Padres Rumors: Mets “clearly ‘in'” on Trevor Rosenthal

After the last few days, I feel pretty confident in saying Trevor Rosenthal isn’t coming back to the Padres this season.

Now, that could always change. Saying AJ Preller won’t do something could come back to bite me – and that’s fine. But after adding Mark Melancon earlier this weekend and bringing in strikeout artist Keone Kela to shore up the right-handed relief ranks, it feels like a real long-shot Rosenthal returns.

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As of this writing (around 3 PM in San Diego), he doesn’t have a new home yet – but it looks like he could be close to finding one. According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, the Mets are “clearly in” on Rosenthal.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone, really. New York was recently eliminated from the list of suitors for left-hander Justin Wilson and have been connected to countless names this offseason. If they’re going to take down the Nationals and Braves in the NL East, they’ll need late-inning arms – and, as we saw last year, Rosenthal is capable of competing with the best of them.

After a mid-season trade to the Padres, the former Cardinal was lights-out, making nine scoreless appearances for San Diego. In 10 innings of work, he struck out 17 and walked just one. Heading into his age-31 season, there’s a decent chance he’s got something left in the tank to help the Mets chase down their first division title since 2015.

He embodied the whole ‘started from the bottom, now we’re here’ mentality over the last year or so. Rosenthal was written off in the eyes of a lot of folks around the game, but a strong start with the Royals and his dazzling showcase late in the year with the Padres have reinvigorated his stock in the game.

We could very well be talking about the Mets’ closer. Edwin Diaz has been a mixed bag since coming to the Big Apple (5.59 ’19 ERA followed by a 1.75 ERA last year) – and Rosenthal brings the experience and pedigree needed to lock down big games.