In a report for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal reports while the New York Mets have had trade discussions with the Cleveland Indians for Francisco Lindor and the Pittsburgh Pirates for Starling Marte, the team is not particularly motivated to acquire either player.

In terms of Lindor, the Mets “backed off because they considered the Indians’ asking price to be too high for a player whose salary might rise to $25 million in 2021.”

At the moment, no one can be quite sure what exactly the Cleveland Indians have asked for the shortstop with the highest WAR at the position since his Major League debut. That said, this seems like an odd rationale from a Mets team who is not only paying Robinson Cano $21.25 million in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but also gave up Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn in the trade to acquire Cano and Edwin Diaz.

In terms of Marte, the plan is to have Jake Marisnick and Brandon Nimmo ” alternating in center field.” The basis for that plan is Mets manager Carlos Beltran‘s belief “his former Astros teammate Jake Marisnick will thrive with increased playing time.”

It should be noted Beltran and Marisnick were teammates on the 2017 World Series winning Houston Astros. It is very likely Beltran saw Marisnick at his best because that was the year Marisnick had a career best 117 wRC+. Beltran is going to have to hope this was partially due to Marisnick’s working relationship with Beltran because Marisnick has not been close to being a league average hitter in any of his other six Major Leauge seasons.

With the Mets sticking with Amed Rosario, believing so much in Marisnick, and their already signing Brad Brach, Rick Porcello, and Michael Wacha, it appears the Mets are almost done building their 2020 roster. As noted by Rosenthal, the Mets remain in the market for an upgrade over Tomas Nido at the backup catcher spot as well as another reliever.

It should be noted Rosenthal’s report does not specifically tie the Mets to any one reliever. Earlier reports have the Mets out on Dellin Betances, which does leave you wondering who exactly is going to be the high end reliever the Mets are going to acquire. What we do know is that reliever is not going to come from the Indians or the Pirates, at least not in a trade including Lindor or Marte.