Would You Sacrifice Brett Baty for Instant Happiness?

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Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, someone who will probably win his second consecutive Cy Young award next month, might be available via trade this offseason. And according to multiple reports, the Mets would be very interested in acquiring him. 

Obviously. You’ve seen the Mets pitching recently.

Skubal, who turns 29 next month, will be a free agent after the 2026 season. Jon Heyman said that baseball people figure he’ll command upwards of $400 million in free agency. The Tigers meanwhile only offered him, at most, $170 million last year. Hence, the speculation.

Typically, when teams trade a pending free agent, their return tends to seem lacking. So when I sit here and speculate that Brett Baty and Jonah Tong would get it done to acquire a generational talent for one season, no matter how you feel about it, it probably would be enough. 

I’m not pulling Brett Baty and Jonah Tong’s names out of my butt. Here’s what Andy Martino wrote on Friday:

Because the Tigers are in their window to win, they would probably want MLB talent in addition to top prospects like Jonah Tong and Jett Williams. For what it’s worth, Detroit has expressed interest in Brett Baty in the past.  The Mets like Baty, but in general are willing to shake up their current position player group. For a pitcher like Skubal, any team would part with good players.

The Mets have the number one farm system in all of baseball, according to ESPN. It would be foolish to just keep everybody that made it numero uno - just look at the Baltimore Orioles. The fact of the matter is there’s zero chance that all of the Mets’ big prospects will end up being as great as their promise. It would be downright unwise not to trade away a couple of players for talent that can help you right now. Especially to acquire Tarik Skubal, who is as much of a sure thing as there could possibly be. The thought of a Skubal/Nolan McLean 1-2 punch is salivating. 

But that’s just me! There’s going to be different opinions on this. Asking someone if they would give away potential all-stars for an immediate major boost cuts to the heart of someone’s overall gambling philosophy. People think they don’t gamble, but really, they do so every day. We constantly make decisions that boil down to whether or not they should delay gratification to potentially get something greater. Do I take the local train, knowing it’ll probably get me to work on time, or do I risk waiting for the express train, which will either get me there early (good) or late (bad)? 

The Skubal stuff might just be Scott Boras (his agent) scuttlebutt designed to get Detroit to pony up. If so, that’s fine - there will be plenty of other potential trading partners and targets this offseason, where your personal philosophies will show in your opinions. 

The question we should be asking: which train does David Stearns take?

It started off so well, and more importantly, cool. Ryan Dalton Helsley sauntered in from the Citi Field bullpen to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” in the 9th inning of a tie game. It was his first appearance as anything other than a St. Louis Cardinal. He was a New York Met now. And he struck out the side to keep the game against the Giants knotted at three. 

And then it went to poop.

What happened? First, let’s start from the beginning. Ryan was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma as a citizen of Cherokee Nation. When he got drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2015, he became just the third Cherokee Nation member to ever be drafted by a MLB team. He attended Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah, where he played baseball among other sports, but he went undrafted, so he attended Northeastern State University. In two years, Helsley only had a 4.06 ERA in 126.1 innings, but he also struck out 151 batters. That was more than good enough for his favorite childhood team the Cardinals, who took him in the fifth round.

His ERA in the minor leagues shrunk considerably, like, by more than half. In 40.1 innings in 2015 for Johnson City he finished with a 2.01 ERA. In Peoria in 2016 he did even better, putting together a 10-2 and 1.61 ERA in 17 starts. In 2017 he was named the Florida State League Pitcher of the Year. He was called up to the big leagues on April 16, 2019 in Milwaukee. In two and one third innings he gave up a solo home run but struck out four. Plus, he singled in his first MLB at-bat. After time on the injured list and a return to Triple-A, he stayed in The Show for good on August 4th. Helsley and the Cardinals made the playoffs that season. When asked how he felt about the Tomahawk Chop that they do in Atlanta, St. Louis’ divisional series opponent, Helsley told the truth. He found it all insulting. He said the chop paints Native Americans as a "kind of caveman-type people way who aren't intellectual". For the fifth and deciding game of the series, Atlanta opted to not hand out foam tomahawks, play the chop music, or show the chop graphic. In that game, the Cardinals scored a record 10 runs in the first inning and won 13-1. 

Helsley didn’t have the best 2020 pandemic season - he got COVID-19, for one thing. For another, he finished with a 5.25 ERA. By 2022 though he was a National League All-Star. In 54 relief appearances that year his ERA was a microscopic 1.25. He fanned 94 batters in just 64.2 innings. Unfortunately, he hurt himself in his final regular season appearances, then ate it in the playoffs. 

After an injury-plagued 2023, he bounced back big time in 2024 for the Cardinals. His 2.04 ERA (202 ERA+), 49 saves, and 79 Ks in 66.1 IP earned him NL Reliever of the Year honors.

His 2025 with St. Louis was…fine. His ERA of exactly 3.00 with them was nothing to sneeze at, but it wasn’t as dominant as his 2022 or 2024 campaigns. Still, he was the bonafide closer for the Cardinals, and when the Mets acquired the pending free agent, it was universally praised as a good deal. What David Stearns and Mets brass seemingly didn’t realize was that Helsley was starting to tip his pitches.

This, as you can imagine, caused big problems. In August alone he blew four saves and had a 10.38 ERA. It documented the power of communication among clubs in the game today - somehow every Met opponent knew what was coming from Helsley’s hand. He did work hard at fixing this, and in fact didn’t allow an earned run in his final seven innings of the season. Still, the damage was done - Ryan Helsley proved to be the avatar of the disastrous trade deadline acquisitions the Mets made, and a part of their overall pitching woes. A reunion seems unlikely, even though he seemingly figured it out in the end. 

Ron Darling would like for the Mets to get an ace, like, you know who. He also told Mike Puma that he was surprised by pitching coach Jeremy Hefner’s firing.

You know who else wants Tarik Skubal? Met superfan Donovan Mitchell.

A consolation prize for not getting Skubal would be current Brewers ace Freddy Peralta. Milwaukee will apparently listen to trade offers for him.

Cardinals hurler Sonny Gray might also be available, but MLB Trade Rumors think it’s unlikely he’ll end up a Met because he didn’t pitch well as a Yankee.

Francisco Alvarez took to Instagram to write about the 2025 season. He was thankful to God, family, his teammates, and us Met fans.

The MetsGiving food drive will take place on Thursday, November 13th from 10AM-6PM at the Mets team store at Citi Field. If you bring 10 non-perishables you get a voucher for two free Met tickets.

Cuban right-handed pitcher Roberto Peña officially signed with the Mets last week. He’s either 17 or 18 years old. His signing bonus was half a million dollars.

The top 25 feet of the Shea Stadium left field foul pole is for sale. 

The Mets uploaded videos showing Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor’s longest home runs of 2025. 

Mets owners Steve Cohen and Alex Cohen pledged $1.3 million to New York City public school teachers. 

The Scottsdale Scorpions smoked the Surprise Saguaros 15-4 in an eight inning Arizona Fall League contest. Mets prospects had a good night. CF Nick Morabito went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, a walk, and two stolen bases. LF D’Andre Smith went 2 for 4 with two doubles, two runs scored, an RBI, and a walk. 

Keith Hernandez turns 72 years old today.