MLB Trade Rumors: How Can The New York Mets Improve This Season?

Joel Sherman of the New York Post jumps out of the box to make some suggestions about who the Mets could trade this season to improve the club going forward.  (All the way into 2009 and 2010!)

...the Mets should see which teams that need a big-time center fielder and/or run producer such as the White Sox, Cubs, Cardinals and Dodgers, and maybe even the Yanks and Red Sox, would give up for Carlos Beltran. With the Dodgers, the Mets might need to take back a Juan Pierre or Andruw Jones to balance contracts/center fielders, but if that allowed the Mets to get the Dodgers to consider building a package around James Loney, Matt Kemp and/or Chad Billingsley, they should consider it.

Even with his recent failures, Billy Wagner maintains allure for contenders needing a closer. Milwaukee, for example, is loaded at Double-A, and if the Mets would take a contractual counterweight such as Billy Hall, they might be able to get a deal built around a prospect such as Matt LaPorta or Mat Gamel.

Mr.  Sherman needs to be credited for thinking big thoughts about a New York Mets roster than is more hostile to trade scenarios than Milton Friedman would be the Barack Obama's vision of the State.  However, I'm not sure the Mets could deal their closer or their only outfielder without blowing even bigger holes in their roster.

To do so would cede the 2008 season to a fiscal disaster on par with the Detroit Tigers current efforts.  Put that way, wouldn't that make for one of the season's better baseball stories?