This Is An Interesting Mets Trade Development...

The Texas Rangers are taking calls on a pitcher with two World Series rings, and the Mets need a starter more than almost anybody else in all of baseball. Mets starters finished 2026 with a 4.47 ERA, 23rd out of 30 teams. The pitcher is Nathan Eovaldi, and on Wednesday, John Heyman reported that the Rangers have already gotten trade hits on him. He has one year left on his contract, $20 million, which is exactly the kind of short-term deal this front office likes to make. The problem is, his last two seasons look like two completely different pitchers. In 2025, he had a 1.73 ERA, and in 2026, it jumped to 4.2, and in February, he turns 37. For Texas, this looks less like a verdict on how Evaldi pitched and more like a decision about the money around him. Rangers president Chris Young said the 2027 payroll will be very similar to 2026, which puts it right around $190 million. Evan Grant counts three aging players at about $92 million of that by themselves. Corey Seager alone is owed about $155 million over the last five years of his deal. Chris Young has already confirmed Texas is willing to listen on Seager after turning teams away last winter. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote that Texas will look for trade partners for both Seager and Jacob deGrom, and quote, perhaps Nathan Eovaldi too. Six days later, that perhaps turned into real phone calls. There's a second reason Texas needs that room. MLB.com says the Rangers may have to clear space to chase Japanese slugger Teruaki Sato. Mark Feinsand lists the Mets among the teams interested in Sato, too. So the money the Mets would take on could end up funding a Texas bid against them. Texas has tried to move Nathan Eovaldi before, though. On August 3rd, right before the deadline, John Marossi reported that the Rangers had talks about Eovaldi, and Texas was reportedly asking him to waive his no-trade clause. No deal got done, and DeGrom flat-out declined to waive his. And that matters because Eovaldi has a full no-trade too, so he decides where he goes, not Texas. MLB trade rumors has already floated the Cubs, Braves, Padres, and White Sox as fits if he signs off. The Mets aren't on anyone's lists yet, and the first thing they would need is for him to want to pitch in Queens. The second thing is knowing which Eovaldi they'd actually be getting. For 6 straight seasons before this one, Ivaldi had an ERA under 4. 2025 was the best of them, a 1.73 ERA over 130 innings, the lowest of his career. This year came back to earth, a 4.2 ERA over 145 2 3rds innings, and MLB trade rumors called it fine, but unexceptional. The skill that made him great is still there though. His walk rate ranked in the 91st percentile this past season. Hitters chased his pitches out of the zone more often than against 96% of qualified pitchers, helped by a splitter he threw 37% of the time. The trouble is what happened when opposing batters did make contact though. 46.4% of the balls in play against Ivaldi were hit hard, which put him in the 14th percentile. His expected ERA, which grades the quality of that contact, was only in the 38th percentile. Late in the year, the stuff started slipping too. His cutter sat at 88.9 miles an hour over his last three outings, down from 90.3 on the season. In his September 26th start at Minnesota, his fastball was down 1.9 miles an hour by the fourth inning, and he was gone after four and a third. That fade came after the scariest stretch of his season. He was scratched from a start in May with left side tightness, then went on the injured list in August with elbow inflammation. When he came back in September, it was out of the bullpen. One Rangers site wrote that he had missed at least a month in every season he has pitched in Texas. The most he has given Texas in one year was 29 starts in 170 and two-thirds innings back in 2024. He has thrown 1,848 big league innings, and he'll pitch next season at 37. Nobody should trade for Nathan Eovaldi expecting a full season of health and making every fifth start. You trade for him based on what he is going to give you in October, and he has quite a history of clutching up in the postseason. For his career, he has a 3.05 ERA in the postseason. Over 79 and two-thirds innings. In 2018, he had a 1.61 ERA on Boston's run to the title. In 2023, he went 5-0 in six postseason starts, and the Texas Rangers won their first ever World Series. The Mets went 74-88 this year and missed October. And the rotation is a big reason why. And if you want every Mets... Story, rumor, headline broken out just like this, before the lockdown hits and after the lockout. Begins, hit subscribe. We're just over 8,180 subscribers now. We're building towards 9,000 and each and every one of you helps build the channel immensely. So thank you for watching and please do hit subscribe. We have the best and highest quality content for all Mets stuff on YouTube. Mets starters through 791 innings in 2026, which ranked 22nd in all of baseball. Their fielding independent ERA was 4.18. 