David Stearns assembled a good bullpen -- and now he should trade away as many relievers as he can in a lost season, Joel Sherman writes. Noah K. Murray for NY Post

The Mets should trade every reliever they can in the next three weeks, even those performing well with future control such as Huascar Brazobán and Luke Weaver.

This is not about rebuilding. I suspect the Mets will try to contend next year — and should. This is about the unreliability of relief pitching. And if a team desperately needs one now and is willing to give future assets the Mets like, they cannot get protective about their current bullpen arms for the 2027 season.

Because no team can comfortably predict which relievers are going to be durable and excellent from season to season. So a non-contender holding onto one believing they are part of a pen solution the following year is more hubris and foolishness than sound logic.

Short relief always has been the most volatile part of assembling a team. And it is more so now when teams ask less of starters and, thus, obviously, more of relievers — coinciding with those relievers generally throwing harder and spinning greater than ever before.