The Mets would be making a grave mistake by dealing pitcher Justin Verlander to their NL East rivals. If this does happen, start a petition to disband the franchise.
Some moments transcend any rivalry in sports, but trading Justin Verlander to a hated foe is not one of them. The New York Mets can and should be fielding calls for a potential Verlander deal two days away from the MLB trade deadline. After offloading Max Scherzer and David Robertson, what's the harm in listening to other teams' offers?
However, the Mets should not pick up the phone if it's an Atlanta area code, because there's no way in hell New York is helping the Braves go on a World Series run this season. Doing so would be a betrayal of the highest order, and at that point, the Mets should just give up. Accept this terrible and pathetic era. Bring out the guillotine and start cutting anyone and everyone, Showalter out, sell the team, disband the franchise, move to Jersey — the shameful possibilities are endless.
As if the Mets weren't dealing with enough shame already. As one of the MLB teams with the highest payrolls, New York shot for the stars and landed in the ocean. The 50-55 Mets currently sit in fourth place in the NL East, well behind the red-hot Braves, who have 17 more wins to brag about. They haven't tasted a .500 winning percentage since June 3.
With the postseason slipping from their fingers, the Mets are naturally thinking about ways to milk their potential trade chips; they already dealt Robertson and Scherzer… so could Verlander be next?
Mets should not trade Justin Verlander to Braves under any circumstances
On Sunday, general manager Billy Eppler has reassured fans that the Mets were not planning to tear down the team in a frenzied fire sale, insinuating that they would want to remain competitive for next season.
Even if the Mets were to rebuild from the ground up, we would be okay with that. There's more dignity in accepting defeat and admitting one's mistakes than trading a top starting pitcher to the franchise's archenemy knowing that that archenemy is in need of extra pitching depth.
The 40-year-old Verlander signed a two-year, $86.66 million deal with the Mets last December and just earned his 250th career win on Sunday; unlike the declining Scherzer, Verlander has an impressive 3.24 ERA and 1.146 WHIP this season. Whether he ends up staying or going could determine the Mets' long-term vision, but — and we cannot stress this enough — he should not be finding a new home in Atlanta in 2023.
The Braves should know better than to call the Mets about him, but they already did. We'd love to be a fly inside the Mets' front office during that call, where we would hope Eppler unleashed a string of expletives telling the Braves exactly where and how they can stuff it.
It's bad enough that the Mets got Ronald Acuna's brother, Luisangel Acuna, in the Scherzer trade with the Texas Rangers. Just copy Alex Anthopoulos' entire roster-building strategy, why don't you?
In the vein of an all-time great movie quote, the Mets need to let Justin Verlander die a Mets hero (or more like a solid starter) rather than let him live long enough to become the franchise's villain.