Back in July, the New York Mets had a deal in place to send young right-hander Zack Wheeler to the Milwaukee Brewers for Carlos Gomez -- but the deal never happened. It was nixed late, the Mets held on to Wheeler and instead acquired Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers.
Despite their then-willingness to deal Wheeler, the Mets seem to have changed their tune a bit.
"We're not actively shopping Zack by any stretch," assistant general manager John Ricco told Newsday. "But as with the other starters, if something came up that we thought made us better, we're going to talk about it."
As Ricco noted, they are not completely shutting out the possibility of a trade. The Mets currently sit in an enviable position as they have a stable of young, controllable, impact starters that can pull in a haul in the trade market.
Should they decide to deal from that depth, Wheeler is an intriguing trade option -- the 25-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery in April and will likely not be able to contribute until mid-2016 at the earliest.
In 49 starts over two seasons, Wheeler is 18-16 with a 3.50 ERA with 271 strikeouts over 285 1/3 innings.
