Brandon Nimmo sends clear message to Steve Cohen ahead of trade deadline

The New York Mets find themselves in that gray area between buyers and sellers at the trade deadline, but left fielder Brandon Nimmo thinks the team should be looking to add. He made sure to let Mets owner Steve Cohen know.

“Any chance I get, I’ll do it,” Nimmo said in an interview with The Athletic published Monday. “I don’t think we’re that far off from being a real contender.”

Despite being one game below .500 heading into the July 9 game, the Mets look only to the Arizona Diamondbacks as teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race and still out of the playoff race.

The Mets lost 8-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, ending their road trip with a 4-4 score. Nimmo expressed optimism afterward.

“I know everyone thinks we’re supposed to go 6-2 on this road trip,” he said, “but honestly, 4-4 isn’t the worst.”

He added that he felt the team was close and wanted to focus on the positives from a mediocre road trip.

“Honestly, that’s the story of the year so far. We haven’t been able to get wins every time,” he said. “And that’s an issue. But we hope to fix it. We hope to continue to get better. We know we had a stretch where we did a lot better. So we know that’s in there, but it’s an issue. There’s no doubt about it. But I still think there’s some positives to take away from this road trip.”

For what it’s worth, before the trip, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Mets were inclined to shop at the deadline.

Possible priorities for Mets trade deadline

If Cohen follows Nimmo’s advice, he’ll likely start by trying to improve the bullpen.

Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino and Jake Diekman have all had inconsistent seasons. Diekman is also the only left-handed reliever on the current roster and has an ERA above 5.00. Tanner Scott is the biggest left-handed name on the market and is having a career year. They also traded Matt Gage and sent him to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday. He hasn’t pitched in the major leagues this season and has only five MLB appearances in 2023 with the Astros.

The Mets will likely need more than one extra reliever, however, and could look to the American League and pitchers like Carlos Estevez or Michael Kopech as possible trade targets.

Mets president David Sterns confirmed Monday that the team will look to address its bullpen situation at the trade deadline.

“That’s certainly an area of ​​the team we’re going to continue to monitor,” Stearns said, per Heyman.

Additionally, the Mets could look to upgrade their second base. Jeff McNeil has been in New York since 2018, but is having the worst year of his career (.214 BA, 69 OPS+).

In June, Heyman floated the idea that McNeil might benefit from a “change of scenery.”

“Jeff McNeil seems like a guy who likes a change of scenery, but the Mets understand that McNeil’s trade value is now zero and are talking to him about a plan to help him get back into shape,” he said.

If that doesn’t happen, perhaps a trade for someone like the Angels’ Luis Rengifo could make sense, assuming he recovers quickly from a wrist injury that landed him on injured reserve last week.