<
Because of the depth of the New York Mets young starting rotation, there have been thoughts of the Mets trading Zack Wheeler, who is still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
They nearly sent Wheeler to the Milwaukee Brewers along with Wilmer Flores in exchange for Carlos Gomez on July 29 but the trade was nullified due to concerns about Gomez’s hip.
Right after that, they nearly traded Wheeler to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Jay Bruce, but the Reds then balked at it.
Now in the offseason, there were talks of perhaps trading one of their starters for a big bat. Wheeler has sort of been the forgotten young starter with the emergence of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. However team officials tell Adam Rubin of ESPN New York that it’s very unlikely that they’ll trade Wheeler this offseason.
The Mets are now reasoning that since Wheeler is so close to coming back from Tommy John surgery, it makes the appeal of trading him less attractive.
And even though the Mets have plenty of depth at starting pitching, there’s realization that they can still use an extra arm next season just in case someone gets injured.
While the team is not actively shopping Wheeler, assistant GM John Ricco told Marc Carig of Newsday, they will listen to offers on him like anyone else.
“We’re not actively shopping Zack by any stretch,” Ricco said. “But as with the other starters, if something came up that we thought made us better, we’re going to talk about it.”
Wheeler, 25, went 11-11 with a 3.54 ERA in 32 starts in 2014, and is projected to return to the majors in June or July.
