The New York Mets have multiple building blocks on offense. Francisco Lindor, the team star and clubhouse leader, is under contract for many years, Mark Vientos is a young stud, Luisangel Acuna is a promising prospect, Francisco Alvarez has performed like a star catcher in the not-so-distant past, and Brandon Nimmo remains an on-base dynamo even after a down season.
The Mets need to upgrade their pitching
The pitching, particularly the rotation, is somewhat in shambles, however. More than two-thirds of the Mets unit has hit the free-agent market. Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, and Luis Severino are free to sign with any team. Only Kodai Senga and David Peterson remain available to build around.
The Mets need lots of pitching. Thankfully, there are many ways to get it. They have already gotten to work: Severino and Manaea got qualifying offers, with the former being more likely to accept it (it would be a one-year, $21.05 million commitment) than the latter. Both could eventually find their way back on the team, though.
They could also opt to bring back Quintana as a backend starter or depth option. He had a fine season with the Mets in 2024 even if he lacks top swing and miss stuff.
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The Mets have money and resources
In any case, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns acknowledged that he needs “multiple” rotation options:
“How many multiples, I don’t know yet. We talked about this last offseason, too. You can build pitching staffs in very different ways. You can do it by adding starting pitching and going for length at the front end of games. We could structure our bullpen a little differently next year where you’ve got more multiple-inning options that can eat up innings. But certainly, we need to find some innings, and a part of that is going to be adding to the starting rotation,” Stearns told Mets insider Anthony DiComo.
Let’s not forget about the trade market, where Stearns moves swiftly, or the top of the free agency pool where Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Nathan Eovaldi, Yusei Kikuchi, and Shane Bieber, among others, lurk as options. Young righty Christian Scott had elbow surgery and will probably miss all year, but fellow prospect Brandon Sproat could become an option at some point in 2025.
The Mets have money and resources to make at least three or four impactful rotation moves, and they have every intention of doing so.
