New York Mets
The massive exodus of key players by the New York Mets at the trade deadline was the prime example of a team going into a complete tear down to give up most of their major assets that probably would no longer help them this year anymore, to obtain strong and valuable assets for their future to give them a chance to compete again after a short turnaround. The moment they determined they were sellers at the trade deadline, one could really imagine that basically almost everything other than the kitchen sink was probably available from the ballclub.
In the end, the Mets gave up prime pitching studs in Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Robertson, along with solid MLB players in Tommy Pham, Dominic Leone and Mark Canha. In return, the Mets brought in a huge haul of minor league prospects including 2B Marco Vargas, C Ronald Hernandez, SS Luisangel Acuna (brother of superstar Ronald Acuna Jr., so he’s got to be good, right?), RHP Justin Jarvis, OF Drew Gilbert, 1B/OF Ryan Clifford, SS Jeremy Rodriguez, INF Jeremiah Jackson, along with some serviceable players in pitchers Adam Kolarek and Phil Bickford.
In doing so, if it wasn’t obvious already, the Mets took themselves way out of the playoff picture, leaving the Phillies again with one less thing to worry about for the rest of this year. However, the Mets have now stocked up for the future, added to the fact that they love to spend big money to create a complete overhaul of their roster in free agency, they can quickly become another huge roadblock for the Phillies in the not-so-distant future.