Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported the signing of Kodai Senga raised questions about what the New York Mets future plans were with Carlos Carrasco. Subsequently, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the Mets are indeed “listening to trade offers on Carlos Carrasco.”

The reasons for the Mets at least entertaining the thought of trading Carrasco should be obvious. First and foremost, no one is untouchable if the right deal is presented. Mostly, while Steve Cohen is making a mockery of the Cohen Tax, you do wonder if at some point the Mets need to shed some payroll to make some other moves to address other concerns about the team.

As noted by Sherman, the Mets payroll is projected to be in the neighborhood of $345 million, and that number will reach beyond $420 million when the luxury (Cohen) tax is added. At this point, even with all of the spending, Mets fans are acutely aware the team still needs to add to the bullpen while seeking to add at least a compliment to Daniel Vogelbach at the DH spot, another outfielder, and generally more power bats to this lineup.

As we have been saying for two years now, even Cohen has his limits. Presumably, we are getting around those limits with the team still having a number of areas to address.

While the fan clamoring has been around James McCann, another large contract, the Mets are rumored to be open to moving, it would seem Carrasco would be the easier contract to move. That is in terms of the player production, the interest in the market for the player, and the Mets depth at the position.

In terms of the starting pitching, if the Mets were to move Carrasco, they have Joey Lucchesi, Tylor Megill, and David Peterson ready to start the season in the Opening Day rotation. All three do have minor league options remaining allowing the Mets to manufacture pitching depth like they did last season.

However, there does come a question as to whether that is the best way to use the Mets resources. Last season, Carrasco had a 97 ERA+, 3.53 FIP, and averaged roughly five innings per start. Per Baseball Savant, he was hit very hard all season even with his having excellent spin on all of his pitches. For Mets fans, we saw that in action with Carrasco having a number of brilliant outings mixed in with some clunkers.

Carrasco is holding down a spot with could go to three younger starters. On that front, keep in mind with Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Jose Quintana, this is an older rotation with at least some durability issues.

Peterson has his issues with control, but he does have a great slider and good swing-and-miss metrics. Megill has a very good fastball, was nicknamed Cylor, and was part of the first combined no-hitter in Mets history. Lucchesi was a pleasant surprise for the Mets in 2021 with his churve, though he is still making is way back as a full-time starter post-Tommy John surgery.

Notably, all three are younger with more upside. As we saw with Lucchesi in 2021, they could all benefit from working with Jeremy Hefner, and at least in theory, one if not all could outperform Carrasco next season. That doesn’t make Carrasco expendable, but it at least permits the Mets to see if they can move Carrasco for other needs or even just to free up payroll to make other moves.