be, in the words of one source, "more aggressive moves to come. This would only be step one."
Between now and Opening Day, Van Wagenen will work to overhaul and refresh the team. The next step could be to trade Noah Syndergaard as a way to either restock the farm system or bring back talent that is much closer to major league ready than the 19-year-old Kelenic.
We've already reported that the Mets are engaged in the free agent starting pitching market. If they do find an appealing offer for Syndergaard, they could pivot quickly to signing a Nathan Eovaldi or a J.A. Happ.
They will also look to add one more bullpen piece like Andrew Miller or Adam Ottavino, or another available reliever.
The Mets have been in talk to acquire Cleveland catcher Yan Gomes, and could also look at free agents at that position.
And these are merely the potential moves we've been able to find out about.
Van Wagenen is surely working on ideas that we haven't yet detected.
Obviously, it will be a long time before we know if anything the new GM does results in on-field success. But it's clear that we're in for a wild, rumor-filled winter.