The 2026 season is an example of similar yet diverging paths in regard to the Phillies and the Mets. One team mostly brought back all of its regulars while the other did a dramatic offseason overhaul. One team thought they signed a free agent only for the other to swoop in at the last moment and land his services. But perhaps the biggest diversion on the timeline was late April, when both teams suffered brutal losing streaks but only one decided to fire their manager at that moment.
Fast forward to
the trade deadline, and these two teams have gone in drastically different directions. The Phillies of course sit in prime postseason contention, having resurrected their season after Don Mattingly took over as manager. Meanwhile, the Mets fell way out of contention before finally firing manager Carlos Mendoza near the end of June despite the postseason then largely being out of reach. The Phillies are expected to be buyers this deadline season while the Mets seem to be open for business and listening on most of the players on their roster.
However, the Phillies will likely not be shopping in the upper tiers of the market, as they possess the 29th ranked farm system by Baseball America and therefore do not have much in the way of prospect capital to trade. They will be forced to look in the lower tiers of the market to try and plug their growing number of holes. One such hole is in the bullpen, as the unit was already underperforming before losing top setup man and prized free agent acquisition Brad Keller for the season. To be even more specific, the Phillies could use some left-handed relief pitching, as their bullpen has allowed the third worst batting average (.271) against lefties thanks in large part to the struggles of top lefty José Alvarado.
Luckily for the Phillies, there just so happens to be a nearby team willing to part with two effective left-handed relievers who could be within their price range.
The Mets possible fire sale may hit their pitching the hardest, with multiple players on rental contracts that do not figure to fit into their plans for next season. Two such players are A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley, a pair of lefty relievers with good numbers who are almost sure bets to be moved before the deadline arrives on August 3rd.
Minter, the longtime Brave who is now in his second season with the Mets after signing a two year, $22M deal before 2025, sports a 1.80 ERA through 20 appearances on the season. The 32-year-old was limited to just 11 innings last year due to lat surgery, but Minter is back healthy and pitching well in 2026. He has been one of the game’s best at getting left-handed hitters out over the course of his career, as over his ten seasons in the big leagues, Minter has limited lefties to a .220/.282/.315 batting line against. That success has continued this season, as lefties are hitting .235 with a .610 OPS and opponents overall are hitting .234 with a .647 OPS.
The downside to Minter is that he does not throw hard and his already light velocity is down from previous seasons. He’s averaging just under 93 MPH this season, down from 94.5 MPH in his last two seasons and 95.8 in his last fully healthy season in 2023. He also hasn’t struck many hitters out over the last few years, with his K rate plummeting to a career worst 21.8% this season. However, he has excelled in limiting walks this year, issuing just one in 20 innings of work.
The other lefty in the Mets bullpen that could be a target is Brooks Raley. Like Minter, Raley is a rental who is putting up strong numbers. The 38-year-old owns a 2.02 ERA through 40 appearances, and he too has owned lefties to the tune of a .176 AVG and .553 OPS against. However, also like Minter, Raley does not throw hard, as his 90.1 average fastball velocity ranks among the bottom of all qualified MLB pitchers. But Raley excels at limiting hard contact with his sweeper/cutter combination. His 5.2% barrel rate and 32.3% hard hit rate are both well above average.
Neither of these two options are particularly flashy, but both could be good additions to a Phillies bullpen that is in dire need of more quality arms. The Phillies and Mets are no strangers to dealing with each other, although the last major trade between the two came in 2019 when Philadelphia acquired Jason Vargas from New York in exchange for Austin Bossart. It was a strikingly reminiscent scenario as the one both teams find each other in now, as the Phillies were shopping in the lower tier of the market and the Mets were selling off rentals. Both would probably hope for better results than that trade though.
These two teams have been linked closely together since the offseason with how diametrically opposed their approach and results have been. It would be rather poetic for the two to come together once again, this time in the form of a mid-season trade.
