The expectation for the trade of Marcus Stroman was that he would go to a contender. Instead, he goes to the Mets for two prospects:

It seems the Mets intend to compete in 2020, even as they ramp up their efforts to trade Noah Syndergaard. As such, New York is trying to thread a fine needle: trading one of their best starters while acquiring a comparable talent. The Mets had checked in on just about every available starter with more than a year of team control left — ranging from Robbie Ray to Mike Minor to Lord knows who else — until they found a deal to their liking.

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The Mets traded a 24-year-old who doesn’t look all that impressive, and an 18-year-old who is probably a few years away from the majors. So New York did not give up anyone that would improve the team next year. On the other hand, if the Mets were able to get Stroman, the contenders could not have been all that interested in him. His strike out rate is low by today’s standards, and he’s at the end of his prime years. I suspect the Mets need a pretty good haul for Syndergaard to make this deal worthwhile.