I love that the Mets expectations basically means that they believe yeah he's been bad this year and yeah he's a free agent at the end of the year, but if you get him off our dumpster fire team he'll probably be good again.
You cannot have 2 rotation spots occupied by Assad and Rea in 2027 and say you're a World Series caliber team. Yes they're very nice fill in guys, but if they're 40% of your rotation, the other 60% better be lights out.
Depending on the cost, I would love love love to have Jonah Tong. He's a stuff monster who has just lost it mechanically this year. I'd obviously love Painter too, but I can't imagine the Phillies selling low on him at this point.
If you have no Ben Brown and Edward Cabrera, how are you filling your rotation next year? Boyd, Shota, Taillon are all gone. Steele should be healthy, Horton likely doesn't even pitch in 2027. That would make Colin Rea your #2.
I'm legitimately not giving them Brown and Alcantara. That leaves the 2027 Cubs with Justin Steele, Colin Rea, Assad and other randoms. There's zero chance they're competitive going forward having to fill that many rotation slots. You would be straight up forfeiting the 2027 season.
So basically they're asking for Brown, at least one of Ramirez/Shaw, not sure who the 3rd major league player would be, and then a prospect. Yeah, you can horsefeathers right off.
I know one thing, if they do trade Kelly, I'm going to get crazy hyped about Ayers because that means the FO is almost certainly extremely high on him.