Mets brass told Max Scherzer team is taking a step back in 2024

Shortly after trading Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers, New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler made a comment to New York media about the team's expectations not being as high heading into the 2024 season.

Based on that, and also what Scherzer was told prior to the trade, it sounds like the Mets have no serious plans on even trying to compete next year. 

Their target window has already moved back to 2025 at the earliest.

Scherzer detailed his conversations with Mets brass to The Athletic, and it does not paint a promising picture for the Mets' offseason or what fans can expect in the immediate future.

Here is what Scherzer told Ken Rosenthal about that discussion.

“I talked to Billy,” Scherzer told The Athletic. “I was like, ‘OK, are we reloading for 2024?’ He goes, ‘No, we’re not. Basically, our vision now is for 2025-2026, ‘25 at the earliest, more like ‘26. We’re going to be making trades around that.’ 

“I was like, ‘So the team is not going to be pursuing free agents this offseason or assemble a team that can compete for a World Series next year?’ He said, ‘No, we’re not going to be signing the upper-echelon guys. We’re going to be on the smaller deals within free agency. ‘24 is now looking to be more of a kind of transitory year.’”

Scherzer also said that Eppler told him the Mets would be willing to consider trading players whose contracts expire after the 2024 season, including star first baseman Pete Alonso.

Those are eye-opening revelations because Eppler was insistent that the Mets are not rebuilding. But if a team is willing to trade most of its veteran players, is taking prospects back in return, and is already kicking the can down the road two or three years in the future, that sounds an awful lot like a rebuild. 

Leading up to Tuesday's deadline, the Mets had traded David Robertson, Mark Canha and Justin Verlander along with Scherzer to try and restock their farm system. 

Those deals only further highlight what a disappointment the 2023 season has been. The Mets entered the season with the highest payroll in baseball and World Series expectations after winning 101 games a year ago. All of that has unraveled as the season has gone on. 

If you are a Mets fan, the realization that your front office isn't even trying to compete next year has to be a real punch to the gut. Any time you have a team with an owner that has the resources of Steve Cohen, there should never be a transition year or a year in which they are not all in—especially going into an offseason where a player like Shohei Ohtani is set to hit the free agent market. 

The Mets are the exact type of team (big market, big money owner) that should be at the top of the potential candidates' list. But that does not seem to be in the cards as the Mets are apparently more focused on the 2025 and 2026 seasons.