It just became a lot riskier to trade for Zack Wheeler.
With the trade deadline quickly approaching, Zack Wheeler just took an assault rifle to his trade value, landing on the Injured List with shoulder fatigue.
The injured-list move is retroactive to Friday, meaning Wheeler is eligible to return on July 22. Steven Matz will take his place in the rotation tomorrow against the Minnesota Twins.
Wheeler was one of the best pitchers in baseball in the second half of 2018, but has struggled in 2019.
Here are his statistics over 19 starts this season.
6-6, 9.83 K/9, 2.57 BB/9, 4.69 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 3.82 xFIP, 2.6 WAR.
It certainly looks like a trade is unlikely now. There may not be enough time for Wheeler to show teams he is healthy before the trade deadline on July 31st.
Hopefully, the Mets have learned from Neil Walker a few years ago and refrain from offering Wheeler a qualifying offer this winter. They already have more than 70 million in payroll committed to Canó, Céspedes, Lowrie and Familia.
Hey, we can pretend Wheeler was traded and get ourselves ready for Walker Lockett appearances.