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The Mets are a bit lacking in the new offerings department.

When baseball teams trade players, they can fall back on their own internal “farms,” or stables of players new to the league, to replenish their rosters. Some teams have pretty great farms, giving them the wiggle room they need to trade quality players back and forth without too much trouble. The Mets is not one of those teams, apparently.

Last night, Steve Cohen, who became the owner of the Mets in recent months, commented on the Padres’ recent trade for Blake Snell, saying that it was thanks to their Top 5-grade farm that they were able to make such a coveted acquisition. During his tweet on the matter, Cohen commented that the Mets’ own farm is in dire need of replenishment.

Hey , Give the Padres credit. They had a top 5 farm system that gave them flexibility to trade for Snell. Newsflash, the Mets farm system needs to be replenished .

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) December 29, 2020

This is not an inaccurate statement; compared to other teams in the league, the Mets have a rather paltry pool of prospects, with most players in their farm ranking around a low A grade, if not just straight up rookie level. In terms of farm-raised players, most teams are looking for guys who are already good enough to hold their own in the majors, or are at least close to being so. A good portion of the Mets’ previous stable were either traded elsewhere or elevated to the majors, and now there’s nobody especially promising in the farm.

Whether or not Cohen is right, it will take time to replenish the Mets’ farm, possibly as long as a couple of years. However, the Mets current general manager, Jared Porter, seems to hold farm depth as a high priority, so the process may be a little shorter than that if they focus on it.