15th, so the bad luck was real, but so was the gap at the back. Nolan McLean was the bright spot, with a 3.16 ERA as a rookie. Christian Scott finished at 3.85, and Zach Thornton at 3.42. Kodai Senga had a 10.08 ERA over his first 7 starts, and spent most of the year in relief. Senga and Shawn Minaya are both in the final year of their deals, Senga at $15 million a year, and Minaya at $25 million a year. Minaya has a 5.03 ERA over the first two seasons of that contract. Senga is drawing trade interest from multiple teams per Will Salmon, so that spot could open up even more. That's one sure thing, and a lot of maybes. The big name the Mets keep getting linked to, as we all know, is Tarek Skubal, the best starter on the free agent market, and maybe the best starter in all of Major League Baseball. Even if Skubal signs with the Mets, though, they would have two starters that they can reliably count on. And a rotation needs five. The other names out there are Michael, King, and Clay Holmes in free agency, and Joe Ryan if they want to go down the trade route. King and Holmes would want years, and Ryan would cost a bigger prospect package than a pitcher with one year left. That's where Eovaldi fits, as the guy who takes the ball every fifth day and keeps you in the game, not as an ace. Even in his down year, a 4.2 ERA, that beats the Mets rotation as a group, which finished at 4.47. He still threw 145 and two-thirds innings with a 1.22 whip. He struck out 144 batters and walked only 35. His contract ends after 2027, the same year Senga's and Minaya's do. If his elbow acts up again or the velocity keeps sliding, the Mets aren't stuck paying him in 2028. It's also the last year before he hits free agency again, so every start he makes is pitching for his next deal. That's how David Stearns has built this rotation. The Mets haven't given a starting pitcher a 9-figure deal since he took over. The money fits the Mets. The price? Might not. Start with the money, because it isn't free. Ivaldi's salary is $20 million in 2027, but the tax counts the average of his deal, $25 million. By our count, the Mets have $234.9 million committed for the 2027 season before arbitration raises and the rest of the roster. Addy Ovaldi, and that's $259.9 million, about $12.9 million past the projected $247 million tax line, with the rest of the roster still to fill. That's real money. But it's only one year of it, and the prospects are going to be what decides this. MLB trade rumors pegged his fair salary for 2027 at $20 million, exactly what he's owed. So Texas isn't dumping a bad contract. The closest precedent is Sonny Gray, who got traded last November. Gray was 36th with one guaranteed year left on his deal, almost the same spot Evaldi is in now. Boston still sent St. Louis two young pitchers for him. Including Brandon Clark, its number 5 prospect. That was with the Cardinals reportedly sending about $20 million to Boston to help cover his money. Gray was set to make $35 million that year. And Uvalde is owed $20 million, $15 million less. If a top 5 prospect is the going rate, even when the seller pays, Texas will ask for one too. The Mets have a lot less to give than they did a year ago. Jett Williams and Brandon Sprote already went to Milwaukee in the Freddy Peralta trade. That leaves Jefferson Rojas and Jonah Tong among the best prospects they have left. Jonah Tong is one of the top arms in the system, and he struck out 31% of the hitters he faced in the final month of the season. You don't move a young arm like that for one year of a 37-year-old. Texas wants money off its books more than it wants anything back, and that gives the Mets an opening. If the Mets take every dollar of that $20 million, the Rangers save the whole salary, and the prospect price should drop with it. Weigh it all up, and the case for him is the postseason record and the one year. And the case against it is the elbow and the age. Only one version of this deal works for me. Yes, as a money trade. Take all $20 million, keep Rojas and Tong and whatever other top prospects the Mets would have to give up in a deal, and you're getting a bona fide, middle-of-the-rotation, number three starter. Not an ace, but a guy that can fit in nicely alongside, potentially, Tarek Skubal, Nolan McLean. And then, you have another veteran guy, a guy with postseason experience, and a guy that you know you can count on in the big moments. Now, the health is the risk. But the holistic risk of this deal wouldn't be as crazy as you might think, because it's only going to be for one year. If Texas is going to ask for a Sonny Gray-esque price, which would be a top prospect, then David Stearns and the Mets should absolutely walk away. But frankly, we're most likely going to find out a lot about this over the coming weeks, because as we know, the CBA expires December 1st. And. You know, also, Nathan Ivaldi is going to have to want to come to Queens and waive his no-trade clause. Nathan Ivaldi for one year and a lesser prospect is a smart bet. Nathan Ivaldi for Jonah Tong is not. So would you trade for Nathan Ivaldi? Or keep the prospects? Or would you be willing to take on the whole list salary and not give up the farm? Let me know what you think of him as a player, whether you agree with me. Comment below. Let me know. And as always, guys. Let's go Mets.